Biggest TF series disappointments

Well, it sort of plays into one of the origin stories from the original G1 series, where Orion Pax becomes enamored with Decepticons because they can fly, unlike most Cybertronians like Pax. With Animated, it was somewhat implied there has been a kind of class system rupture where the soldier-like Decepticons rebelled against the less-violent Autobot leaders (y'know, like every other continuity not set in Shattered Glass), and the launching of the AllSpark, which was Megatron's objective, into deep space was what won the war IIRC as it put the Decepticons into a position where they were fighting a war they literally could not win. The Autobots also exclusively had control over Spacebridge technology, so in a sense the whole "Great War" could be considered to be a paralel to the American Civil War: the side that lost generally had the better fighters and leadership (flight capability and Megatron's leadership compared to guys like Sentinel), while the side that won had better control over resource distribution/transportation and industry (in the flashback where Omega is activated, there's at least two other Supreme robots in the same room, and the Almanacs confirm the Autobots built multiple Supreme robots, while the Decepticons had nothing anywhere close to that kind of manufacturing capability).


The problem isn't people not waiting for story lines to end, it's that the journey to the story's payoff is just not that entertaining. Orion Pax pt.3 set a BAD example with how easily that potential development for Optimus was killed off after what had been a pretty good season opener, and left a bad taste in a LOT of people's mouths. Prime has a history of building things up only to abandon them right when things can get good (Breakdown, obviously, as well as Cliffjumper because he was so hyped up and then quickly disposed of in such a way that even his mangled corpse can't be resurrected again), so for many who have problems with the show it's not worth sitting through the more boring parts for a resolution that may or may not have been worth the time wasted getting there. And if the resolution was worthwhile, then in hindsight the boring parts were just really poor storytelling.

Um, actually we can. When a character starts out with a recognizable personality and develops into having at least a slightly different personality, but then goes back to acting the EXACT SAME WAY as they did before as if they never developed at all, I think it's safe to say the reset button got pushed.

And in terms of plot, Prime is moving SO slowly that it's hard to believe anything gets done. The show just went on break after a 4-parter that more or less was just a single day's timespan, and with episodes like Grille that are simply boring as all get out (as much as I like Fowler, a generic artifact hunt would have been more entertaining than a government agent asking another agent questions the audience already knows the answers to), even the G1 cartoon had episode plots that moved at a better pace.

While true, the show might be able to pull an Armada-esque revival and have a good second half, the first half only has a few good episodes mixed in with a majority of average episodes and some just plain bad ones. And the first half is all that people can make opinions about the show from.

I dunno, I think it's still alright if for no other reason than to hear David Kaye keep doing a Megatron voice and get constantly high on Mini-con power. It also doesn't have any of the weird Starscream X Alexis undertones.

Have to agree here. For all my complaining, I feel like Prime HAS what is needed for a good TF series, it's just not using those assets to the fullest.

Originally Posted by Violator Autobot Burnout, I don't care what anyone says about you, you're a smart cookie.

Originally Posted by Mechafire Burnout, you are my hero.

Originally Posted by Escargon Nobody can defeat Autobot Burnout. I suggest you give up now.

As campy as G1 is, I liked that everyone was serious and effective. The ARC crew were all specialist (which is why they were with Prime). Bumblebee is a master spy for example.

Since then, the characterizations for "head strong", "brash and impulsive" or "gruff" have become the only defining points on these characters.

I miss multifacetted characters that were one way on duty, another way when dutiful and actually had opinions, not stereotypes.

The thing is I can understand with things like Orion Pax and Breakdown but Cliffjumper was meant to catch us off guard to show us that when characters die off they stay dead.


But we don't know if it's permanate or not. It's like we're saying the characters ar ereset for good when we don't know if they are. The thing is I consider Crossfire not to be a good episode was that it ignored a big point in Arcee's development when it comes to her reacitng working with Starscream because before the episode she was fine with it but in Crossifre she wasn't. That goes with the not using her head part with Airachnid because either the writer didn't see the past episode or not. In Armada it was fixed when they showed her using her head this time. Ratchet's develpoment was noticable with him being more respectful towards humans,Starscream not going back to the Decepticons,Fowler with being mroe honrable with the Autobots and Optimus showing agression.


But what if it's a different style of storytelling? There are shows in both cartoon and live action that benifited with plots going slowly with a big payoff in the end. It may not work for some but for others it does. There are also times that if the plot goes too fast it'll seem rushed. Besides weren't most carttons and movies in the old days had a mroe slower pace in storytelling as well?

I recall the original Star Trek show doing something like this and yet it still was sucessful because of it.

And that's fine but it's like people are acting like the show's already over. Again we don't know what type of conclusion it'll have yet.

Prime had the most potential and became the biggest letdown in recent years.

Then they could have gone about a much better way in handling it. What is the POINT of heavily promoting "CLIFFJUMPER. IS. BACK!" by giving him "The Rock" for a VA, at least THREE different toy molds in two size classes, including him in ALL promotional art and otherwise making him into somebody on the level of BUMBLEBEE...only to permamently kill him off almost instantly? The show is, at heart, still a toy commercial, and why would kids want to buy multiple toys of a guy who died at the start of the show and has shown up rarely in flashbacks?

