I adored Animated and I liked Prime.

 

The plot became a little tedious, but the animation was gorgeous. We need more Ultra Magnus.

 

The plot was better in animated but the episodic stories were better in prime.

 

Did they ever explain why all the Vehicons are Decepticons?

 

No, I don't think so.

 

Season 3 was a little rushed in the end as some other situations during all seasons were as well but the overall series was good with enough comical and drama. One of my favorite series.

 

Amen!

 

I think all te TF shows should be like TF RIME.

 

Personally, I don't think it's that the Vehicons chose to be Decepticons. It's the other way around. I believe that Megatron chose to make his soldiers Vehicons.

 

I think the reason more has to do with the idea of portraying the Decepticon rank-and-file fodder as a highly mobile force, which short of jets only really leaves cars - yeah, they did jets later on but in the beginning all the major Decepticons were only Jets and for lower profile engagements it made more sense to engage the 'Bots on their own turf with the expendable hired help.

Of course, the show's support media/advertising treats 'Vehicons' as interchangeable with 'Eradicons' so hard to say if they ever bothered with an in-universe reasoning. Megatron spent two seasons trying to amass a completely new army of zombies and then resurrected dragons as it was.

 

I would say disappointing in some aspects because some things didn't go the best way that they good plot wise, or they just fell flat and ended.

Like Breakdown just dying and Dreadwing's confliction just ending with his death.

 

Then it sort of begs the question as to why there are so many Decepticons on Earth but only a few Autobots. And I guess only higher ranking Decepticons are allowed to choose their own alt-modes while lower ranking ones are forced to become Vehicons. I wonder if there is an Autobot equivalent of a Vehicon rank, or do all Autobots have the right to choose their own alt-modes. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings and all that.

 

Season 1: Oh!
Season 2: Eh...
Season 3: Ugh.

 

For Me

Season 1: Ok, nice
Season 2: Oooooooo
Season 3: Eh..

 

Season 1 was freakin' incredible. Seasons 2 and 3, though....

 

For me the third season of Prime is probably my favorite.

 

If Transformers: Prime had long thinking story editers like the ones that worked on Beast Wars or Animated it would have been the greatest TF Show yet.
Individually the episodes were good, but the over-arcing plot is well......

For instance the whole MECH plot had all this hype but it broke down (excuse the pun) when Cylas joined the cons and then was discarded at the end of the episode.
Dark energon was scary stuff in the pilot miniseries but it wasn't explored all that well, especially considering that Megatron was only alive because of it.
And I would have liked to have seen a Flashback episode with Breakdown and Bulkhead.

 

A while mago someone made a comment that was something along the lines of Prime being like a really good cover band of your favourite band. You'd watch it have a good time, but it never really had anything "new."

I'd say that was about right, it had it's good moments, and I liked the Decepticons getting the odd chance to be in the limelight, but overall I'd rate it "OK."

 

You mean Beast Machines writers, right? Or am I missing anyone major besides Marty Isenberg?

For the most part, I didn't find Prime disappointing. It's always possible to go out into the weeds with where we wish a story had gone, but that's a waste, and everyone will have their own ideas about that. It has plenty of areas where I wish they'd done something more, but so does everything. Prime in particular hurts itself by just having more damn potential than any show of its kind could possibly have the budget or episode count to ever pursue. There are way worse problems to have, in my opinion.

I think the most important thing is whether it was an enjoyable ride where it did go, regardless where we'd have taken it. And I think it was. And that's just taking it on its own merits as a show. Relative to all the TF shows there have been in the past, I find it just impossible to be disappointed. If we look at the other (non-Japan exclusive) TF shows that were told in serial format, the best were probably Beast Wars, Beast Machines, Animated, and Cybertron/Galaxy Force. Not a one of them ended without significant loose ends, unanswered questions, seldom-seen or quickly killed-off characters, and other "wasted potential." Not one of them went without either wasting time putting off the main story arc, or changing its mind about where the arc is even going--in some cases they did both. Prime committed the sin of getting our hopes up higher, but it really did no worse than the best we've had. In that light, I can't be disappointed at all.