Podcasts about sdgc

AI won't take over your job...An 8-year-old girl with AI will!Don't believe me? Check outthis video which was making the rounds on LinkedIn a while ago.In the video a young girl coding a Harry Potter quiz game with the help of AI. In a matter of minutes.It's a funny and striking example of where things are heading – or should I say, where they already are.It'd be naive to think service design won't be affected.But the current conversations about AI's impact often lack depth, nuance, and practical examples.We don't seem to get much further than: "AI is good" or "AI is bad."What are we even talking about when we say "AI"? We need to unpack it. Go beyond the surface.Fortunately, our guest for this episode has done some of the heavy lifting for us.As an educator at one of the leading design institutes, Pablo Fernández Vallejo has to live in the future.He's always thinking about the skills future professionals will need in 4 years' time when they graduate. And of course, being able to make full use of AI is high on the list right now.So in this episode, we sit down and talk about big questions like: Do we need to become AI experts ourselves, or should we focus on further developing our critical thinking skills? What are the risks and opportunities of bringing AI into the design process? What are the tasks that we can safely outsource to AI and which ones should we be more careful with.So, whether you're an AI skeptic or optimist, I feel this conversation will challenge your thinking and help you make more informed decisions moving ahead.A thought-provoking question in this episode is what will happen to our professional identities when AI starts to blur the boundaries between disciplines. It's not a question of if it will happen, but how quickly.Curious to hear your thoughts, so make sure to leave a comment on below.Enjoy and keep making a positive impact.~ Marc--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---00:00 Welcome to Episode 22104:00 Grandparents' influence on AI perspective06:00 Over-represented large language models08:30 AI with a bias11:00 Designing at the age of AI14:00 Current state of designing with AI17:30 Automation vs. Augmentation19:30 AI's Impact on Students26:30 AI Possibilities vs. Limits29:00 AI & Expertise Balance30:00 Calculator analogy32:30 AI & Service Commoditization35:00 How AI impacts non-digital services38:00 AI power dynamics38:30 Service design for ai42:30 AI as an active participant44:30 Gaps in the society47:15 Questions we should be asking53:00 Sustainability & AI55:00 Learning about past mistakes57:00 Tech development and society conversation59:30 The future we can build1:00:40 Resources1:02:00 Questions to ponder --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofernandezvallejoCo-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick (Book)Pablo's talk on Impact of AI in Service DesignPablo's post-SDGC article on the state of the conversationWebsite: https://www.fernandezvallejo.com/ --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle

Send us a textIn this episode we get inspired by 7 incredible next generation Service Designers. We find out about how they view the world of design, where they go to get inspired, them and which emoji or meme best represents their design styles.Featured in this episode:Marcela Gómez AbundisEva Mega AstriaJane Tzu-Yuan ChaoAnna HanJihee HwangLinda PaulauskaAgata Kowalska  Resources Listed In this Episode. Marcela's Mega List of Design Resources Notion PageUserpalooza- A Field Researcher's Guide. Doug Deets video on Transforming Healthcare.Fireside chat with Don Norman Change by Design. Tim BrownHumans of New York (and other countries)Jane Jacobs documentaryDan Hill: Dark Matter and Trojan Horses video This is Service Design Thinking/Doing  This episode's interviewers were:Alice KennedyJean WatanyaService Design YAP is developed and produced by the Service Design Network UK Chapter.Its aim is to engage and connect the wider Service Design community. Episode Host: Stephen Wood Production Assistance: Jean Watanya

Send us a textThe Service Design Global Conference (SDGC)  is heading our way at pace and its now only a month until the mass ranks of over 1,000 service designers make their way to Finland for three days talk, studio visits and sauna.In this bonus episode SDN's David Russo  gives us a guided tour of the venue,  keynote speakers and SDN sauna etiquette (towels on vs. towels off*).This year SDGC will focus on Designing for Impact: "Strategic Leadership with Service Design”. Focusing on outcomes over output, we use our tools to move the needle for organisations, leading to real, recognised value.Over the next weeks we'll be launching a series of #SDGC24 bonus episodes to fan the flames of excitement as we ramp up to conference frenzy.  We look forward to seeing you all in Helsinki.___________________________________________________________If you've yet to book your ticket to the conference click here.Service Design YAP listeners get a 5% discount code. SDYAPVIRTUAL5 This code works for virtual and in-person tickets. Enter the code as you check out.  A box will appear top right!Want to win a virtual ticket?  Go to the SDN UK Instagram site and repost your favourite YAP episode to be entered into a draw to win a €350 ticket.  *Please note the XXXL SDYAP Sauna Towels have now all sold out. Service Design YAP is developed and produced by the Service Design Network UK Chapter.Its aim is to engage and connect the wider Service Design community. Episode Host: Stephen Wood Production Assistance: Jean Watanya

Side Quests is back and so is host Derek Van Dyke. They are a streamer, podcaster and DigiDestined! The game they are talking about today is Digimon World by Bandai! You can find this episode's host on twitter as well as check out their podcasts, Castle Bravo and SDGC! We have a Patreon! Gain access to episode shout outs, bonus content, early downloads of regular episodes, an exclusive rss feed and more! Click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!

