Combiner Wars animated series by Machinima

[Raider]

I was under the impression when it was originally announced last year (I'll try and find the source) that there was only going to be ~8 episodes of 8 minutes in length. So far I believe that there are at least 7 episodes and that the first two have only been about 5 minutes.

8 episodes at 5 minutes doesn't even give us the equivalent of 2 standard cartoon length shows. I think after watching the first I am going to do as Borgeman suggests and wait for them all to be released and watch them at once. I may be less harsh a critic then.

Edit: From Machinima's youtube page - "The full series will be 8 episodes..."

[Demonac]

Starscreams silent commute to work

How awesome would that be as an entire episode? (Seriously)

[GoktimusPrime]

Guh, they're still mispronouncing 'caminus,' although Starscream's pronunciation of "KAH-mee-ness" is better than everyone else's "cammy-ness." I don't think that it's too hard to say "KAH-mee-noos".

Anyone else notice that Rodimus' animation model is based off MP28 Hot Rodimus? This would have to be the first time that a Masterpiece toy has appeared in a Transformers cartoon and IIRC only the second time that one has appeared in TF canon since the original MP Seekers appeared in All Hail Megatron. Is this foreshadowing a Hasbro release of MP28?

The voice of the Mistress of the Flame is just terrible. Why does she sound like she's talking into a bucket? It's reminding me of the Dutch dubs of the G1 cartoon... (-_-)

[griffin]

Has "Caminus" ever been pronounced in audio format before (in a cartoon or computer game... or the creator of the word stating its pronunciation), or has it only been printed in comics before now?
If this is the first time it has been officially spoken, and it is a made up word, wouldn't that make this pronunciation correct?

A bit like the Gen1 character Dion. Ask anyone on the street how to pronounce it and most would say "Dee-on" like the human name... but since it was pronounced "die-on" in the cartoon, most likely derived from the word Diode, we actually have an official pronunciation to it for others to adhere to.

[GoktimusPrime]

But Caminus ISN'T a made up word. It's Latin! It's actually derived from the Greek word κάμινος (káminos).

The word "Caminus" is Latin for "forge," and this appears to be a deliberate choice on the part of the writers as the Camiens believe themselves to be descendants of Solus Prime, who was to the Original Primes what Vulcānus/Hephaestus was to the Gods of Olympus - i.e. weapons smith → forge → fire. Even the leader of the Camiens carries the title of "Mistress of the Flame," a direct reference to the meaning of 'Camīnus'. Camīnus is also often poetically and figuratively used in literature as a synonym or metaphor for "fire."

As a well established language (that is still spoken), we know that camīnus is pronounced "KAH-mee-noos", at least when it's in its singular nominative case. Other cases for camīnus are:
* Genitive singular + nominative & vocative plural = camīnī (KAH-mee-nee)
* Genitive plural = camīnōrum (KAH-mee-nor-room)
* Dative and ablative singular = camīnō (KAH-mee-no)
* Dative and ablative plural = camīnīs (KAH-mee-niss)
* Accusative singular = camīnum (KAH-mee-noom)
* Accusative plural = camīnōs (KAH-mee-noss)
* Vocative singular = camīne (KAH-mee-neh)

If this were a fictitiously invented word like Dion, Adamantium, Vibranium, Indominus (Rex) etc., then I would agree. But it's not. This is word that's come from a language that's existed for approximately 2300 years and is still spoken today. The reason why Latin is classified as a dead language isn't because nobody speaks it (that would be an extinct language), but because nobody speaks it as their native language. But a lot of people (including the population of the Vatican) continue to speak Latin as a second language. Remember that until 1965 (Vatican II) that church masses even in Australia were conducted in Latin.

• American public school teacher teaching conversational Latin to Year 8 students - I also teach in a public school and we teach Latin too

• Latin speaking actors from Passions of the Christ (warning: coarse/vulgar language)

• More Latin speaking actors (I don't know which show/movie this is from)

• Pope Francis speaking Latin

• Romans go home!; Monty Python Life of Brian - this entire joke is dependent on the audience's understanding/awareness of Latin declension rules

• "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum※." - John F. Kennedy (video)

P.S.: The English word "chimney" is descendant from camīnus (via the Old French word "cheminee").

