I'd argue Nitro Zeus is above any Autobot simply because unlike them, he's not intended to be a focal point character in anything outside his introduction. He is more of a character in his role than the Autobots are in theirs, for lack of a better term. It also helps that his dialogue fit his role as a goofy thug more than the Autobots' constant bickering and sociopathic non-sequiturs.
I really don't see any prominent personality in Nitro Zeus - tell me about him! Starscream is cowardly sycophant, The Fallen is antient glorified ancestor, wishing a revenge, Soundwave is loyal arrogant Megatron's favorite, Laserbeak is ruthless cynical extortionist, Lockdown is ultimate "I don't care" Creators' worshiper, Galvatron is lurking manipulator, ghost without a spark. Where Nitro Zeus has more personality, than they? He even didn't anything to prove his words. You just see what you want to see, but ignore everything else. I don't. That's why it was a surprise to see, that he is liked. And he really hasn't anything outstanding. Otherwise this thread wouldn't appear.
Half of what you said is established in other continuities. There is nothing that suggests Starscream is a coward, actually, it's the complete opposite as he is willingly seen fight in multiple battles. I'll give you a pass on the Fallen. Basically all the Decepticons are loyal arrogants, so Soundwave isn't anything special there. Your Lockdown's personality doesn't even make sense (and I wouldn't count him as a Decepticon either). Galvatron is just Megatron reborn. Based on those results, we can safely say Megatron and the Fallen are the only two Decepticons that have any real personality. There wasn't a high bar for Nitro Zues so anything really counts as a personality.
they shouldnt have killed him off (especially in such a stupid & pointless manner...sadly a theme for decepticons in this series) there was no reason to have that jerk bumblebee get yet another kill a majority of barricade's popularity in my opinion comes from his ridiculously mysterious disappearances & survivability...i remember i didnt even realize he wasnt in the mission city battle or that he simply disappeared my first viewing..it wasnt until repeat viewings that i realized 'hey..whatever happened to barricade?' & then he wasn't in 2 yet appeared in inter-film comics still showing his unique escapability & the legend grew on from there..him not dying in 3 pretty much means he probably wont ever die..& if he ever does it will be profoundly quick & disappointing nitro zeus stood out because he wasn't massacred like all the rest of the freed cons & actually survived to the end of tlk....him being able to fly also meant he was in megatron's pocket for a majority of the second-half of the film
I don't know anything about other continuities. Yes, we have little about Decepticons' personality. But this Movies don't need it. It is the story about Autobots and humans, trying to share one world, understand each other and protect this world together. The place for Decepticons is small. Also, how much we know about Ironhide and Ratchet? Not much. Because they are side characters. We know much about two main Autobots, Sam and Cade. We even don't know much about Micaela and Carly. That's normal for a feature movie - you can't tell a hundred of stories in one movie - you need to show a conflict and a relation between 2-4 characters, how they overcome the conflict. For deep and complicated characterisation of numerous characters people go to watch series, like Lost, or something else.
It is the story about Transformers, not just Autobots and humans. When you have movies THAT empty on any characterisation for villains then it's no wonder that any villain with even the slightest semblance of personality becomes popular. Same happened with Barricade, except Barry has advantage of not being dead. I hope so. If only in spite of Ballgagbee. Maybe if Nitro becomes more popular he gets to be another moviverse Con celebrity. Just like a certain police carbot...
Mind posting that? The pic you posted is from a Japanese fan artist who's not affiliated with IDW whatsoever.