Some Men of Steel are actually MONKEY! Case and Jmike are joined by Derek Van Dyke to talk about what is undoubtedly the "Optimal Optimus" (as well as "Code of Hero" because we are not monsters).   Transcript (Subject to error) 00:00 Case Aiken Season one has a couple, like, events that feel like this should be the season finale. Like the floating island one. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, no, we're just gonna keep going. 00:07 Derek Van Dyke Season one just did a lot of great, like, mini story arcs leading up to. Yeah. Watching Beast wars, like, out of order on syndication, over the air was. 00:17 Jmike Folson Yeah, that would have messed with you. 00:18 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, because it's like every other week there's some season finale, and you're like, what is happening? 00:40 Case Aiken Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the Men of Steel podcast. I am an optimal case Aiken, and as always, I am joined by my rat trap, J. Mike Falson. 00:51 Jmike Folson I gotta be rat trap, though. Why couldn't it be Cheetor? 00:53 Case Aiken Oh. 00:54 Jmike Folson Anyway, hey, welcome back, everybody. 00:55 Case Aiken I mean, honestly, you're probably the rhinox of the team. 01:01 Derek Van Dyke A higher compliment you cannot give. 01:05 Case Aiken Well, and there's the peacemaker right there. So that's the tiger Tron, Derek Van. 01:09 Derek Van Dyke Dyke, although I do not have nearly as deep and dulcite of tones as Tigatron's voice actor. 01:16 Case Aiken What's his name? Blue Mankuma. 01:18 Derek Van Dyke Beautiful, beautiful voice. 01:20 Case Aiken An incredible voice. So we're not going to mince words here. I tried to do a bit and it didn't quite work. But you know what? We're going to maximize this effort here. Today we're talking about maximize Transformers, Beast wars, and specifically, we're going to talk about Optimus Primal and how I would argue that he is a Superman analog. And before we started recording, Derek and I were talking about how probably of any Transformers character, especially any Beast wars character, Optimus prime is the best example of a Superman type character in the series. 01:50 Derek Van Dyke And that also, I think that primal specifically is probably the best version of Optimus to make that analog with in terms of the ways that Primal is a unique character from G, one Optimus, or, like, prime or Energon or any of those other versions of Optimus Primal, very much stands out in that regard to me. 02:11 Case Aiken Yeah. I mean, so much so that in the episode victory, there is a direct, like, it's a bird, it's a plane. It's exactly. I mean, we're all 90s babies here. This seemed kind of like an appropriate little session of just, like, nostalgia and looking at a thing that definitely, even if the metaphor is forced, it is the heroic archetype that we try to talk about on this piece, where a character has the power of action and does his or her best to make the world a better place, regardless of threats and regardless of the ability to do more in a way that would be harmful to others and trying to avoid those types of situations. So we picked out a bunch of episodes from the first season to really focus on for this. But we'll talk about the series as a whole. 02:56 Case Aiken We'll talk about some of the other characters. We're obviously going to talk about code of Hero because we're not monsters on this podcast. And that has to be discussed if we're talking about beast wars. But we are going to try to frame the conversation mostly about Optimus Primal, who is just goddamn awesome. And I think a good place to start, then, before we actually get into the episodes, is just how Optimus Primal is not Optimus prime. They're very similar characters. They are obviously both the leader types for the group. But for one thing, Optimus Primal isn't just the biggest fucking dude in the room. 03:28 Jmike Folson Always. 03:30 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, he's interestingly, like, perfect middle size. Rhinox and Dinobot are bigger than, like, several characters. Outsize him in stature, so he's not the big guy of the team like Optimus traditionally is. 03:45 Case Aiken Right? I mean, Skyfire aside, or Omega supreme or any of the other really weird ones out there, Optimus prime was always sort of positioned as being the biggest one. And some of that is japanese toy convention of having the leader types always be the biggest action figure, which is true for the Optimus primal gorilla figure. Although of course, for those of us from the 90s who remember when the Beast wars toys first came out, Optimus Primal was a bat. 04:09 Derek Van Dyke Oh God. That's right. I forgot that the first toy was a bat. Wow. 04:15 Case Aiken Yeah. And Megatron was a crocodile. 04:17 Derek Van Dyke I don't think I ever saw the megatron crocodile. 04:20 Case Aiken Yeah, well, and then they got phased out and they put out. Right, right. 04:23 Derek Van Dyke And then we got the ones that. 04:24 Case Aiken Are the monkey nut truck version of Optimus. While the figure was the biggest. There's a little bit of a weirdness when you look at Rhinox. Like, depending on the shot, rhinox is clearly bigger in beast form, but sometimes a little bigger. A little. Maybe not quite as tall, but wider in terms of sizing. It's still early. 04:40 Derek Van Dyke They don't always make him, like, way taller than everyone else. Rhinox is the big guy because he's also just wide and stock. He's built like a linebacker. 04:49 Case Aiken Yeah. Meanwhile, Dinobot is definitely the tallest of at least the season one maximals, and just is one of the biggest of the show, just generally speaking, which continues to be useful for him even when he does not get some of the upgrades that the others do. But yeah, no, Optimus, he's not the biggest one in the room. He is pretty tough, and he is actually pretty capable. One of the big differences that they make in Beast wars versus g one transformers is that they can't all fly explicitly whatever the hell was going on in the more than meets the eye pilot. And then in later episodes where it's like, oh, I guess we forgot how to fly. Optimus Primal is the unique one on the early team. He's the flyer for the group to. 05:27 Derek Van Dyke The point that's a huge advantage for the enemy team, the predacons, because they have multiple flyers, and we've just got Optimus on the good guy's side. And since he's also the commander, it's risky to have him flying around on basic scout duty. 05:42 Case Aiken Right. Scouting, you would think, would go to the flyer. He's also not the heaviest heavy, but he's a heavy on the team. They make a very big point early in the pilot of, like, in terms of COVID fire, Optimus can move faster to a location, but he's also going to be a better person to lay down suppressing fire in a situation. You kind of need him to be able to move into those spots. And so what that means is that Optimus primal in Beast wars is a generalist for the majority of the show. Yeah. 06:09 Jmike Folson Mid tier character. 06:10 Case Aiken That's a niche that a Superman type often falls into when they actually scale the power levels accordingly for a team, as opposed to having the big fluctuations of a full on Superman in the group. Because Optimus is durable as hell. He's strong as hell. He can fly, and he's got firepower, but he's not necessarily the top for any of them. He's the red mage on the team, which, if you're seeing everyone as having stats that get spread out and some people focus on some, the Superman type is going to be. Yeah, fast, strong, durable, good up close. 06:39 Derek Van Dyke Good from afar, good at thinking out a plan while not necessarily being, like, the master tactician. Like you said, a little bit of everything. 06:46 Jmike Folson Yeah, I thought that was because this iteration, like, when the first episode, they clearly say they're explorers. 06:52 Case Aiken Yes. 06:52 Jmike Folson So I was like, okay, they're not, like, beefy types that we're used to seeing. So I thought that kind of got explained away right there. I was like, okay, they're just doing their thing, and this optimist is just like, copernicus, Galileo. 07:03 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and that's kind of a good point too, that this optimist is not a definitive military leader with a ton of experience. This is a scientist and a man of peace, and he has doubts. I think that, like, g one Optimus, who was really the only other version of Optimus that existed at the time that beast wars came out, right? 07:27 Case Aiken I think, yeah, I mean, there's g two Optimus toys and comics, but there hadn't really been, like, a mainstream transformers. 07:34 Jmike Folson I remember Megatron saying throughout these episodes is that at this point in the Transformers timeline, the Autobots had won the war. The Autobots had won the war. And the predicons, decepticons were underneath them. Now, I don't know how that figured out and everything else. 07:49 Case Aiken Well, it's a weird part, and I'll go into it, because I watched these to death back when I actually got them dvd. I watched these back in the day. Initially, I taped these off of vcrs and rewatched it, but I bought the dvds and I listened to the commentary tracks a ton. So I have some input from that which I did not get a chance to re listen to. So I'm only going touch on it a little bit. It's a weird series of a show in that it is technically in continuity with the original Transformers show in a way that is different from all the other transformers stuff that has come since. There has been a ton of Transformers material of all types, including additional versions of Beast wars characters and so forth. 08:23 Case Aiken What we're saying, though, is at the time when this came out, there was Peter Cullen as Optimus prime, and now we're getting Gary Chalk as Optimus Primal and setting those two up as different characters. 08:35 Derek Van Dyke Yes, and spoilers for a late 90s animated series. But it's both a sequel and prequel to the original transformers as opposed to a reimagining. And I just think that's also so interesting because to me, gen one Optimus is not a lot of a character. He's cool, right? But because it's Peter Cullen, and he just has some raw lines to lay down. But to me, it's the more dynamic personality of primal, of being somebody who does have doubts, being somebody who does fail more, somebody who is a boy scout, but also kind of aware of the ways that holds them back sometimes and has to struggle with that, I think makes him a more interesting character for actually engaging with the question of what it means to be a leader. 09:26 Case Aiken What it means to be a hero. 09:28 Derek Van Dyke Even sometimes, if you don't want to be, but just because you're the one. 09:32 Case Aiken Who is best able to be, right? I mean, he was the leader of a scientific exploration vessel and all of a sudden had to do a police action against war criminals. And it's stuck in this situation where in a Dino riders style pilot sequence, they transport back in time and crash land on ancient Earth and have to contend with weird histories and all that. I think this also goes for the fact that the supporting cast is so strong. And part of that is that this is a mid to late 90s CGI cartoon wherein they couldn't have that many characters. Like the original Transformers had, like, a fuck ton of characters, especially, oh, my God, we can't keep track of. And on purpose, like, to the point where they just start introducing characters. They don't need to be like, oh, here's the new guy. 10:16 Case Aiken It's just like, this guy's always been here, right? Like, you know, Perceptor, the microscope guy. You know him, right? He's been in all these episodes somewhere. 10:25 Derek Van Dyke He was just off screen. 10:26 Case Aiken Yeah, no, he was down in the science lab doing science stuff. And this episode has science stuff. So here's Perceptor. You know the guy. And so with Beast wars, the show had a very small roster. It's five characters on each side initially, where they make up for the fact that they don't have the virtue of Transformers properties in general, which is that you like the ones that you think is cool, and then you have so many that everyone's going to find one that they think is cool, and you keep going. In this case, they had to be like, here's the distinct personalities for the five that we can animate on each side. 11:00 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, here's the personalities they have. Here are the skills that they have, how all of this stuff informs each other, and then how those characters have to change over the course of the episodes. Because Beast wars is really good about having characters start at one place and then have to change and grow, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, as events affect them and stick with them in a way that was kind of rare for a lot of animation of the time. You have a lot of these animated shows of the time, and especially the original Transformers. Right? Where the point was, like, we have our episode plot of the week, and at the end, everything's going to go back to the status quo, right? And Beast wars really threw that out. 11:42 Case Aiken The window, for one thing. We have such dynamic supporting cast members like Rattrap and Dinobot on the hero side, where Rattrap is insubordinate, a coward, super competent, and a prick. Like, it's great, that whole combination right there. And then you have Dinobot, who was a reformed bad guy, and anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for reformed bad guy. No, like, Anubis is my favorite character on Ronan Warriors, Dinobot is one of my favorite characters. Piccolo is my favorite dragon Ball Z character. The honorable bad guy who realized the errors of his way and has reformed in ways that are logically consistent and not just because we needed a heel face turn for the sake of the plot, is so fucking good. And Dinobot is that. 12:31 Case Aiken And again, we're going to talk about code of hero, because we have to talk about code of hero. It's so goddamn good. But that means that right from the get go, we've got people who are arguing against Optimus Primal. Rattrap, who is on his team, who was part of his crew, asks him if he's up to the task constantly because the mission is different. First episode all the time. Like, Rattrap refuses a direct order, and so Optimus Primal has to put himself in danger. And then later is like, here is why I did this thing. Here's why I explained it this way, and I asked you to do it because it made more sense that way. And instead, we did it this way, and now we're hurt, and we're not in a good position where we can actually easily fix ourselves. Things are bad. 13:13 Case Aiken And then Ratchup still is giving him shit. It's not like a one time, and then it's fine. Every single time afterwards, he's giving him crap until eventually he finally learns to trust him. 13:23 Jmike Folson Optimus had to tell him early on. He's like, I'm not going to put you in positions and things that I wouldn't do myself, so you're going to have to trust me. And Raptrap's like, man, whatever. 13:34 Case Aiken Sure, Optimus. And that's such a good line. 13:37 Derek Van Dyke Better you than me. 13:39 Case Aiken That honestly has stuck with me in terms of my management style so much more, probably more than it's, like, healthy in some regards, where I'll throw myself out there to work on a project where I'm like, I probably should have been focusing on the macro. There have been plenty of times where it's like, oh, yeah, this project that needed to be done by the end of the month. I'm now cramming to finish because were in the weeds about something else somewhere earlier in the month kind of thing. But I think that's such a great aspect of his character. He is completely prepared to lead from the front, to take the hits, to do all that, even if he sees the best way to do it is this. And that's the plan I'm going to go with. 14:13 Case Aiken But when something doesn't work, when circumstances change, he'll get out there. There's no problem with that. And it's not for glory. It's not for honor. It's not for anything like that. This is the best plan. And does it make the most sense for me to be there? Yes. No. But it's never out of cowardice. It's never even self preservation from the standpoint of, like, well, I'm the commander. I have to survive so I can keep making new plans. Like, when the plan fails to make a new plan type character. No, he's not that. He just is aware that he's also pretty well equipped to do a bunch of different jobs because he's the red mage on the right. Yeah. 14:47 Derek Van Dyke And especially bringing up rat Trap and the way that rat trap kind of does not respect Optimus's authority at first. 