Episode 119 - The Optimal Optimus Men of Steel

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.

03:3