You're in charge and you decide it's time to mix things up. Which character do you "kill" and which character do you bring to the forefront? This can be any series or fiction you want; even the franchise as a whole.

By kill I don't mean strictly end their life. You can just have them fade into the background.

For me, I would "kill" Optimus Prime. I desperately want this IP to be able to flourish Optimus-less. I don't think I would actually kill him as that is very cliche.

And I would actually bring back a pair of characters. Thundercracker and Skywarp. They are missing in current mass media and I like my seeker trio. But if I do that I want to make sure to push the uniqueness of each character.

 

I'd kill Scorponok & Terrorsaur & bring Inferno & Quickstrike

owait

 

I liked where 'All Hail Megatron' was going with Prime seriously damaged and Prowl/Jazz brought more to the forefront. ...but then that was all utterly ruined by the insane "oh hai Autobots I'm back now" return of Prime in that last act to save the day once again. Any sense of peril or drama there may have been leading up to that was smothered by unintentional laughter.

It would be cool to have Prime in the background more and see how the Autobots try and cope on their own a bit more. This is the reason why season 3 of the G1 cartoon was my favourite. I mean let's face it, Rodimus was a shit leader, so it was cool to see how others like Ultra Magnus and Springer became stronger as a result.

Same thing happened in Beast Wars, if only for an episode or so at the end of season 1. But then again, I think it would have been a mistake to totally get rid of Primal, as his character arc across the whole series was a worthwhile and satisfying one.

 

Thing is with Transformers these days, you know what's going to happen. Bots and cons battle, bots win. Prime became a great hero, Megatron captured or kill, and Starscream tries to take over.

So to mix things up, the cons win the war. The humans are made into slaves and most of the iconic Autobots are killed in the final battle.

Then that clears way for characters that either needs more added to them or characters that are hardly use. Take Grimlock, I would have him being the last high ranking Autobot on Earth. Then have his battle damage being repair and a side effect was his moron state also fixed. So we go from this powerful idiot to this battle expert genius. Look at how TF Prime handle Arcee, they just took the G1 notes of her and just burned them.

Then for the cons, I would remove Megatron. Pretty much G1 to now the main foe in the TV series has been a Megatron. I would have him leave Earth to help Shockwave deal with the Autobot fighters on Cybertron. Then I would promote Soundwave as leader of the Earth cons.

 

I think rather than kill Prime outright I would severly cripple him... I feel he would serve as a good mentor type for a new leader. Part of Rodimus Prime's issue for me was that he always compared himself to Optimus and it caused him to doubt himself - if Prime were around to guide him I think he would've done great.
And as badly as IDW has handled it, I think with such a mentor, Bumblebee could be a good leader - for the reasons's (in universe) IDW said. He was young enough to adapt, able to handle dealing with teh humans, etc etc...

With the 'Cons now it's a bit different. I would rather wipe the slate with the standard and common ones - kill them off outright - and bring in a new set that was handled with intelligence. Bring out a Deathsaurus maybe, but a leader that is intelligent etc and in my opinion, none of the current Decepticons are like that. Some iterations such as Animated Megatron were pretty close but with the name recognition I think a full eipe would be best.

 

Have megatron killed off/betrayed by Nemesis prime, and then he does what megatron couldn't. (Which is take over earth)

 

Cripple Prime, have no one leader, and fracture the autobots. After that, have Soundwave usurp Megs. Effectively, decapitate both factions and leave the bodies to rot, causing mass turmoil, and force them to Transform personally, not just physically.

I liked that arc of IDW's ongoing, even if the art was hard to follow.

 

I wouldn't kill off anyone, but I would shift the focus of the series to the other members of the Autobots and the Decepticons. RID was quite good at having Optimus in the base and occasionally giving the other Autobot members an episode or two to shine.

Although to be fair, if I was given the chance I would bring back Sixshot and Overlord in a hearbeat.

 

After their portrayals in IDW, I have to echo this sentiment.

 

I'd say kill of Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee and bring in Ironfist, Overlord and Impactor

 

Totally agree.

I loved the interactions between Prowl, Jazz and the others on Cybertron. Prime's miraculous, instantaneous, and very much unexplained recovery was wha mainly ruined AHM for me. I was enjoying it up til then.

 

Kill Drift, bring back Carnivac.

 

Here's an idea. What if Trypticon (or something like him) were the leader of the Decepticons. Then you have this incredibly powerful foe who is often unable to participate in the battle because he transforms into a base and is so physically slow.

 

Kill Bumblebee, bring Hot Shot back in.

 

Now THAT would be awsome!!!! 

 

Fixed. After all, Hound was the guy originally intended to be the human-partnered kid-appeal character.

 

I'll kill them all!!!!!!!!

 

^ Who let Megatron/Shockwave/Unicron in here?

 

They actually did something really close to this as a "dystopian future" storyline in the Devil's Due GI Joe/TF crossover and in the UK comics. If you haven't already read them, you should check it out, you might really enjoy it.

 

Yeah. Kill 'em all to promote Shockwave.

I'd do that.