14:55 Case Aiken Can we just pause before we go further on a discussion of rat Trap? And let's just say for anyone who has not watched the show, rat Trap is Rocket Raccoon. 15:03 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I mean, that's a great point of comparison for modern audiences, like, to. 15:08 Case Aiken The point where I'm wondering if when they kind of rebooted rocket raccoon to be the character that he is in the comics, if they were looking at, like, they're that close. Yeah, we're all going to die, right? That's his catchphrase. We're all going to die. 15:22 Derek Van Dyke God, Scott McNeil is just so good as half the cast of this show. Yeah, but, like Rattrap, it's a great example of. One of the most powerful aspects of Optimus Primal, to me, is the effect that he has on the rest of the cast. Rat Trap is somebody who starts off as very cowardly, very insubordinate, and obviously, he's always going to be the team loudmouth and the team cynic. But over the course of especially that first season, you really watch rat trap, like, one step at a time. Have to learn from Optimus's example and from Cheetor some. But in that case, it's still indirectly Optimus, because Cheetor adores Optimus and is trying to do everything he can to mirror that behavior, sometimes to overly enthusiastic. 16:12 Derek Van Dyke But, like, it's that drags rat trap into being more of a team player, being more heroic, putting himself at risk more when he's the best person for a job you can watch over the course of that first season, how much he changes. And that's entirely Optimus's influence as a leader. 16:33 Case Aiken Yeah, that's the best part about Optimus, which is that the team becomes better because of his presence there. He inspires people to better, which is exactly the kind of thing we talk about on this show and why the archetype of, like, a hero who is doing their best is important. 16:51 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, it's not enough to be the leader and be like the jack of all trades. You also have to be a little bit the Paladin. Right? Like, you have to be somebody who, it's not just the actions that you take, but how you empower the people around you to better, to teach young and impressionable Cheetor to think a little bit more ahead, to teach rat trap to be kind of braver, to be an example for Dinobot to clash against. Right. Which is so fascinating because Dinobot never fully takes on Optimus's ideals. But I think especially by code of Hero, we'll get to it. You do see how much he has learned by his time with the maximals. 17:33 Case Aiken Why don't we actually dig into the episodes that we wanted to talk about? The ones that we highlighted specifically were the two part pilot BSors, episode ten, guerrilla warfare episode twelve, victory episode 24 before the storm, which is really just the first part of the three part finale, and then the two part finale of season one, which is other voices, and then Code of hero, because again, we're not monsters here. Yeah. So talking about beast wars, the Pilot, I emailed you guys when I was watching it because right from the get go. Oh my God, this show is so good at economy of storytelling. 18:06 Derek Van Dyke Yes. 18:06 Case Aiken We've got the whole transwarp. We've come through time and space and we're having this whole fight over this weird alien world. And we set up elements about all the different characters on the ship. We set up like, it's an exploration vessel, not a battle cruiser. Like all those little bits right there. We set up the proto forms, which is such an ingenious little element of like. Yeah. Now we know we're going to want to introduce characters more over the course of the season, at least. How do we do that? Here is an element that will work, but we don't have to worry about it right now. 18:37 Derek Van Dyke Here's a massive number of ticking time bombs for new characters that we can introduce as many as we want whenever we want down the road. But they're not here now, right? 18:46 Jmike Folson They're floating in space. 18:47 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, they're just sleeping. 18:50 Case Aiken There's the whole inner John situation that is on the planet in season one, where their robot forms are unable to function for prolonged periods of time in the environment. And so that they have to turn into animals as a way of basically, like, Terminator style clothing themselves in meat as a way to bypass a thing. And that's a really fun exposition bit that they set up very quickly. They bring up the great War, which, according to the commentary tracks, they didn't fucking know what that meant. They didn't know they were necessarily talking about the original transformers at the time. That all came later. And the fact that it fit so smoothly is incredible. 19:24 Derek Van Dyke Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you say the phrase the Clone wars, and you figure it out later. 19:30 Case Aiken You know what I mean? We introduce all these characters. We set up all that, and then we start setting up their capabilities very quickly. 19:38 Derek Van Dyke Right. 19:38 Case Aiken When they leave the ship for the first time, we start seeing the zooming in eye effect that Optimus Primal has, even in ape form, which I think is such a great way of one reminding everyone they're robots and they can do XYZ. I always thought that their augmented reality vision stuff was, like, one of the coolest secret abilities that they had, as opposed to the really obvious, like, I have a gun that comes out of my ape arm kind of thing. Yeah, no, they're still robots here. And just to continue the comparison with Superman. Yeah, he's got supervision on top of flight, and he's a robot. Yeah. 20:11 Derek Van Dyke Every character gets moments that are, like, establishing the most important pieces of their personality at the start of the show. Right. Like, rat trap is going to be cynical and cowardly from the get go. Rhinox is going to be the Peacekeeper and also the big guy who's like, nope, you know what? I don't care if there's a rock I can break through that know Cheetor is going to run off on his own when everyone says, stop, wait, he's already gone. 20:40 Case Aiken Right. And then establish that the communications are limited because of the environment that they're in, so they can't just, like, radio everywhere. 20:47 Derek Van Dyke The energon is such a brilliant little piece of plot BS in Beast wars, because the way that they've made the energon out to be in this, it is a resource that they desperately need and can fight over in however many episodes they feel like. It is the reason the bad guys are there, which makes it accidentally the reason the good guys are there. It is a limiting factor. Right. Because it is incredibly dangerous and forces them to arbitrarily whenever the plot demands it. Right? Oh, there's so much energon. We've got to stay in Beast form. Right? Like, it can be a limiter for the plot of the episode, which is used to great effect many times. 21:29 Derek Van Dyke And then finding out new weird things and ways that it interacts with a lightning strike or a certain piece of technology gives them the ability to bs in the plot. For a bottle episode, it's one singular element that really makes the show kind of by how it gets to both be the prize and the hazard. Yeah, if that makes sense. 21:54 Jmike Folson I feel like later on, they kind of forgot about a lot of the energon stuff they set up. 21:58 Case Aiken Yeah, because at first they're like, oh. 22:00 Jmike Folson We can't be in our robot forms for more than, like, two minutes. And by season two, they're having full on guerrilla warfare out there for hours at a time, like killing each other. And like, oh, wait, the season two. 22:14 Case Aiken They deliberately say all the energon because it's unstable energon, as opposed to what we had seen in OG transformers, where it's like, here's just cubes of stuff that soundwave emitted from his chest that can soar up the coal energy from this furnace or whatever. They make a point that it is different. It's unstable. It's dangerous, and there's so much of it and that the season one finale destroys most of it and transforms what's there into a stable version that does not affect them. 22:42 Jmike Folson Energon cubes. 22:43 Derek Van Dyke Unless you're, like, right up on it. 22:45 Jmike Folson Right. 22:45 Case Aiken Really, the split between season one and two is like a complete, like, we're just like, wiping the floor with all the status quo that we had set up in season one so that we can get away with doing a much weirder season two. And I like a lot of season two, but it loses some of the vibrancy of the first season. It's way more deserts and it's way more like battleground vistas as a. 23:04 Derek Van Dyke Just mesas and stuff. 23:05 Case Aiken Yeah, exactly. 23:06 Derek Van Dyke As far as the eye can see. 23:07 Jmike Folson So what you're saying is you don't like silverbolt? Shame on you, Casey. 23:10 Case Aiken I actually like silverbolt. But you know what? If fucking Silverbolt showed up in season one, he'd be interesting showing up in season two, right when they're showing up, like, being like, here's transmetals and here's all this other stuff going on, and here's Jesus fucking gorilla, man. Like, Silverbolt gets lost in the gouache at that point. 23:26 Derek Van Dyke He's just here to be very beautiful and stupid. 23:32 Case Aiken I mean, yes. So, like, the pilot does a lot of great stuff here. We set up the stakes. We establish, like, yeah, at first it's four on five as far as teams go, because dinobot, very quickly, you think he might be like the starscream of the team gets into a fight with Megatron. I love it where it's like leadership takes cunning and cleverness as well. Wouldn't you say? So Scorponok, like, just shoots him away. 23:55 Derek Van Dyke I do like, also, the pilot is the only time Scorponok is ever a threat. Very quickly becomes the butt monkey of the enemy team. 24:07 Case Aiken I mean, is he the worst butt monkey? It's hard to really say. 24:11 Derek Van Dyke Look, nobody out. Butt monkeys. Waspinator. 24:14 Jmike Folson Hey, we put some respect. 24:20 Case Aiken Secret best characters, the same. God, we love some of these characters. And some of these best characters are all voiced by the same person. 24:33 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I know, right? I do love how they have a completely unsubtle like, yeah, this is the actual starscream in pterosaur. To the point of, like, he just sounds, looks, acts like everything like him gets possessed by Starscream. 24:48 Case Aiken In an episode. 24:50 Derek Van Dyke Waspinator gets possessed by Starscream. That's right. 24:53 Case Aiken When Starscream shows up in that. Not exactly a deep cut, but the fact that the Starscream ghost thing had been set up already, it's like, oh, that's fun. 25:02 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 25:02 Case Aiken And also, as one of my favorite lines in the show, which is when black Arachnia betrays starscream and says, are all your dreams in Technicolor? But getting back to the pilot, so we've got this power imbalance, which I think is really fun. We also established that they are not that fucking big. Like, it's not Transformers OG style, where it's like, yeah, he's a truck that turns into a robot, but what if he's even bigger than that truck? What if the microscope guy is as big as the truck guy? What if the boombox is four stories tall? 25:33 Derek Van Dyke What if the bad guy turns into a regular handgun? 25:37 Case Aiken At least it made sense with G two when they turned him into a tank. 25:40 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, but, yeah, all the transformers are like, roughly analogous to human size. I think they're mostly a little bigger than your average person if you scale them against the pre humans in later seasons. But they're like six to 10ft tall, not 18ft 45. 26:00 Case Aiken Yeah, we know that Cheetor is the same size as a regular cheetah because of direct comparison there, we know that rat trap is very big. For a rat. But it appears that Optimus Primal is about the right size for a gorilla, which means that he's big for a person, but not terrifyingly big. And rhinox actually seems kind of small. And actually, Megatron seems kind of small for a T Rex. 26:20 Derek Van Dyke I mean, again, getting into the arachnids, I've never seen a tarantula that size. And if I ever did, I would die on. 26:30 Jmike Folson Snap my own neck. 26:32 Derek Van Dyke I'm out. 26:35 Case Aiken And what a roster of villains. We talked about terror sore being just the starscream. Like, he's there for that role. We've got Waspinator as the bumbling ally that we like, and we've got Scorponok as the bumbling ally that we don't like in terms of the bad guys, but fucking tarantulas, man. 26:52 Derek Van Dyke Fucking tarantulas. And it's crazy to go back to the first few episodes of the show and realize, like, a, they hadn't quite nailed down how much Waspinator was going to suck, and they hadn't quite nailed down what they wanted to do with tarantulas yet. Right. It takes a few episodes for them to really be like, actually, tarantulas is going to be the smart guy. 27:11 Case Aiken Well, they, right off the bat, say that he's the only one who has the skill to break down the giant rock of inner John that they find. And then the next episode is the web episode where he captures and tortures Cheetor. So I think at the very least, they were like, he's going to be the scary spider, right? 27:26 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, yeah. That's why they gave him the. It's. It's perfect. But the amount to which tarantulas becomes a capital p problem, I don't know that they had really planned out at that point. 27:40 Case Aiken No. And that's fair. This show is so good at. Yes. Ending in a way, once you know how little they knew what they were doing in the pilot, it fits so goddamn well. When you get to the end of season one and you see all the machinations of tarantulas and Megatron and how it plays out and all that. That's all really good. And you get to the shit at the end of season two where it's like, oh, man, it's g one transformers. And they're all there. But they didn't know shit about transformers when they made the show. They didn't know what they were doing. They were told, make a fucking show with these toys. These are the reboot guys. 28:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. Even the pilot is a perfect example of how they. Yes. And did from the beginning. Because I think you look at the pilot episodes compared to the third episode, and you see that within the pilot, there is so much more of transforming has to come with the full. 28:37 Case Aiken Yeah, they have, like, an activation mode. 28:39 Derek Van Dyke Or Cheetor maximize and then lengthy transformation sequence. And from as early as episode three, they're like, okay, we can cut down on the dramatic yelling at the sky and then stock footage. That's not the tone that's working for us. Let's minimize that a bit. I think it's interesting to see how much more expositional dialogue is in that first episode or two in a way that works great. Like you said, to set up, like, economy of storytelling, to set the stage in one or two episodes. But the format of dialogue changes so much by the third episode. 29:14 Case Aiken Yeah, I mean, obviously, it's kind of nice in the first episode to have them all do individually their activation codes where they say their full name and then what team they're on. If they say maximize or terrorize and go through that, also establish that it's just a code word that they can just change because Dynobot does it, which is a nice detail there. That's fun. That's power rangers for you. 29:34 Derek Van Dyke Changes his tattoo. 