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※"I am a Roman citizen."

[Borgeman]

But Caminus ISN'T a made up word. It's Latin! It's actually derived from the Greek word κάμινος (káminos).
*snip*

You're being pedantic.

Sure, caminus the word is what you said, but this character is named Caminus - who knows how they choose for their name to be pronounced?

"Hi, my name is Cammy-ness."
"Ooh nice name!"
"Yeah my folks named me after some some latin work called Cah-mee-noos, but I like the way my name sounds better."

Never assume the pronunciation of names (proper nouns), even if they are derived/taken from previously used words. Just take it as a new fictional robot's name, derived from a latin word, using the same spelling, but pronounced differently.

Edit - To add, has anyone officially stated that this particular character's name is in fact taken from the Latin word? Or is it a completeney ficticious name that happens to share the spelling?
See how ridiculous these trivial things can spiral into?

Edit - and I know of the TF titan Caminus, but he is a different entity so that is moot.

[Zommael]

Gok apparently thinks every TFs name needs to be sourced from real, literary sources. Primus alone knows what he thinks of Emirate Xaaron. Aside from that, he also appears to ignorant of one thing every student of linguistics ought to be aware of from the get-go: language changes.

[GoktimusPrime]

Continued here

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

Continued here

Considering how bad this cartoon seems to be (unable to watch it myself, without going to more effort than I want), you seem to be going on and on about this Gok.

[GoktimusPrime]

I never said that this cartoon was "bad." My initial criticism of Episode 1 can be found here and a following post here also details some of the more positive aspects about that episode. I haven't actually posted my thoughts on Episode 2's story. Ep 2 was basically just a lot of exposition and talking. I would agree with what others have said in that these stand alone eps don't make much sense on their own and may have a better feel when watched back to back.

Reading a lot of comments posted from viewers in general, I would continue to agree that this story isn't very accessible for people who've never read the IDW comics. I've read comments from confused viewers wondering why the hell Starscream was leader and friendly with Rodimus Prime (and then becoming more confused when other people had to explain that he's not a Prime). And there are comment about 'the female' sounding bad, but people didn't even recognise her as the Mistress of the Flame - which again you wouldn't know if you've never read the comics.

I fear that this series may be the antithesis of Bayformers. Bayformers is criticised for having practically no real story or plot, but the films are easily accessible by anyone. You don't need any prior knowledge of Transformers to watch them (apparently not even prior knowledge of the other films since they barely maintain continuity among themselves ). But Combiner Wars may be sitting on the other extreme where there is a very strong character-driven story, but it's reliant on the audience's existing knowledge of the comics (where all the ground work has been done) and thus audiences who have never read a single issue might feel lost.

A good Transformers story should be one that is both accessible to new audiences, appeals to existing fans and has a good character driven story. Beast Wars and the IDW comics are great examples of this; both do not require pre-existing knowledge of other Transformers series. Beast Wars continues on from the G1/G2 continuity family, but you can still easily follow it without ever having watched or read anything from G1 or G2. But if you have, then it enhances this experience for long time fans. IDW is a whole new continuity, so again, you don't need existing knowledge of these characters, but there are elements which are very rewarding for long time fans, like finally seeing Thundercracker being portrayed in his original persona as described in his 1984 tech specs bio! But having zero knowledge of this doesn't impair your ability to enjoy Thundercracker as a character anyway.

And look, I understand that these are just 5 minute shorts, so they are very much restricted by time. Perhaps it might've been better if they'd been told in a similar fashion as the "Transformers: Mosaic" short fan comics that IDW used to print. A series of self contained short stories rather than trying to tell a spanning saga through a series of short webisodes. The cheap-looking/sounding production values doesn't help, but it's really the story-telling that matters the most. After all, the Bay movies are visually spectacular with incredibly thrilling action sequences, but ultimately lacklustre story telling. I can deal with things like cheaper animation, poor sound quality and yes, even questionable voice acting/directing with mispronounced words (it'd still bug me like nails running down a chalkboard) so long as the story is good. Still pretty early days for this series - I'll be interested to see how the story climaxes and resolves.