User blog:NJGW/Series 9, Heat D afterthoughts

Group Battle 1
There's not much to say at this point bar the fact that there's too many powerful robots that are against purely theatrical/impractical/unrefined robots in these opening melees. For this particular battle, it's one you can try to spare with it being a Supernova exhibition anyway, but even then we weren't just given a display of Supernova's power, but also had to see HIGH-5 break and Wyrm bump itself into immobility.

Group Battle 2
I called it, and it was so obvious: Crushtacean was going to lose in one hit. Yeah, I love the machine - it's on my favourite robots list - but it was so painfully obvious it would do nothing. Yeah, the hit itself was rather fortunate, but if anything it spared Crushtacean from being absolutely destroyed. I like seeing veterans, but please at least try to upgrade the thing in some form next time. With Apex, it's a shame concerning the confusion before the start of the battle, but again, one strong attack kills a robot. Yeah, we want variety, but if the variety just consists of us watching a robot that isn't able to be competitive getting immobilised in one hit, then what's the use? Promote diversity, sure, but the split between ultra-destructive robots and robots not suited for this high level of combat feels far too wide and recurrent this series. It's where we could do with a sprinkling of the more boring but higher tier robots just to try to help break that divide. It's no fun that I now literally fear watching melees because I know at least half of the robots probably won't last more than one big hit.

Head-to-Head robots and general relevant thoughts
I couldn't believe it got through its first round melee, but credit to Frostbite - the thing didn't stop working until it was cataclysmically damaged. This battle was inevitable as to the outcome, but explosive and lasted a good amount of time. A memorable visual of a battle.

The way the Pulsar vs. Ironside3 battle was handled was a mess as well as technical errors. It's one of those that happens, but with so many battles this series subjected to unprecedented types of controversy, then this type of battle just had to happen, didn't it? Thankfully, this battle didn't affect anything at the end of it all, but I'd like a break from the controversy for Episode 5, please.

Pulsar vs. Supernova was a massive bang, and completely memorable. Yeah, the impact meant the battle ended early, and although I really do not like the idea of continued quick immobilisations, I'm all for big hits like this happening every so often.

And another one of those battles was Ironside3 vs. Wyrm. Wyrm hobbled along long enough to make the battle entertaining while Ironside3 was ripping it limb from limb. Another battle which helped show the extreme power that Ironside3, Supernova and Pulsar had this series, albeit against an obviously modest opponent.

Unfortunately, the final three battles just saw the episode run out of steam. It's the problem, not necessarily even with the format, but with the repair time and the selection of so many big spinners in one episode.

Conclusion
This episode had its frustrations, but the middle of the episode was explosive enough to make me really like it still. Yes, I get annoyed at the Group Battles, but for this particular episode I didn't expect those to last long anyhow, so I was hardly all that annoyed. The fact that Ironside3, Pulsar and Supernova all look so much more refined was also another draw of my attention. Sadly, in this type of competition setup, it always feels like Pulsar and Supernova will fall short, but they're excellent competitors and I can't wait to see their next set of improvements.

Fairplay to Ironside3 for progressing to the Grand Final though - it's improved leaps and bounds from an already solid robot from Series 8, and really works well throughout the Head-to-Head battles. It looks one of the outsiders for that final episode, but if the melee draw works out OK for it, then it could do alright. It's a robot that still isn't held in the highest of regards just yet, but if it can at least prove its competitiveness in the final six, then hopefully it'll be given the top, top respect it deserves.

An episode that I wouldn't be an advocate of happening repetitively, but as a standalone it was a great spectacle and enjoyable.

Score: 7.75/10