29:38 Case Aiken It's the 90s. We were suckers for it then. I'm still a sucker for it now. But you don't need to do that going forward. And eventually we get an episode where they full on are just like, oh, no. They're all in sync with their animal selves. Now. The call of the wild episode where they all regress to their animal forms and then, like, tiger Tron gets them stoned and, like, no, man, you just need to vibe with your animal self. But that does allow for really cool moves, like rat trap, like rolling as a rat and then standing up as a robot and shooting things. All those kind of maneuvers that really come into play in the second half of the season, which also goes for what kind of choreography can they do in the early episodes, if you're really paying attention? 30:14 Case Aiken Even some of the shots where it's like a different angle, it's still the model in the same motion. They can move the camera around, but the gunfire motions are oftentimes the same animation. Just like, move which angle that they're looking at the model from. And that's because this is a 90s CGI show. This is the reboot studio. This is the show that the reboot studio did right after reboot. Yeah, I was going to say to. 30:34 Derek Van Dyke Clarify for a lot of folks who don't. There was a show called reboot. 30:38 Case Aiken That is not the recent show called Reboot. 30:41 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, there's a CGI show called Reboot before this. This is not a studio that does reboots. It's a capital r reboot. I remember nothing about reboot, to be honest. 30:52 Case Aiken Reboot is great, but this came out between season two and three. And so season one and two of reboot is rough, particularly season one. 31:01 Derek Van Dyke It looks rougher to look back at, for sure. I think part of it, too, is that because beast wars, the designs are robots and toy animals, they don't have to look as off putting as, like, we made blue people. 31:15 Case Aiken Right. 31:15 Derek Van Dyke You know what I mean? 31:17 Case Aiken And even that was choices that were made to get around the fact that it was Tron as a tv show. It was set inside of a computer so that they didn't have to be that realistic because it was a tv budget CGI show, which at the time was really difficult to do. Side note, there is a call out to reboot, which is one of the catchphrases for the main character, which is there's just no pleasing some people. Optimus Primal says to rat trap at one point in the pilot. 31:40 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, I remember that line. 31:43 Case Aiken But the point is, this is the show that they pick up after that before they come back for the amazing season three and the lackluster season four of reboot. Season three of reboot, one of the best things you can ever watch. I will continue to sing its praises forever. It's fantastic, but this show is very clearly part of this phase of a group of people learning to work with their budgets and using the restrictions of the medium that they're working in to jumpstart creativity. We have such a defined, cool supporting cast in the show because they only have the resources to make five models for each side. We've got ten characters total, and we have a pretty clear idea of what they're able to do in all cases. 32:24 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and that's why, again, new characters come in at a semi steady pace, but paced out, it takes a bit for Tigatron to show up, and then it takes a bit for black arachni to show up, and then it's eraser and then Inferno. Right. 32:40 Case Aiken And there's a reason why the first two that come in, I mean, also this kind of ties into the toys, which is that they're palette swaps. Like, yes, they have design changes, but a lot of the foundations for the models are based on the same characters. Tiger Tron is Cheetor. 32:55 Derek Van Dyke They're clone characters. 32:56 Case Aiken Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 32:57 Derek Van Dyke Down to the same rifle with the brain in the back of the gun for some reason. 33:01 Case Aiken It's a marthroy situation. Yeah. And black arachnia with tarantulas. And it's great there because. Oh, my. Like, what two wonderful characters did they spawn from this whole thing? Yeah. 33:13 Derek Van Dyke Holy shit. Those two being at each other's throats the entire time is just. 33:18 Case Aiken Yeah, just great details. But we don't get them until later. And they're fun additions, but they have to pick and choose their battles for when they bring a new character in who's going to be important, and yada, yada in the pilot, right off the bat, it's like, all right, well, here's, like, a little first confrontation. There's, like, a little pit and a rock, and we can establish some character stuff. And they do really good stuff because this is where Rattrap refuses to jump into battle. And we get, like, rhinox being, like, the big tough. Like, they need cover fire. 33:45 Case Aiken So I'm picking you up, and this is a whole groot rock and raccoon situation right here, where he's holding Rattrap, who's firing in one hand, using Cheetor's gun in the other, because they didn't really want to show off his Uzi as his main weapon in the pilot. 33:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, the chain gun with a buzzsaw blade on it for some reason. 34:01 Case Aiken Buzsaw blade within three. It's so weird. 34:08 Derek Van Dyke He never once used that thing to hit him. 34:11 Case Aiken No, but he does shoot some people at point blank rage several times. 34:14 Derek Van Dyke He sure perforates some folks with it. That's for sure. 34:18 Case Aiken Is so great. And we will mention beast machines at the end of this. But there is a reason why I hate beast machines. 34:24 Derek Van Dyke There's no human being who loves beast. I cannot believe that's possible. 34:30 Case Aiken So we get, like, this wonderful confrontation between them that sets up all this character stuff. We set up the efficacy of the Predacons, and then the first episode of the two part pilot ends with, well, now we've got to have a battle for victory between Dinobot and Optimus Primal, which is nice to set up. I love Dinobot. I love him having this, like, well, I need honor. Like, I can't just beat you with treachery. I wouldn't have earned leadership there. And that's such a good way of setting up. He's going to work here because he's the bad guy, but he's lawful evil. And you guys are fighting chaotic evil right now. Yeah. And he's powerful. 35:06 Case Aiken He's got those fucking eye beams and he's big and he's got a weird tail spin blade thingy, which, thank God, in code of hero, he uses as like a helicopter device. Yes, man, dinobot. So here's a weird thing. I love the Megatron design in season one. I think it's really cool. I love the Trex head as the arm. I feel like it's a great shout out to the g one transformers, where Megatron, weirdly, it's the scope of the gun, but it acts as a blaster that's on his arm. I feel like it works very well there. I always thought it was weird though, that they didn't just use the Grimlock design. And then I realized that Dinobot is Grimlock. And in fact, there is an alternate color toy of dinobot that is called Grimlock. 35:47 Derek Van Dyke Oh, I didn't know they did have Beast Wars. Grimlock. 35:50 Case Aiken Never in the actual series. Yeah. But if you look at his transformation sequence, it has actually the same positioning that's going on where the head goes down to the chest, the legs extend out from the chest and are not part of the main body. And that the legs of the dinosaur form slide up and become the upper torso arms. 36:08 Derek Van Dyke Okay. 36:09 Case Aiken And then the tail splits open. And on grimlock, it splits open and becomes like part of his back. In this case, it becomes a separate spinny weapon thing with his spine being his sword. 36:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. Or something. 36:21 Case Aiken That's the extension of the spine. 36:23 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. It's one long thing. One long spaghetti noodle. Right. 36:28 Case Aiken So there is some weird headcanon of like. Well, but maybe Dinobot is the descendant. The point is that they went with this very tried and true design for the character to be then this weird villainous lancer character. 36:44 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 36:44 Case Aiken In a five man band. That sort of makes the most sense. Right. Because then, yeah, he was effectively the. 36:50 Derek Van Dyke Number two on the predicon side. And then he defects. And because the maximals just do not have that same explicit sort of hierarchy structure, it's like, okay, well, I'm not the leader. What am I? And it's like, here's the guy. Here's one of the boys now. And clearly he struggles forever to figure out how he is supposed to work as a soldier, as somebody who believes in hierarchies, as somebody who believes in a chain of command. Again, like there's science. This is not a military that he has joined. 37:24 Case Aiken Yeah. And it's like a small crew. It's not the starship Enterprise. Like, yeah, we've got rhinox. He's really good at scanning shit. And Rattrap's really good at fixing machines and making bombs. 37:35 Derek Van Dyke He's sort of the engineer. 37:36 Case Aiken Again, Rattrap is just fucking rocket raccoon. 37:40 Derek Van Dyke Technician, demolitions expert, snarky little guy, and I love it. 37:48 Case Aiken It's definitely not plagiarism in terms of rat trap, and it's archetypal, but it's just so well done here. Yeah. 37:53 Derek Van Dyke It's a defining version of that archetype for me. 37:57 Case Aiken We have this wonderful face off between the two of them where we get to establish Dinobot's credentials as being honorable, and we also get to see Optimus primal showing that. Yeah. In addition to having guns that come out of his body and rockets and guns that come out of his arms, he also has swords. He has, like, dual scimitars. Yeah. 38:17 Derek Van Dyke Like a copesh or something. 38:19 Case Aiken He is very capable. And then we establish, like, all right, well, the predacons show up, and they fuck up the whole thing, and then they blow up a mountain. It's like, oh, there's a big energon thing, and they both have to separately go to it. And again, economy of storytelling, or at least, like, seeding what's out there, they're like, this is a really weird world with, like, two moons and all this other shit. Also, that's fucking Stonehenge right there. That definitely was not put here by a thing we've seen so far. 38:41 Derek Van Dyke And I love, too, how it kind of confuses you of, like, okay, well, we've landed on earth, clearly, because there's earth animals and there's Stonehenge, but there are two moons that they call attention to. And the geography and landscape is still very alien and full of energon in a way that it is not by transformers g one time or just the modern day. And I love how they even use the pilot to set up things that will be the focus of several episodes separately down the road, and then many of which will loop back around for the season finale. 39:16 Case Aiken Yeah. And then the pilot kind of concludes with a big five on five battle in the energon field. So they can't transform because it's too dangerous. And we get. 39:25 Derek Van Dyke You get to watch the aminels fight. 39:27 Case Aiken I mean, some really, like, right off the bat, they are okay with reminding people, like, yeah, no, a t. Rex would be really, like, there's a shot, and they use it. In the opening credits of Megatron trying to bite Optimus Primal's neck. 39:41 Jmike Folson Oh, yeah. 39:41 Case Aiken And you're like, yeah, no, that's real bad. And side note, a gorilla would not have been able to survive. We gorillas are strong compared to us gorillas are not strong compared to Tyrannosaurus rexes. 39:54 Derek Van Dyke Right. There's a mass difference. Know. 39:57 Case Aiken But he's also a small T Rex. 39:59 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, but also just the way that, like, coming into that sequence, like, megatron, like, stomping in and the fact that it shakes the camera as he strides in ahead of the rest of his crew. It's very like, yes. Okay. Yep. You're selling that. This guy's big. Like, way bigger than everyone else on the field. 40:18 Case Aiken Right. But we also got a Mario 64 styled Optimus primal spinning it. 40:24 Jmike Folson Optimus swinging around, which I have to. 40:26 Case Aiken Imagine is just easy to animate because they're not really moving. You just spin the model around. 40:32 Derek Van Dyke But it's so good. It's so good to watch a gorilla swing a T Rex around. Right. And just yeet him there. Well, and also you get to see, like, rat trap. Do whatever rat trap does to tarantulas. That counts as an attack. 40:47 Case Aiken I don't know. 40:47 Derek Van Dyke It kind of seems like he tickles them. 40:49 Case Aiken I'm not really sure what it is. 40:50 Derek Van Dyke He goes, that's not even close to the sound. I give up. 40:56 Case Aiken Yeah, I mean, the pairing is okay, but as we pointed out, there's two flyers on the predicon side already. And it's not really, like a one to one kind of comparison right there. But it is close enough that it would fit any of the myriad two opposed army kind of tv shows that we had grown up on. At this point. If you could pair. 41:19 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, you could pair any of them off against any of the others. But I do like how the predicons and the maximals do not have clear analogs between each other. You don't have the clear cut good and bad version of the archetypes. You have pretty different dynamics on each team. 41:39 Case Aiken Yeah. Like, season one especially has just, like, very clear, different characters there. And then as we start adding people, they usually come in pairs. So that kind of puts them as opposite each other. Like, Tiger John and Black Arachnia are the first two that come in, and then Airazor and Inferno are the next two that come in for those fill in the slot of like, well, were missing this thing on our team. And then we get the fusors, where we get quickstrike and Silverbolt at the same time. Yeah. 42:08 Derek Van Dyke It's interesting to think of each character that gets added. And like, what is it that they're adding to each team? Right. And with Tigatron, we get the heroic character who can't be relied on to always be part of the super 6th. 42:22 Case Aiken Ranger when he shows up. 42:23 Derek Van Dyke Yes, the heroes get a one up, but it's not a one up that counts. And then Black Arachnia shows up. But Black Arachnia is even more double timing than pterosaur and tarantulas are. So it kind of doesn't fully count for the Predacons. And then we get Air razor and Inferno, who both do kind of fill out. But like, Inferno gives the predacons even more firepower. Air Razor gives the maximals another flyer they desperately needed. 42:52 Case Aiken But when Inferno joins, he's also a flyer in addition to being a heavy. 42:57 Derek Van Dyke Completely unreliable, no, he's reliable. 43:00 Case Aiken He's just. He's an idiot, though. 43:03 Derek Van Dyke Reliably going to fuck up everything in. 43:05 Case Aiken Front of him for better and for worse. Like, if you tell him, follow them, he will dig a hole underground below the level of a force field to make sure that he gets there because he's going to do his job. He's going to live up to the demands of his queen. For the colony, for the royalty. For the royalty. Yes, my queen, I do. She wouldn't call me that. But the pilot does his job is what I'm trying to say here. It's not an intensely complicated story that happens, but it sets up the first season so well. 43:39 Jmike Folson We will call these the beast War. He said the thing. 43:43 Case Aiken He said the thing. 43:44 Derek Van Dyke It's definitely cornier than the rest of the show, but it does a miraculous job of doing so much setup in just the first half of the pilot. You could do a writing class using that as an example of setting the foundation for what's to come. Most tv shows do not do that well. 44:03 Case Aiken Yeah, like, you know, the stakes. You know, everything that pops up after this point is introduced in the pilot. You have a clear idea of all of the characters, even if some of them end up being more of a fuck up than they are set up in this episode, and some of them end up being more of a fucking asshole than they are set up in this episode, they do a pretty good job of making sure you're aware of what are the players and what are they like. And God damn it, we haven't talked about Megatron that much yet. We got to talk about Megatron a little bit because his whole talking to himself thing and talking to his T. Rex hand especially is so good. 44:38 Jmike Folson Yeah, that got interesting. 