I hope so. G1 was terrible, Energon was...barely there, so was ROTF and Animated was meh.

 

I wasn't comparing with TFA Arcee... but it's worth pointing out that TFA Arcee's animation model does have lipstick and is pink (darker than G1, but not the maroon of the toy). She's also got a pretty skinny, girly body design, but Animated is so stylized and so influenced by a "superhero" aesthetic, I don't even think that's such a big deal.

This is all true... but stepping outside of a perfect world for a moment, the reality is that cartoon characters and other fictional figures DO end up presenting behavioral role models for children (and to an extent, adults too), whether they're Anne Shirley, Lady Gaga or Betty Boop. It doesn't matter if they're meant to or not, or should be or not. It's just the way we inevitably imprint on the culture that's around us... you don't really have any say in the matter (short of cutting your kids off from such things completely, which may not be any more productive).

So in that sense, it's probably better to have more affirmative and diverse potential influences on girls than only homemakers and sexbombs.

zmog

 

I really hate that Arcee is a strong, independent woman. Make her pink again and put her back in the kitchen where she belongs.









I'm lying of course folks. Arcee has become a pretty decent character after 25 freakin' years.

 

Friggin' right, bro!

*nods head in approval*

Awwwwww! 




On topic, though. I do agree that Prime Arcee changed the perception of the character from here onward. It's actually nice to how well, IMO, they're developing and treating a female character.

 

Arcee needs to be a Nanny and Teacher for the humans and a Maid in the Autobot Base, not some highly skilled warrior with an attitude to go above and beyond to get the job done.

Give her an Apron and get her in the Kitchen to make me a Sammich!!!

 

Arcee really hasn't come that far. I like the character, but she (along with most Autobots for that matter) has problems holding her own in a battle and generally requires allies to stay alive or avoid capture. Decepticon fembots Blackarachnia and Airachnid have both proven themselves capable of holding their own against multiple Autobots.

 

Blackarachnia has never fought any Autobots. ohhhhh wait, you meant Animated Blackarachnia lol. in all fairness it was blackaracnia's special ability to steal other's abilities that won those fights if you could call it actually winning.

Airachnid has never really fought multiple autobots

Airrachnid uses her wits to win, but sadly she couldn't even beat 1 Soundwave.

the last episode she relied heavily on her webbing (as she does in every fight she's in) to finish off breakdown not her skill as a fighter.

did you happen to forget that Arcee brought her down alone in a past episode.

Airrachnia really isn't that bad-ass as a warrior. she's an sneaky cowardly assassin more or less just like a certain seeker we all know and love.

 

Can't Arcee be warrior like as well? Again must Arcee be restricted to one archtype in all of her versions which is the token damsel in distress styerotype? Hate to say it but unlike characters like Optimus,Bumblebee,etc she never had much going on as a character when she first appeared. And again there are many characters in the TF franchise that had little to no conection to their G1 counterpart and yet people seem to be okay with it even go as far as to say they are improved! Arcee's no exception and I wish people can see that. She has every right to be different just as much as any other Tf chatacter. Again Prowl was arguably a differnet character in Animated and if epople were able to accept him then why can't we do the same with Arcee?

I know this is about opinons in the end but will having Chomia in be any special? We know that she was more warrior like to begin with and that countuined on to the present day.However unlike Arcee she's more respected in the fandom for her additude and there's nothing really speical for her to build on her to be any different other then being tough That's why it's great that they chose Arcee instead because she was a character that needed some major change the most and came out the better for it. I see Arcee's color scheme as a homage to Chromia which is a nice touch since Ironhide's color scheme in the films may have traces of Trailbreaker in it.

All I'm saying is that Arcee was one of the characters in TF that begged for much needed changes for her and as a result came out the better for it.I don't think people would have the same appreaciation and love for her if she was just another version of Chomia who didn't really needed drastic change.

That's why I'm glad that Arcee's different in Prime.