This is transformers, not Game of Thrones.

Well, what point is there in character development if all they're going to do is look like they're developing and then snap back to the first state they were in simply to repeat the process like a broken record? It's like building something out of wooden blocks halfway, then knocking it down, and the proceeding to rebuild the structure EXACTLY the way it was prior to the knockdown. It makes all the previous work a complete waste of time and effort.

Well, yes, long-term storytelling can work, but you have to keep the audience entertained to get to the payoff. Prime is failing at that big time because the episodes in between major events are not keeping the attention of the audience.

Star Trek's characters were also a hell of a lot more interesting than Prime's characters, including the guy who didn't even have emotions and ran on nothing but logic, and it didn't pigeonhole the most interesting characters into secondary roles with few lines in favor of giving the spotlight to craptacular characters who contribute NOTHING.

For some, it already is, because they've stopped watching. Why bother watching something that has completely lost your interest?

Originally Posted by Violator Autobot Burnout, I don't care what anyone says about you, you're a smart cookie.

Originally Posted by Mechafire Burnout, you are my hero.

Originally Posted by Escargon Nobody can defeat Autobot Burnout. I suggest you give up now.

I never understood the whole "But you have to watch it until the end to truly get it and enjoy it!"

No, no I don't! I don't have to watch something that is uniteresting, boring and fails to keep my attention just so that is might get better.

It's like saying "I might give you a delicious chocolate cake but first I need to kick in you in the balls 30 times!"

No I don't care how delicious the potential cake I might recieve, or not, is I'm not going to suffer in order to get it when I can buy one myself or in this case I can watch a INTERESTING and FUN show instead like Green Lantern TAS or Young Justice!

We'll tackle The Appendix first: The Tyrest Accord.

How is it creepy? They hardly ever even show it.

If Bumblebee were human, it would be the kind of relationship where they go over to each other's houses to have play dates with toy cars and video games.

Sideways died at the beginning of ROTF as well as other cons in the films Shockwave in perticular who were thought to have big roles yet the toys selled just as much.


Again I consider that episode to be not correct because it was a writing error. It'll likely be back to normal later on. It was a start in Armada.

But for some viewers the show is entertaining. Again it has to do with preference in how we like a story to work. For some fast paced for others slow paced. Some fins either one entertaining. Some people may think Prime fails at being enteraning but for others it's not.

So which characters do you think did not contrubute the story at all? Is it all of them?

That's true.

But it sure does freaking help to do so because for all we know it may appeal and/or gets better for you later on. You know it took me a while to get to the good stuff in Armada but it was worth it to me in the end.

Not saying you have to but again it does help you get a better understanding on a show you want to make a proper review/criticsims on.

Beast Wars: I really wished that Depthcharge showed up more often. Towards the end of the series from Blackarachnia's new look and Tigerhawk showing up, Depthcharge was completely absent for three straight episodes. Then he shows up again, and dies.

Also I hated how Tigatron and Airazor finally came back as Tigerhawk, and what do you know, goes boom in two episodes. But I don't blame the writers for this, I blame Hasbro for apparantly only wanting three seasons so the writers had to tie up loose ends quickly.

Beast Machines: I like Beast Machines but I hated how they briefly forgot their past companions. Remember at the end of Beast Wars when Optimus said: "And never let us forget those other brave bots." Well that was thrown out of the window.

Animated: That female human villian who was a bit like Dick Tracy, well I hated her a lot.

Prime: Everyone here is complaining a lot about Prime, but my biggest disappointment was when they went in Unicron and the only defense was bats of sort. I know they were put in there as a homage to the long claws that Unicron had in G1, but I really think Unicron could've put up a better defence, even if it was just some zombie army.

Beast Machines - My only issue with this series is the "transformations" depicted on the show. I know the transformation from 'bot to beast mode was mental/spiritual, but the actual physical transformation was closer to simply morphing from one form to another. I don't mind cheats during transformation sequences as long as stuff still actually transforms. Beast Machines was a little different and not something I expected heading in (I just watched the whole run recently, along with Beast Wars).

Energon - The entire clusterfuck of a show is a disappointment.

Prime - I like the show, but the penchance for bringing up interesting ideas and then squelching them very early is getting disappointing. To me it feels like the show's creative team is underestimating the ability of kids to handle a show with serialized material.

My main problem with Transformer shows in general (this extends to the films and certain comics as well) is the typically poor management of human characters. Things have gotten a bit better recently (the human characters in Animated weren't excruciating to watch, for me, and I really like what Prime's done with Jack, Jack's Mom and Fowler) but still has frustrating moments (Miko can vascillate from amusingly crazy to irritatingly ridiculous). Earlier cartoons (G1, Armada, Kicker in Energon) with extended human sequences can be hard to watch without gritting my teeth the whole time. It's one of the few areas where I wish the commercial/merchandising aspect of this franchise would win out a bit more over the creative content - "If we're not making a toy of it, don't feature it so damn much." Humans need to be around, particularly for Earth-based stories, but don't overdo it with a poor attempt to provide the audience someone to "relate to."

Originally Posted by YoungPrime The importance of suck a thread belongs in General Discussions.