44:39 Derek Van Dyke Later on, he gives it a rubber ducky. 44:41 Case Aiken Yeah. 44:41 Jmike Folson Because at times it looks like the arm is sentient and it's like looking back at him and communicating with him. But he's also kind of doing his. 44:51 Case Aiken He's not well, he's also doing the. 44:52 Jmike Folson Whole Dr. Claw thing where he's like. 44:54 Case Aiken Rubbing the arm, pets it like a cat. 44:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 44:59 Jmike Folson Oh, yes. 45:01 Case Aiken I think in terms of setting up how different he is from, like, g one Megatron. He's fucking insane. He talks to his hand for the majority of season one. 45:10 Derek Van Dyke Yes, he's crazy, but he's crazy like a fox. 45:13 Case Aiken Yes. 45:14 Derek Van Dyke Because he is genuinely incredibly cunning. He is usually one step ahead, if not several steps ahead of Optimus and everybody on his side who is trying to murder him and take his place. Because that's the dynamic of the Predacons is like, most of them think they'd do a better job than him, and all of them are wrong. 45:34 Case Aiken Yeah. That's such a fun dynamic of the Predacons in general, where unlike in the original transformers, where it's two opposing sides and this is the army, that's like, kind of in the winning position. Like, the Decepticons have Cybertron mostly under control at the start of the series and pretty much cements their hold over the course of it. And so Megatron is the leader of this army. And while there's starscream, the majority of the people are like, people in the army with him. The Predacons in this are all criminals. And by that I mean there are predacons on Cybertron and they have their own governing body. Sorry. We're recording this in 2023. And you can probably make some weird comparisons to geopolitical stuff going on right now. But suffice it to say they are a subsidiary state with the maximals being the dominant power. 46:19 Case Aiken But the maximals are the good guys and kind of nice. And the Predacons are kind of like, well, we're working with them and we would like to not be doing this, but right now we've got our government and whatnot. And Megatron is a terrorist and he has criminals working with him that all have their own goals. And they're all criminals amongst the predacons. 46:38 Derek Van Dyke Yes, because there's a major plot point of the actual predicon leadership wanting him fucking taken care of. Because his actions destabilize the peace that they are currently in. And it's like, look, we don't like the maximals either, but we have our plans, and we're operating within the realm of politics, and you are operating within the realm of car bombing. You know what I mean? And we cannot have this. 47:05 Case Aiken Right. And that's a really interesting dynamic for these characters. You have to assume that some of that comes from the fact that this is a 90s show as opposed to an 80s show. The original show. Yeah, you could probably make a cold war parallel. And this is like the end of history. Everything is technically fine. We're at peace with everyone. But, oh, hey, there might be these terrorists out there. It's pre 911, but it's not pre the concept of terrorism. 47:30 Derek Van Dyke I mean, look, diehard existed before, you know what I mean? 47:35 Case Aiken And I also don't want to assign too much thought about the larger state of the world, but it is the zeitgeist that the show comes out of. 47:42 Derek Van Dyke Right. I think it gives us, like, a really interesting squad of villains in that regard. And I think to this day, it makes the Beast Wars Megatron the most memorable and version of Megatron out there. 47:57 Case Aiken Yes. Why do you always talk to yourself? 48:01 Jmike Folson His best and biased impersonation. 48:03 Derek Van Dyke I don't talk to myself. 48:04 Case Aiken I'm not intelligent conversation. It's not until episode ten that we really get a real optimus focused episode, and that is guerrilla warfare. And I love several things about this episode. For one thing, while it is a goofy as fuck, like, we learn something about this plant and it becomes, like, important for later element, which is very much a part of early beast wars. Like the first half of season one has a lot of these kind of like the natural world. We're studying these things, blah, blah. We get one, an incredible use of the biology of the different species that we're in, which is that we see that the dinosaurs have issues when shit gets attached to their neck. 48:42 Derek Van Dyke Oh, yeah. 48:43 Case Aiken Like the way dinobots tiny arms when it's happening is so good. We get some fun uses of Optimus primal, being a giant gorilla in that when he has to move a boulder, he uses his foot to move a stone to shift. Things like those are fun. Right there. We get Scorponok attempting to be the mad scientist archetype that he was intended to be, but then everyone immediately remembering that he's a giant fuck up in everything he does. 49:11 Derek Van Dyke Yes. And we get Optimus with the limiters removed. 49:17 Case Aiken And this is actually the thing that I really wanted to get to when I was saying, like, well, Optimus has the power of action to do a lot more than he necessarily does in the majority of the show, like, he's typically one of the strongest members of the team until he's definitely the strongest member of the team. 49:33 Derek Van Dyke Right. 49:33 Case Aiken The fact of the matter is, he could probably go into a bloody fight and kill a lot of people or lead a lot of people into a situation like that. But he's not about murdering people. He's about apprehending people who stole something. Like the death penalty is actually not what is required of that. He has restraint all the time up until he doesn't hear when a giant fly attaches to his chest and really fucks with his central nervous system. Yeah. 49:59 Jmike Folson Isn't the kryptonite. 50:00 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, well, and it's like, it's a great look. Everybody knows the famous world of cardboard speech with Superman. And that kind of applies here as it's the reminder that Optimus is holding back, because from his concept of morality, he is not supposed to be killing if he can avoid it, that's not what he is here to do. He is not comfortable with that. But also in terms of, like, he puts himself greatly at danger by going full berserker rage, and his team can't afford to lose him. So he could probably take out. As the episode establishes, most of the predacons single handedly die in the process, but then his team is left without him, and then where are they? It's multiple ways in which there's that recognition of, like, this is why I hold back. 50:49 Derek Van Dyke This is why I am not the ace on the team. 50:52 Case Aiken Yeah. When he is taken off the team, they fuck up trying to be like him, where we have to negotiate, and what they do is they spoil everything. They're like, here's a heads up that Optimus is coming your way. He's out of his mind. You can expect him anytime in the next hour. 51:07 Jmike Folson Perhaps only Optimus can think like Optimus. 51:10 Case Aiken Yeah, no way. So, yeah, I mean, he takes on tarantulas and he takes his anchor thingy. That is like, such a toyetic element. I remember, actually, that toy. It's like a spring loaded, like, grappling hook that fires off, and he uses the other end of it, which is sharp, to impale him against the wall. 51:25 Derek Van Dyke It's brutal. This episode goes hard. 51:28 Case Aiken Tanks. Like, all of these shots throughout these, which is such a Superman sequence of him just like, walking through gunfire to go into this whole fight. Fantastic stuff there. I mean, we're reminded, like, oh, yeah, big, scary, flying super monkey is kind of a scary thing. 51:43 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, it's fitting making him a gorilla because it's like, just like a gorilla. Right? We tend to not remember, oh, yeah, those things can rip your arm. 51:53 Case Aiken Yeah. It's a gentle giant situation. Yes. 51:55 Derek Van Dyke And be happy when they're being a gentle giant. Like, that's much preferred. Do the alternatives. 52:02 Case Aiken But in this episode, he decides to stop monkeying around and just truck on through everyone. And at the very end, we get the callback to the first part where it's like, oh, just shit. Attached to his neck. But in this case, it's Megatron, and he's got even smaller arms he can't even reach. It's a fun episode. I mean, it's not the deepest episode. It's like, well, what if he went angry and bad? And wouldn't that be bad? And I think it's good for this point in the show. It's ten episodes in. To remind us, like, yeah, no, the leader could be, like, a more aggressive Rob Liefeld style character, and that would be a problem because X, Y and Z and X, Y and Z here is like, he would probably die. You guys would probably die. The amount of devastation isn't worth it. 52:43 Case Aiken Like, the collateral damage, death, they are fighting, but they can be rebuilt. Most of the characters here take really bad punishment over time, and that doesn't kill them because they're robots. The rules are a little different. The rules get laid out over the course of the series for, like, what is a fatal kind of thing. But the death penalty is not just an automatic thing here. And that kind of incident is a big deal. Like, when a character actually dies. Dies. That is taken as a very serious thing, but it's also always on the table. 53:14 Derek Van Dyke This is a great example of a sort of a bottle episode. 53:17 Case Aiken Great. 53:17 Derek Van Dyke Like, first half of season. One example of we have a plot that wraps itself up by the end that doesn't drastically change the status quo and is informed by and also tells us more about certain characters. One of the things that does happen is there's a lot of collateral damage to equipment and bases, and that's the sort of thing beast wars makes a huge point of keeping you abreast of that. Damage to the ships matters because eventually these things have to get fixed and fly off. And you can put a somewhat damaged robot in the tank, and they will slowly recover over time if it's not a fatal injury. But when something gets broke, it's broken. When a door or a side of the ship gets blown out, now you've got a side of the ship that needs to get repaired. Resources are limited. 54:05 Derek Van Dyke Manpower is limited. That stuff matters. 54:08 Case Aiken And by this point in the series, we had seen a bunch of these kind of gimmicky episodes. Like, I think we had already had the teleporter episode at this point, the chain of command episode where Optimus is taken away and Ratchet has to lead. All the stuff that we kind of need to do just to be like, yep, this is the show we're dealing with here, but this is just a fun episode in terms of being like, we really need to establish what the leader is capable of and why is he not doing some of those things. Yeah, and I think you make a great point in terms of the damage to equipment. While the show has a status quo, more or less in season one, there are big shifts. 54:42 Case Aiken And when things happen that damage the two ships, that does have lasting impact in terms of the capabilities of the group, even while they are becoming more effective in their warfare, in developing new technology to fight with each other. 54:55 Derek Van Dyke But yeah, guerrilla warfare. Great. First half of season one episode, the pilot gives us the hero. We get to see Optimus continue to be just the leader in the background of several episodes leading up to that. And then we get to see, okay, no, he can rip ass in the right circumstances, but also here's why he does not. 55:15 Case Aiken Yeah, so moving on to. It's sort of the midseason finale, which is victory. I remember seeing this episode a lot, which I feel like the block probably ended somewhere about here. It's episode twelve. There's no actual victory. It's a fake out episode. It does do a really good job of setting up a recurring theme, which is that every time the maximals think that they have figured out espionage, they are reminded that the predacons are way better at espionage than they are, which I love because every time it's like, yeah, we figured out how to spy on their camera system. It's like, it's a good thing we figured out they're spying and now we have like fake information being fed to them. Right? Yeah. That's really great. 55:52 Jmike Folson Yes. 55:55 Case Aiken We open with. Were you guys deep Space Nine fans? There's an episode called the Pale moonlight, which is seen as like one of the better episodes of Star Trek in general, wherein there's kind of a similar thing where via deception, they are using a fake prerecorded sequence to mess with people in it. And in that scenario it's like way more fucked up than this. But it's still a scenario of the predacons have figured out that the maximals have been able to hardwire a feed from their security cameras. And so they pretend to die. 56:23 Derek Van Dyke Yeah, they stage, like, a fake rebellion and fight that leads to a horrible accident that kills them all, right? 56:29 Case Aiken Which, knowing going into the episode, it's like, okay, they're really playing it up in it all. But on the same token, pterosaur is a piece of shit who has betrayed Megatron multiple times at this point and continues to betray him because he is just fucking scream. The show knows that we're transformers fans. 56:47 Derek Van Dyke Starscream, but less intelligent, to be clear. 56:50 Case Aiken So much worse. Which is why they bring in real starscream, just to be like, oh, better Starscream here. 56:56 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 56:56 Case Aiken And a reason why Pterosaur does not make it into season. You know, it's plausible. The only part that really threw me is that Scorpinok is on the side of pterosaur in that sequence. 57:06 Derek Van Dyke That should have been the giveaway, I think, to a lot of people. 57:09 Case Aiken Right. 57:09 Derek Van Dyke Because Scorponok's main defining trait for most of season one is that he's the one who stays loyal to Megatron. Unquestionably. Which probably also like the fact that Inferno comes in and is just that, but funnier is probably why Scorponok gets written off. 57:25 Case Aiken Right? Yeah, we're not going to talk that much about Inferno here, but I actually really like Inferno. He's a giant fuck up, but in a way that I really adore. 57:33 Derek Van Dyke Oh, incredibly funny. 57:37 Case Aiken But yeah. So they stage this fake death and then abandoned their base. And apparently black arachnia has developed some kind of tech that hides the signature from their sparks so that no one can actually identify that they are still alive and allow the maximals to raid their base, take all the stuff they would need to get their ship able to fly again, with the intent of then attacking the maximals and stealing the ship and flying off of it. I do have questions about how that all works based on the timeline that we see in this episode. But the big focus, and while Optimus is part of it, the big focus of this episode is Dinobot being like, well, if I go back to Cybertron, I am a criminal who was part of a massive theft of one of the great relics of our world. 58:21 Case Aiken And I left, and you guys pursued me and I was a turncoat and joined you when you pursued me. I have nothing to go home to. 58:29 Derek Van Dyke You're all going home. And I'm going to prison, right? 58:33 Jmike Folson Forever. 58:35 Case Aiken And it's an interesting moment because he decides to stay. And they are like, well, we got to get the ship going. We're going to go. And he's like, I'm going to conquer this world. It's like, well, that's kind of fucked up. I don't think that's a good idea. It's like, well, yeah, I'll probably die eventually. That won't be tomorrow. 58:50 Derek Van Dyke Yeah. 58:

S5 E12: The original Ultraman and our 15th seed steps into the ring to face off against the formidable Kurama from the Naruto series! Fans of both Ultraman and Naruto are in for a treat as the two titans prepare to unleash their incredible powers and abilities! Talking points include: Space Chakra, fake Space Chakra, and 100% pure genuine Space ChakraFind Derek on SDGC and Castle Bravo: A Godzillaverse RetrospectiveJoin the Super Bracket Bros Discord!Discover where else Super Bracket Bros can be found hereSee the current bracket at the pinned post at the top of the page of our FacebookVote on the all the matchups on our InstagramGet in contact with us: superbracketbros@gmail.comCheck out Eli and his many good things hereIntro music created for this show by Nick HerediaBig thank you to our current Patrons for helping support the show: Andrew, Matt, Wait For It Podcast, Kyle O, and EmilySupport the show

Side Quests is back and so is host Derek Van Dyke. He is a streamer, podcaster and amnesiac spirit! The game he is talking about today is The House in Fata Morgan by NOVECT! You can find this episode's host on twitter as well as check out his podcasts, Castle Bravo and SDGC! We've also launched our brand new Patreon! We have some really cool stuff planned so if you want to check it out just click here! You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!

What could we accomplish if borders did not exist? Meet Anthony and Saundarya. They are high schoolers with a keen interest in giving back, and their dedication and commitment to service spans various local and global communities. Anthony lives in Arizona. Saundarya lives in India. They come from different cultures and countries, but they believe that borders are not obstacles, challenges, or hindrances to their work with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The borders that, for some, would seem to separate the two youth are actually differences that have helped bring them closer together. Tune in to listen to their stories and the advice they have for other youth around the globe who are ready to take action in their communities. ...Anthony Dyjak is the president and founder of his high school's UNA chapter. He has competed in many speech and debate competitions and is the Treasurer for his school's Amnesty International organization. He is also a member of his school's Future Business Leaders of America club. He has won various geography competitions and olympiads, and has a great passion for geography, politics, and history. He has visited the United Nations Headquarters and is an advocate for fair elections, climate legislation, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and minority rights in his local community....Saundarya Nair serves on the Teen Advisory Board at Girl Up Leader and as the Vice President of her school club, Flames of Justice. Her passions include advocating for gender and climate justice, the financial independence of rural women, xenophobia, and sports for a purpose. She has contributed to pilot programs on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Sports Innovation Labs, and was selected from representatives of over 120 countries to serve as a YOUNGA delegate in 2022. She has won awards at national-level debates and Model United Nations (MUNs), participated in the 2022 International Human Rights Art Festival (IHRAF) Youth Anthology, and was an honoree of the Girl Hero Awards 2022. When not engaged in activism and volunteering, she can be found reading, buried in the latest sports news, procrastinating on assignments, researching random historical trivia, and practicing Kathak or Taekwondo.