I hope this isn't coming across as an argument and if it is I'm sorry. It's just my thoughts on it that's all.

 

  Not. This. Again.

 

I too still wish she was Chromia...

I mean, I get why people like a more independant Arcee, but would you like it if they made Tracks a badass? or Huffer? That's what irks me-they had a good chance to introduce a new Fembot and kinds blew it.

 

Who the fuck cares? It's just a name drop. It's not like Prime Knockout and Breakdown are anything like their G1 selves either.

In the end, the Arcee name has some level of brand equity, no one excerpt nerds and people over 30 know or even care about Chromia.

 

As opposed to who? Optimus? Bumblebee? Megatron? Starscream? Soundwave? Marvel Shockwave? Furman Grimlock? etc.

If, and I mean if Arcee is a Mary Stu (and I sure as hell don't believe it), then who cares? It's about time the fembots do have a Mary Stu to make up for all the Gary Stu's.

 

Completely agreed  

 

I clicked on this thread partly by accident expecting another train wreck of a conversation, but I'm pleasantly surprised by how well the discourse in this thread has been.

First of all, A Rose by Any Other Name... Why does it have to be Arcee for you? Why can't it be Chromia? If it had been Chromia, how would it be any different to you as a viewer/fan? Actually to take that one degree further, what if she had an original name, one that we've never had before? There are many characters from every post-G1 series that people really dislike the name on, even if they like the character, even to this day.

Also, you act as if every character who has an older name was well met. This is very far from the case and continues to be the case. It's funny that you mention Prowl (more than once), since at the start of Animated there were so many fans who hated that the Cyber-ninja was named Prowl.

Having Chromia would be special, since we've gotten an Arcee in so much of our franchises iterations (Heck, she was forced into BW/BM!) while all of Elita's team has been largely forgotten, so having a main cast member of a show be someone other than Arcee would've been novel and a nice nod to the female Autobot Transformers not named Arcee.

I won't argue that Arcee has never been a broken character, but that doesn't mean the changes done are for the better, in your own words:

'Angst Flawed' is hardly the background for a solid character regardless of what Anime would have you believe. Plus, she quickly becoming the embodyment of the Faux Action Girl, hardly a desirable trait either.

Also to call her developed is a bit of a laugh as well. She is more developed then the rest of her compatriots, but to be honest, the cast of Prime is the most underdeveloped cast since G1. They're closer to a cast of Unknown Characters, surpassing even Flat Characters given their complete lack of character depth after 32 episodes.

You also seem to think that all change is good. Much like Arcee, Perceptor got a revamp in IDW comics to be a far more battle oriented fighter. While the Sniper Role does fit the tech specs and they provided a reason for the change, does that make it good? Was it really a necessary change?

To be honest, actually Breakdown being named such does annoy me. It's mostly because the show is trying so hard to shoehorn itself into the WFC/Exodus universe that when it runs into issues, it runs into them hard. While Dark Energon is the key example, Breakdown is another.

I also don't care one bit for Wheeljack being named such either. (I tend to call him Not-Drift personally)

As to the orignal question/topic stated in the thread, it's not that surprising if you think about it. Prime is the current series, as such it's your fresh exposure to these characters/names. Just like had you started a thread about Prowl during Animated's second or third season would cause most people to think of Animated Prowl, or a thread about Ironhide during Energon/Superlink would have many people thinking of the blue truck with the exposed head in alt mode rather then the red minivan, Prime being on the air causes most people to think of Prime Arcee. The more interesting questions arise when you have more then one popular version of a named character, such as Inferno.

Finally, I think that for the foreseeable future, the best developed female character in the Transformer mythos is going to be Strika. She was an actual Action Girl who was not only in a relationship, but it was a non-factor to defining her core character.

 

This. If we're going for Mary Sue/Gary Stu labels, you wouldn't need to look any further than Optimus Prime.

