How dare they have reoccurring characters who show up every now and then, but not in every episode, giving the main cast space to grow as characters, like... any other show, really? I don't get why this is a problem. The only series I know of that introduced characters who appeared regularly until they died/left were Beast Wars and Beast Machines, and that's because there was literally nowhere else for the characters to go, in-story. To be fair, I could be forgetting any of the dubbed anime Transformers series.

 

I don't mind a team of "more than five". But I don't want to go back to G1 (Sunbow) level of character casts. I grew up with and loved G1, but a lot of the characters were very generic.

 

G1 did this too...they just did a better job of fooling you into thinking the show had a giant cast

G1 had it's core cast then cameos of everyone else. Most times they were background fodder. I mean really how many episodes was smokescreen in? Or red alert...or seaspray....hell I forget skids was even animated half the time

 

Wait Skids was animated? Man I must have missed those epsiodes.

No but seriously, even though I like G1, there are several issues it has with its characters. Like I get that they were trying to create characters given that they were the first of this series, but did they really need that many characters?

Conversely, I agree with the first post, there are too many glorified cameos in shows nowadays, but I still feel like those characters don't always need to be in every episode, as they aren't part of the main cast. Granted, you could gradually add them to the core cast, and that's how you solve it.

 

The episodes with Smokescreen in them weren’t about Smokescreen coming and going from some place. He just showed up from time to time. They didn’t do a “hey!! Smokey’s back!!” Nor should they have.

Justice League Unlimited had a ton of characters. They didn’t delve into each one’s motives. It was good enough to see them mixed in. It’s a cartoon ffs, not a soap.

 

Yea but these shows revolve around characters on a set mission to earth. So when someone moves on then returns of course its "hey look whos back"

In g1 they presumably all migrated to earth. and g1 still did it worse...remember how skyfire was buried under all that ice never to be seen again? Well neither did the writers...

One off of good characters kinda suck but the coming and going bots don't bother me too much.

 

Eh? They rescued Skyfire in the next episode. He was in other episodes as well.

 

You my friend are a legend among this fanbase for stating the obvious truth, not many can tolerate hearing.

I can't believe we have a thread with people complaining about character appearances being explained. Like whut? Gee-Whun made indefinitely.

Many people love concepts like Abominus, or Sky Lynx, or Fortress Maximus. But the characters in the show aren't all that good. The concepts are cool but forcing them into the show with no origin, motives, or development is just awful and lazy. And then having them leave with no explanation just to randomly introduce more characters later, it makes it seem like not only does that character not matter but like characters in general don't matter.

At least Prime and RID explain their characters and give us reasoning for why they leave. Most G1 Characters except Devcon are interchangable. For example;
Autobot Leader; Optimus Prime-Ultra Magnus-Rodimus Prime-Fortress Maximus (Headmasters)-Ginrai-Star Saber-Dai Atlas
Decepticon Leader; Megatron-Galvatron-Scorponok (Headmasters)-Overlord-Devil Z-Deathsaurus-Violin Jiger-Dark Nova
Kid-friendly character; Bumblebee-Hot Rod-Blurr-Wheelie (Monster kid-friendly)-Headmaster Jrs-Holi
Autobot Powerhouse; Dinobots-Omega Supreme-New Combiner toy of the week-Metroplex-Fortress Maximus
Decepticon Powerhouse; New Combiner toy of the week-Trypticon-Scorponok
Any Mini-Cassette.
Tough Old Autobot; Ironhide-Kup
Autobot who is pretty wreckless sometimes; Most of Prime's team.
Must i go on?
I mean I enjoyed the show for its time, but if your characters will be interchangable bricks and you won't give any rhyme or reason to their actions, why they're there, or why we'll never see them again, that's lazy writing.

 

The problem isn't that the cast is limited so new characters can't stick around. The problem is that the writers want to keep the focus on the main cast. There's a difference.

When you compare shows now to Beast Wars that difference becomes obvious. I think this is where a lot of shows fail to copy the success of Beast Wars, or at least part of it.

