The real concern is Wheeljack.


How thinks they'll kill him off next? I mean we only just herd of Skyquake and Wheeljack, I mean Breakdown and Knockout who were confirmed before those two still have yet to appear, If Wheeljack does show up he should be a reserve charecter like Tigartron and Airrazor where like in BW or like Skids-Z and Towline where like in RiD.

 

To quote Optimus Primal, "Just no pleasing some people." I personally don't mind killing off characters and here's why: IT'S A WAR!! In Generation 1 we never saw a single character die on screen until Headmasters. One reason I think Masterforce may be the best G1 series is because it hits home the notion that this is a war, as no fewer than 7 characters are killed on screen. Unfortunately, not all characters who die can be fleshed out the way Dinobot was. I wanted Cliffjumper and Skyquake to stay because the cast would be larger, and I wanted to see more from them. But if experience serves us well, then a small cast will provide for far better characterization as the series continues (look at Animated and Beast Wars and the size of their casts). Not saying bringing Cliff and Skyquake back would suck, but I don't mind them being dead.

 

Now the thing is, is Skyquake dead? Megatron should've died, but he's a tough son of a bitch, Skyquake seems to be similar.

 

My theory is that the dark Energon in Megatron let him survive the explosion,

 

A lot of characters died in many Transformers continuities. A lot died in the movies and a lot died in the varous tv series, even in generation 1. The problem with using it this way is that it becomes a cliche a crutch to make thing seem serious. And when used too often it just becomes trivial, which inspires little emotion from its viewers.

Skyquakes death was too trivial. So trivial in fact that it doesn't really spark that much emotion from its viewers. And that's the problem, its supposed to make the viewer at least feel something. But it doesn't. It doesn't inspire a feeling of sympathy, sorrow or anything deep and meaningful.

For me at least,(and possibly for others) I'm not bothered by the fact that the character died. It just feels such a waste that Skyquake and thereby the main attraction of this entire episode seemed so inconsequential.

The episode was just this: Skyquake wakes up then dies.

The way I see it, they could have added meat to the story. Maybe a flashback on why Skyquake is so loyal to Megatron. Flashbacks on his interractions with him. Maybe they could have revealed why he was so loyal. They could have shown more emotion in the character, desperation, bravery in the face of death etc. Maybe we can even see some good in Megatron, through Skyquakes flashbacks. Instead all we see Skyquake do is act cool and die.

 

Why was Dinobots death the greates death in Transformers after the death of Prime?

It's because it was a whole story arc. His character development lead to that moment. We saw him, we liked him, we grew attached to him and his character and in the climac of his character he sacraficed himself. That is why his death was awesome, meaningful and it made me cry a river.

Cliffjumper's and Skyquake's death are just LOL WE'RE SO DURK DERP! And I don't like that one bit.

And they were both pretty pointless characters...

 

But then Transformers isn't a realist look at war either. In any era that has guns and explosions there is a huge element of luck involved. If the show was realistic then at some point a low level Decepticon could get in a lucky shot that dropped Prime dead, but we know that is never going to happen.

We've seen Starscream punch a large hole in Cliffjumper so a character as strong as Skyquake should have been able to rip limbs off of Bumblebee, but ripping Bumblebee's arm off didn't fit the story so Skyquake just tossed him around.

In a work of fiction you go with what would work for the story not what would happen in the real world. So even with something like Saving Private Ryan some characters were going to make it off the beach alive because they were needed in later acts not because it was realist.

Sorry but things like lets sit back and watch Skyquake fight Prime is pure up super hero stuff. Real military stuff would be Skyquake, Starscream, and Soundwave blast holes in Prime until there isn't any more Prime.

 

Cliffjumper and Skyquake were badass, well what little we saw of them.

 

No. They serve a purpose. That there´s consequences to the entire Decepticon/Autobot conflict, aka, TFs die because of it. And if you don´t like it, well, that´s your problem.

 

I agree with you. Dinobot's death was great. It was a great story and one of my favorite episodes. And in my opinion it was one of the best episodes in Beast Wars.

The other episode that I grew attached to was the story of Transmutate. It felt quite tragic. If a character dies, then it should have the same degree of impact.

And then there was Prowl's heroic sacrifice from Animated. I also remember Blurr who was really one of the most competent of the elite guard. His death was shocking.

They were so cool they're dead.  

 

You left out Vector Prime from Cybertron as His death was a Sacrifice. As was Armada Starscream.

Also their's Gurren Laggan's Kamina. His death was glorious.

 

So? There many deaths before in the TF franchise but all of the characters and their deaths had a point to them. If you want to kill of a character you don't just go "ok he's dead now". That not how you write FICTION. First you need to establish a emotinal connection between the character and the public, you know SO THEY CAN GIVE A SH*T. If you do that, and make him a lika able character at that, once he dies it leaves an emotional impact and really leaves you with a "Wow...I can't belive he's dead...I really liked him...aw man this is sad" kinda feeling. In war people die, but those people also had mothers and fathers, brothers, wives, children, friends, they had ambtions, they had hopes, they had dreams....when you start thinking about that you start to realise what dept war has, and by killing off a beloved and liked character in a fictional war you get a feeling of what war is.

These guys, there was no emotion to teir deaths....AT ALL! Cliffjumper died 5 minutes into the series...and I'm supposed to feel something? Skyquake whoke up fired a gun a few times and gets killed. Oh yeah I'm crying a river here.

There were over-glorified canonfoder.

Also how the fuck are you gonna get the kids hyped-up to buy the toys if the character only appears once?

His death is one of the greatest and most powerful moments in animation history. I was deppresed that whole bloody week!

 

Cliffjumpers death affected Arcee which may latter affect her and the story in the long run.

 

If they are smart and tell the ArceeXCliffjumper story through flashbacks I will gladly eat my words about him being pointless.

But if they just go with the "Arcee is sad" talk without showing us the realtionship isn't not the same.

 

From the front page.

"Hesitation to do what they did with Cliffjumper? Wanted to set a tone right off the bat for the show. Have it be accessible to kids and adults through story. Cliffjumper may be revisited in flashback episodes, and connection between him and Arcee."

There, happy? Also, Kamina ain´t got nothing on Lord Genome.

 

...well fuck!

...

Anyone got some salt and ketchup?

 

Well keyword being "may", but I assume they arent just telling stuff for the sake of telling.

 

There is no "proper" way to handle death. As much can me made of a grand, Dinobot-esque opus as you can doing it another way.

 

You've got good examples there  . I don't remember much of Vector Prime's death(decided to not watch much of TF Cybertron) but I did like Starscream's death in Armada. He battled Megatron, trying to convince him to join forces with Optimus against Unicron. The battle was one on on and from the looks of it showed enough drive and skill to equal him(even though he was full of slashes). Then at the very end, he decides to attack Unicron who blasts him.

Yup, animes such as Gurrenl Lagann had good deaths as well. Kamina is the most remmbered, but ther was also Kittan, Nia, the death of the brothers. Those deaths were some of the best deaths out there.

 

Not all deaths have to be meaningful. Again you guys are just wishing too hard for toy characters. If it was a human villain dying nobody would even be making this topic.