 

I think you're probably right. I actually wouldn't be super surprised to see more G1ish representations start to adopt some combination of her coloration, alt mode or personality traits. And it's a good thing. As fond as I am of G1 Arcee, there isn't a thing about her that would make an 8-year-old boy say "yes, get me one of those."

 

It wouldn't but it was a very nice suprise nontheless that Arcee in Prime came out a lot better then many people thought.

I won't deny that not every character who has an older name isn't always well met and you're right about Prowl in Animated being view as negative the first time around but overtime a lot people got by that and accpeted him for who he is and what his role is. Arcee's no different for when a lot of peole first saw drawings of her they were suprised about how she wasn't like her G1 self at all but we grew past that and she ended up much better then they thought. The same can go for Soundwave too in Prime.

Will it though? I won't deny it would be great that we can see other fembots other then Arcee in the future. However it would stiil leave Arcee in a negative light for other people. Again Arcee was a character that when she first appeared was basically a styerotipical joke for a lot of people and many wanted her to be more then that. We finally have that in Prime and it's great because if there was a character that need a serious overhaul innterms of character and role it was her.

However I too would like to see other fembots later on in the franchise make a return but for now Arcee's doing great.

Well her changes are a lot better handled then most characters I can think of.

Well making her a bland sectratary type character with little to no personatly who represents what people thoght women usually meant to do like doing what yo're told no matter what in G1 isn't really desirable either if that's what you mean. I'm sorry but from what I'm gathering it's like you don't want Arcee to be more like a character like in Prime but rather make her remain her G1 character for life. The point is why Arcee's like that in Prime is to show that she's flawed and not perfect which makes her more of an intresting character because of how she deals with it each time she encounters new challenges. It what's keeping her from being a Mary Sue like character which is basically without flaws yet has a character of a woodstump. I bet people would dislike her more if she didn't have some sort of flaw like that.

You know to say that Prime's cast is underdevlopled isn't true either. Bulkhead actually has some development going on,so does Starscream,even Optimus had a change in view about the war in One Shall Fall. To say tht there's no development in Prime is false because there ahs been quite alot of it espcially with Arcee going from being bitter and angry in the first couple of episodes to being more reseverd lter on and more caring.

Jack even became more mature later on which proves the point further.


Just so you know I don't think all change is good. While there are cases of changes being done right and excelllant there are some changes that weren't needed to begin with and turn out disaturous. I mean the 1998 Tristar Godzilla film AKA GINO is a grand example here. As for Perceptor I can see why some people are a little uptight about the change because he was a character that didn't need any improvment the same goes for why some people aren't into Wheeljack's character in Prime. They are both characters that people view as being good enough as they are. Arcee's different because she was a character that needed changes in many ways and Prime gave her the chance to do so. That's what I'm saying here.

Except that Strika was only a lowly minon in Beast Machines and only has a cameo in Animated. That and she really didn't appear that often in the franchise yet anyway.

 

No doubt in my mind. This is how its gonna be from now on

 

You keep saying that, but there's nothing to back that up. G1 Arcee has had a difficult road, fitting into all the cliches, but that doesn't leave her in the absolute negative light as you seem to insist. She has fans, she has people who like and who loathe her IDW incarnation.

  I could name about 30 characters that could badly use the spotlight that Arcee has gotten.

Ugh, more blocks of rambling text.

You also keep calling G1 Arcee a secretary, but outside of a scant sequence in Headmasters, she is nothing of the sort. That's akin to calling Prime Arcee Jacks Wingman because she had Jack give Sierra a ride.

For the most part, I like Prime Arcee, and you've again deflected the question. Why is it so important to you that she be called Arcee?

 

 

 

...

Oh, wait, you were being serious?

No. At this point the cast of Rescue Bots has far exceeded the Autobots and their allies in developing their cast as characters in 6 episodes then Prime has in 32 episodes.

Yup. And the point still stands. Isn't that a bit sad?