Hey there Screen Beans! We're back and this week we're chatting with streamer and podcaster of SDGC fame, Brittney! We chat with Brittney about the journey from community member to podcast co host, the importance of a welcome community in fandom as well how SDGC continues to grow while sustaining it's approachability and kindness as a community. We also deep dive on Bullet Train, Spy x Family and Arcane!

The crew assembles for a chill weekly podcast where we talk about the sheer number of games that have released in the last few couple months. It's so much. Please give us a break (we won't get one).

We made a topic list for this show. We really did. We were gonna talk about Panda Global using Nintendo to shut down competition, crunch at FromSoft, maybe bs about the Mario movie. We mostly did that. John forced us to talk about FF16 I think. I barely remember. Please don't call the cops.

John and Derek discuss the first of the upcoming series of Front Mission Remakes. Is this the shot in the arm the Front Mission series needs for a comeback? Thanks to Forever Entertainment for providing us a review code.

Britt and Jeff have been playing Harvestella, Square Enix's new farming dungeon-crawling life-simulator RPG. Can this game offer something fresh and new to fans of farming-sim games? This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a review copy provided by Square Enix. Thanks to Square Enix for the opportunity to review this title.

Composer Mick Gordon, famous for his work on the DOOM and Wolfenstein franchises, comes forward with detailed allegations of mistreatment by Bethesda while working on DOOM Eternal. Plus, we take community grab bag questions.

A legendary SRPG, Tactics Ogre has a long and storied history spanning multiple console generations. And now at long last, the definitive version of a classic is now available on modern consoles for a whole new audience. Join John and our good friend Josh Fagundes as they tell you why Tactics Ogre Reborn stands the test of time and holds it's own as one of the greats. Thanks to Square Enix for the review code!