Beast Wars had a small cast... for the entirety of the show's run. Typically only five vs. five at any one time with few exceptions, this continues on in Beast Machines with a lot more exceptions but still relatively small all around.

Shows today keep the main cast small and introduce dozens of one off characters that no one will ever remember. This actually means that the total cast is much too large, maybe not as bad as G1 but still way too many characters.

The other difference is Beast Wars wasn't afraid to kill off the main cast and replace them with new characters. And with the exception of Transmutate no one ever died in the very same episode they were introduced, something that Prime did a lot of and annoyed the hell out of me.

I don't mind if a character leaves as long as it doesn't happen constantly with every new character because at least then there's always the chance they could come back. Technically dead characters could come back as well but that's a little less likely. Writers now days especially seems to be avoiding that trope.

 

G1 had the transformers devil be built by a monkey.

 

Evil brain impulses.

 

We all know G1 Sunbow has its problems. It is what it is. I actually prefer to watch the movie rather than the cartoon, because the plot and animation is the peak of what Sunbow reached.

I do expect a lot more from TF cartoons these days. That is why RID disappointed me- it went full Saturday morning cartoon with its monster of the week villains (that had little to no character development) eschewing the previous lore to sell toys (example: Soundwave).

 

Well let's see.

RID added Drift and his Minis to the main cast and truthfully they're the only team members who stuck around long term, only leaving halfway through Season 3 to investigate with Optimus. Besides the original 5, Drift and his Mini-Cons are the only Autobots who I would call definitive members of the Bee Team.

Jazz said hi and didn't come back until the finale, and admittedly I'd have liked to see him more. The time we did spend with him though was pretty cool.

Optimus was actually used sparingly but effectively. The fact that OPTIMUS GOD DAMN PRIME pops his head in when shit gets dire makes his presence post Decepticon Island feel a lot grander, and prior to that we were able to see a much more human side of him when he had to recover his strength and regain the confidence of some of his allies.

Windblade was more of a plot device than a character, with her caches serving as plot catalysts well after her departure from the main team, but she did get to develop some interesting connections with Sideswipe, Strongarm, and Optimus Prime, at least. She also shows up in Optimus' "All-Star" team at the end which is actually just the Cameobots.

Ratchet is a meme. Some of the least screen time but managed to say "I needed that" or some variation thereof like 8 times.

Bulkhead literally just walks into the show. It's so ridiculous it's actually great. A plot to an episode is happening and a portal opens and he went exists and his personality and design aren't all that different from Prime at all.

So yeah I can see what you're saying about most Autobots outside of the main being hi-and-byes but that's really the point.

Large mob casts demand less focus and therefore less depth.

 

Are you actually, seriously suggesting that a Transformers show with LESS focus on individual characters and their developments would do better?

Because that'd pretty much the exact opposite of pretty much every other opinion. Shows like G1 and Energon are criticized for their lack of character develoupment (PRIME also to an extent; it tried but fell short several times) while Beast Wars and Animated are considered some of the best because of their character develoupment.

 

I meant if they all stayed around (in a large mob cast) that the focus on the individuals of the team would suffer. This was actually something the writers had to deal with in Season 2 with a starting number of 10 Autobots and they did so by splitting the team in two units. That plot point is an obvious response to the sudden crowdedness of the team.

I'm basically saying I'm glad they eventually trimmed the fat again because I prefer the more centered focus of a smaller cast as opposed to a larger albeit more varied team.

I'm glad Drift was the only bot to stick around long term alongside his Minis Windblade and Optimus were both team members but didn't really fit in as well to the "misfit team" angle as Drift does with his troubled background and clear character flaws that he actually addresses over time and a clear devotion to his Mini-Cons with whom he is able to strengthen his relationship, that's a lot more in line with all the team members at some point combatting insecurities, Bumblebee learning to lead, Strongarm learning to loosen up, Sideswipe's inferiority complex, Fixit and Denny developing their friendship, etc.

This show is emboldened by it's characters so less is more so they can give us more of that sweet learning and bonding.

 

People come and go because people got shit to do, plain and simple, for example Jazz had shit to do on cybertron in RID. The main casts objective doesn't always align with the visitors objective.