Like Energon Sixshot, but better? Hell YES. Not knowing anything about other continuities kinda makes that personality argument weak, especially because you're giving some of those characters more credit than they deserve. Galvatron WOULD HAVE been the ghost in the machine with a plan, had Galvatron ACTUALLY STAYED AROUND. Lockdown didn't "worship" the creators, he was getting paid to do a job, and he didn't care, just like every other Lockdown. Starscream PLAYS the coward, but he isn't one. Since barely any of that was alluded it in the movies themselves (No, we're not gonna count tie-in comics because the canon status of those is foggy) Nitro Zeus and Mowhawk had a ton of personality, and they didn't exactly have a really difficult time surpassing the Decepticon Personality Status Quo, considering 75-80% of Decepticons are monsters, and the others are just barely hinting at anything more than their personalities lifted from another continuity/exactly what their character already. You can't tell me Shockwave is a mastermind scientist in DOTM, because all he does is ride a worm monster and shoot stuff. Nothing about that says "mastermind scientist". The movies DO NEED more Decepticon personality. Yeah, we KNOW decepticons are bad, but there's nothing wrong with giving us more personality and telling us WHY they're bad, WHY they do the things they do. WHY they follow Megatron if he fails at three or four separate plans. Hell, even Megatron could use a little more personality than "I want to conquer [planet] and kill the Autobots, and here's how I'm going to use [Cybertronian Artifact] to do it!" The story isn't about Autbots and humans sharing the planet, it's about Autobots and Decepticons. The movie is called TRANSFORMERS, and the humans, despite having lives of their own that can intertwine with the Autobots, are only the vehicle through which we see the story. They shouldn't be the main characters, the robots are. The most robot-centric story we got was DOTM, and it was GREAT.
No, the story is not about that at all. The Decepticons have been the main antagonist in every single movie (well, AOE is arguable as we had Lockdown but even then we still had Megatron 2.0 trotting around China). It's definitely not Autobots vs. humans. Well, that's a problem if they had three movies (four for Ratchet) to build some kind of characterization around those characters. Thank you for highlighting another flaw. Again, we're into movie 5. We've had way more than a single feature movie to build these characters.
If we can tell someone more about Ronan the Accuser or Malekith and why they want to destroy Xandar or take the Aether during the Convergence respectively than we can tell someone about Ironhide or Ratchet, there's definitely a characterization problem. And that's a big one, considering that Marvel Movies don't really give their villains a ton of character up until recently.
Well that's not really a character issue, that's a plot issue. Those are what give the movie a story. I don't see how you could tell less about Ironhide or Ratchet unless you really didn't pay attention to the films.
Definitely a characterization issue. Oversimplified, both Malekith and Ronan wanted revenge/vengeance for what happened to them and their kind during their wars with Asgard and Xandar respectively, and they both tried to use Infinity Stones to do it. We know Malekith think's he's doing what is right for his people by plunging the universe into darkness with the Aether, and a consequence of that is destroying Earth and Asgard, something he doesn't object to. Ronan wanted Thanos to avenge his father, his father before him, and his father's father's father, because of a thousand year war between them and presumably whatever war crimes were committed, and the price of that vengeance was the Power Stone. But Ronan took that and tried to take the vengeance himself as well. Ironhide is a gruff military guy and likes to shoot guns, and Ratchet is a medic, both who are loyal to Optimus. From the movies, we can't tell anything more beyond that simple characterization because they never went beyond that and they never evolved as characters. Ironhide's characterization could easily be confused for Hound's, who is also a gruff military type who likes to shoot lots of guns.
A tf character doesn't have to do much in order to gain fans. Bonecrusher rushed to his death, and he continues to be one of the most memorable characters to me.
Given what I have been told of Nitro Zeus, I feel this quote from Zero Punctuation is relevant. “Who would have thought a man dressed as a giant purple cock would turn a few heads at the paint drying appreciation society”. When compared to the lineup of barely speech capable monsters and silent clones, coming out smack-talking and gesturing theatrically like the Rock on a comeback story makes you stand out from the pack.
Well, I think the truth is, audiences liked Nitro Zues so much is bc heah one of the few Bayformers Decepticons who actually has a personality. In Bayformers having a Decepticon who isn't a snarling, generic movie monster is rate thing. And he's one of the few who stands out as a...semi character.
The sheeple argument ignores both movie attendance/viewing stats and word of mouth as factors. I don't know anything besides what I've read of the personality as I still havent seen TLK, but I saw Nitro Zeus's toy design about a year ago and said "yes plz". One of about a handful of movie designs I like, actually, and I was excited to acquire it. I admit the Voyager is a little disappointing for the hype, but I'm still looking forward to the Black Mamba OS KO. There's probably a knee jerk, emotionally charged, defensive fallacy at work above, but I hope you're as cool with referring to what you perceive as a growing segment of the board as stupid as I am with being considered stupid in your perception.
