Yes, prehistoric humans in the third season. They were never really the focus of the story but it gave the Maximals a chance to be heroic in a more traditional sense.

And really, that's how humans should be handled. One or two useful humans that add to the plot about robot characters rather than distracts from them...the rest should be opportunities for the robots to show their qualities.

 

I'd rather humans just be background filler or Decepticon target practice, rather than as allies or main characters.

 

Honestly, I don't care how many there are, how important they are, or what role they take, as long as they facilitate the story rather than feeling like they hinder it. Having humans as co-equal central characters works well for something like Rescue Bots, where humans and robots working as a team is the story. I think it doesn't work so well in Energon or TFA where spending a lot of time on the human heroes or villains can seem like filler--it slows the momentum of a story about Autobots fighting Decepticons.

 

Occasionally. And they should not be a threat to transformers at all.

 

Yes, there humans in one or two episodes.

 

We don't need humans per say, just human characters.

That said, I don't roll my eyes when I see homo sapien characters. We've had some really great ones in the "modern age" of Transformers. Simmons, Epps, Lennox, Sari, Fanzone, Meltdown, Professor Princess, Fowler, June, the Clay's. Verity is one of my favorite Transformers characters ever.

 

I've always hated characters like Sari who steal thunder, but it really depends on the series. If there was a show where Transformers were absolute idiots in regards to how to act on Earth, it would be cool to have a human teach them beyond a few throwaway lines for laughs.

On that note, I'd like to see more Decepticon-human relationships. If giant robots touch down, you're damn sure I'm going to meet one, regardless of what symbol it wears.

 

Sari was one of the few human characters in that series that I really didn't mind. Even when she took the spotlight, she was nearly always helping the Autobots from some angle that they couldn't cover on their own, and wasn't saving the day single-handedly. Some of the other characters though...

 

If the story takes place on Earth, humans should generally be an element within the story. The extent to which they are in the story is dependent on the type of story told.

Humans are an easy way to bring the reader/viewer into a story about giant transforming robots, but the role of the humans as "entry point" is too often expanded to make them the main focus and the Transformers become supporting cast.

Usually, I don't want humans just hanging out with the Transformers. There can be humans that regularly interact with the Transformers, but there should be reasons. More allies than friends, if you get the difference.

I can even go with some humans being a threat to the Transformers. Once the Transformers come to Earth, there are bound to be xenophobic factions that would take steps toward finding any and every means to destroy the aliens.

I will go so far as to say that a human or group of humans can occasionally be spotlighted in a well-written story, but the story better be amazing and have a real reason for that spotlight.

 

Rescue Bots got it right for normal TF series.
It must be the archetype.
How ironic the G1 bots originated from Diaclone mecha so you you can put a little figure inside them, and the RB toys can't be driven by their partners.

Masterforce did it well too cuz the humans were the Transformers themselves. Or they looked like humans if they were Autobot Pretenders.

 

I mean, the Transformers coming to Earth, meeting humans, and adopting disguises for a human world is... kinda the entire point of Transformers, isn't it? It's like one of the foundational aspects of it? I don't think that should ever just go away forever. There's too many interesting stories to tell that haven't been told yet. Honestly, if we got a series that was like a solid three way split of screenwriting and time and depth between stuff with just humans, stuff with just Transformers, and then stuff with both of them? Provided it was written well and acted well and animated/shot well and all that other shit, it could be awesome. There's such untapped potential for interesting stories there, and as long as people still have this childish knee-jerk "humans bad" reaction to any humans ever we'll never get to see any of it. A characters species, while it affects several aspects of who they are, is ultimately not what decides a good character or not. That's the writers job, and ideally you should give both humans and Transformers an equal amount of depth, development, and overall effort.

Now don't get me wrong - there's ABSOLUTELY a place for stories with little or even no humans. Literally anything set on Cybertron pre-war, for example (unless you got a good story with a human oh shit that could be cool). More intimate, character pieces focused mainly on one Transformer character. Hell, you can even do stuff set on Earth with NO humans. Again, you get a good writer and any of these ideas are possible. I just think saying there should NEVER be humans is a bit extreme, and this reflexive hatred of any human just for being a human is super silly and creatively limiting.

 

I've just finished watching Beast Wars...
Very original and interesting handling of the humans. Normally this doesn't work but here it's the best option.

 

A human element is very tricky to get right, but is honestly appreciated IMO. Makes things a bit more grounded.

 

There are some human characters I like/tolerate. Jack, Miko and yes, I actually like Fred and Billy from Armada.
But over all, my thought is there doesn't need to be any humans.

 

I agree.
My exception is when the humans in ANY transformers story take center stage and it fundamentally ceases to be a Transfomers story. Or when the writing is just so god awful to the point of distraction, or being fluff / filler / padding that if you removed it, would not affect the story in any way.

 

I mean I don’t think that first thing has ever happened before? I guess in the live action movies but that CGI is expensive so they kinda HAVE to have humans be a main focus so they can pad out the screen time. Part of the reason so many human characters get hate is usually BECAUSE they aren’t given enough screen time or quality writing to develop them as characters or make the audience care about them. I’m sure if you make a Transformers movie with a human main character but you give them an interesting personality, ample development, and get a good actor, nobody will care (except hardcore dorks who treat the issue of “humans in transformers” more seriously than they do stuff that actually matters)

 

Depends on the story, I'd prefer the humans to be important and helpful if they are involved such as N.E.S.T or a credible threat like circuit breaker or meltdown.

 

I don't mind humans, or simply non Transformers characters in general, being in the stories. However, aside from rare single episodes of a show or issues of a comic, I prefer Transformers to be the main characters.

The conceit that humans have to be a major part of Transformers stories to allow the audience a stronger relation point stems from poor story telling understanding. Transformers characters usually possess aspects of humanity that don't differ from what could be found in any human protagonist. They're anthropmorphised machines, after all.

Obviously the various Transformers cartoons often incorporated humans as part of the main cast and that's perfectly fine when the story setting is on Earth or an Earth analog. However, humans as main characters by default is a weakness.

For example, the live action Transformers movies are all hindered to varying degrees by the narrative crutch of requiring the lead to be a human and having to take place on Earth for the vast majority of the plot. It creates the same basic formula for each movie at the core.

There's always the elements of the Transformers being fish out of water, the humans educating their alien robot friends how to be less alien (even though the Autobots are always assigned human tropes for personalities), the humans treating the advanced aliens like talking pet dogs in a patronizing way, the clumsy choice to make the antagonist Transformers into one dimensional psychopaths in order to contrast them with the good guys (and to put an exclamation point on the fact that they aren't human), and the predictable world (Earth) endangering scheme that must be thwarted, then culminate the movie with an open ended semi conclusion to ensure a segue into a sequel.

 

I like human/Transformer interaction. I wish there was more cultural exchange/seeing each other's viewpoints.

 

I like having human characters in TF, as long as they're well written with a purpose they can only add to the story.