Our post-charity-drive episode, which was mostly focused on new game reveals and trailers that occurred during our short break. We also spend a lot of time just reminiscing about our get-together. It's a low-impact, feel-good episode. Apologies for the late upload, it's Derek's fault due to who they are as a person.

No show this week due to the Extra Large Charity Drive, so in its place we have an SDGC crossover episode of Castle Bravo (originally recorded and released earlier this year). SDGC host Derek and moderator Charlotte are joined by fellow SDGC host Justin to talk about one of the most highly regarded Godzilla films of all time: Mothra vs Godzilla (not to be confused with Godzilla vs Mothra, a completely different movie made 30 years later). The themes and comedic, family-friendly tone of the original Mothra film blend with Godzilla's larger-scale destruction and monster smackdowns to finally find the sweet spot that would define Godzilla for decades to come.

In a week relatively light on news, we're joined by friend of the show and overall ray of sunshine Veerender Jubbal to talk about what we've been playing, what we're looking forward to over the next few months, and answer some community questions from Discord and Twitter.

Derek had the opportunity to try Scorn as both a pre-release gameplay preview and as a final release. They explain to Justin where new players should set their expectations. Scorn was reviewed on PC using a review code provided by Kepler Interactive.

It's an unfocused show this week, but no we don't get to just talk about Need For Speed Unbound. Overwatch 2 has a messy and confusing launch, and the Super Mario Bros movie reveal leaves us in a fancasting round robin.

John and Derek discuss the latest game in the cult favorite Valkyrie Profile franchise, the action-RPG spinoff Valkyrie Elysium. It's not anything like what people might have expected. This game was reviewed on Playstation 5 using a review code provided by Square Enix.

What can you expect during the Service Design Global Conference 2022? In this episode, you'll hear the closing keynote speaker, Christian Bason, share a preview. If you want to attend the conference check out the link and discount code down below. [ 1. EPISODE GUIDE ] 00:00 Welcome 01:45 Who is Christian 03:00 The big idea 05:45 Designing with time 07:45 Who owns the agenda 10:00 Design is future-oriented 12:00 Life-centered design 13:45 The 6 expansions 16:30 The big question 17:15 Looking forward to 18:00 Closing thoughts [ 2. LINKS ] * https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbason/ * https://expandthefuture.com [ 3. CONFERENCE ] Join the Service Design Global Conference on October 13 & 14, 2022. Use the code SDSHOW to get a **20% discount** on your ticket. https://hopin.com/events/service-design-global-conference-2022/registration

Our main subject this week is the very unexpected and completely unforeseen shuttering of Google Stadia. We promise that there's only the necessary amount of sarcasm for this week.

We discuss the hacking of Rockstar and leaking of information/assets from Grand Theft Auto 6, as well as the messy ethical space of leaking information. There's a big difference between journalists exposing bad business practices and leaking assets for blackmail. (Apologies for the very late upload, I've been sick ~Derek)

Matt had a very busy weekend at PAX West this year! Geoff briefly asks about his experience, the panels he saw and the games he played. The rest of this episode is all the great conversations Matt had with folks on the Convention floor. 22:02 - Limited Run 32:18 - River City Girls 2 48:19 - Finji 68:20 - Demon School 82:39 - Whitethorn Games 94:10 - Yacht Club Games 109:18 - Battery Staple 130:18 - Prime Matter 137:17 - It's a Wrap! 147:58 - Larian Studios (w/Scott White of RPG University, Josh Silverman of Massively Affected & Matthew Finnerman of SDGC) 167:42 - Sherwood Extreme

We're joined by regular friend Josh aka Anoriand to talk about an overwhelming week of game reveals, from huge announcements for the future of Assassin's Creed to a Nintendo Direct and a State of Play. We don't even have time to talk about what we've been playing recently!

Derek and John got early access to Square Enix's new strategy RPG The DioField Chronicle, and we break down where it succeeds and where it stumbles. Thanks to Square Enix for providing us with our review codes. The DioField Chronicle was reviewed on both PC and Nintendo Switch.

We know a big thing happened. It happened the day of the podcast. We're not talking about it. You know what we ARE talking about? Sony's Jim Ryan playing crybully over Microsoft's proposed terms to keep Call of Duty multiplatform after they acquire Activision Blizzard.

Long-time friend of the show Anthony Agnello returns to talk about Gamescom's opening night presentation, how Geoff Keighley's format is wearing thin, and the difficulty for smaller devs to get attention in a world where the biggest publishers suck up all of the oxygen.

Derek and CJ break down our time with and opinions on the newly released Shin Chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation - The Endless Seven Day Journey. It's a mouthful of a title for something we're fondly dubbing "the anti-game". For the sake of transparency, not only were review codes provided by the publisher, but two SDGC members played a part in the game's western release: Matthew Finneman was responsible for marketing the game in the west, and Derek Van Dyke provided voice over work for one trailer.

Stories of harassment and discrimination put Nintendo of America in the spotlight for a story we're getting awful experienced at telling. If we sound tired of talking about it, we are, but imagine how the workers feel.

On this week's show Derek gives us the rundown on the latest incarnation of the Evo fighting tournament, and the crew muses on the mostly bad buzz around Unity.

We're joined this week by streaming giant Gothalion for a show packed with topics and tomfoolery. From toxicity in fan communities, to surprisingly good news out of Rockstar Games, to even more surprising gaming hardware price increases, it definitely wasn't a slow news week. No "What We've Been Playing" segment this week, unfortunately. Apologies to those of you who prefer the filler.

John and Derek come together to spread the good word of SNES era JRPGs, and spoiler alert: Live A Live is a pretty unique one. Does Square's latest HD2D RPG soar or fall flat? You already know what John thinks.

With little on the way, multiple upcoming titles cancelled, and fan-favorite series nowhere to be found, we talk about the rough state Ubisoft's in and our expectations for the near future. Derek here, I'm not apologizing for that pun in the title.

Almost the entire SDGC gang shows up for a much needed chill and good news episode. Naughty Dog figures out how not to crunch, and Nintendo's Japanese arm stands up for queer folks. We're not used to being happy with the decisions of large corporations, but we'll take it.

We're joined this week by gaming PR legend Stephanie Tinsley as we hash out the good, the bad, and the ugly around the news that E3 will be returning next year. Also there's a story about a pirate movie.

Side Quests is back and so is host Derek Van Dyke. He is a streamer, podcaster and giant robot pilot! The game he is talking about today is Dynasty Warriors: Gundam by Omega Force and Bandai Namco! You can find this episode's host on twitter as well as check out his podcasts, Castle Bravo and SDGC!

It's a slim team this week as Derek, John, and Jeff go over the recent Nintendo partner mini-direct. If you can read the title, you have a head start on our basic thoughts.

We had an Xbox showcase, we had a Capcom showcase, we had a Final Fantasy showcase, we had a second Capcom showcase at the same time as the Final Fantasy showcase. This was a wild week, and we go over our highlights.

This week's show is dedicated to discussing the latest edition of Summer Games Fest (Keigh3?), with a few big topics including Street Fighter 6, The Callisto Protocol, and The Last of Us Part 1 remake.

Britt, Finn, CJ and Justin are here to give you the scoop on what they thought of the exciting revival of arcade beat em ups - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredders Revenge.

The title says it all, folks. After an extremely packed and satisfying 30 minute State of Play presentation, the crew is joined by friend of the show Cam Hawkins to talk about the biggest bombshells and give some love to the smaller ones.

We're joined by friend and frequent guest Cam Hawkins to talk about Jim Ryan's stupid fucking e-mail, FIFA splitting ways from Electronic Arts, and especially to spitball about what we think may and may not be hitting in the back half of the year.

Derek has played Eiyuden Chronicle Rising, the prequel/spinoff to hotly anticipated Kickstarter success story (and Suikoden spiritual successor) Eiyuden Chronicle: The Hundred Heroes. Is this town-building action/rpg/sidescroller worth your time? John would love to know even though he's buying it anyway. Thanks to 505 Games for providing us with a review code and enabling timely production of content.

We're joined by MatronEdea to talk about Square Enix selling off most of their western studios and IP for what seems like pocket change, and talk about our favorite "comfort food games". Plus, Derek comes back for round 2 to defend history's most prolific serial killer for some reason.

Our main topic this episode was Sony's recent announcement of a "Preservation Team", combined with recent job postings for a new head of PC strategy. Plus, Finn talks about some of the best and brightest from PAX East 2022.

We're joined by friends Amanda Farough and Anoriand (the ORIGINAL gamedad, he has the YouTube link to prove it) to talk about a complaint alleging union busting activity by Nintendo, which has opened the floodgates for contractors to share their bad experiences working for the American branch of the company. It's not a uniquely Nintendo problem, with this sort of alleged treatment being common through the tech industry and anti-union activity in general being the norm for the American workforce.

We regret to inform you that Activision Blizzard keeps happening. With accusations that California governor Gavin Newsom is interfering with California's case against Activision Blizzard, where does this leave us exhausted folks trying to navigate the situation? For fun, we also spend a bit of time talking about last year's increasingly-prophetic Nvidia leak.

Bro! Our Stranger of Paradise review discussion is here bro! Bro, John and CJ do like a million fist-bumps on their quest to talk about Chaos bro! Bro please listen to this and give us a follow bro! CHAOS!