Ratchet is described as a party animal, who due to his constant partying cannot get his work done.
Ratchet in his portrayals never showed this, and is all about business.
I would like to see a younger Ratchet though.

 

That’s not his original bio

 

The image is from the Dreamwave comics I believe.

 

It's not his original bio, but his original bio does mention this. Dreamwave's bios often feature unique information.

 

I know

 

True, but that characterization is still in his original bio.

 

And was an established part of his character in the early issues of the comic (issue 7?), even before the universe issues were published, iirc.

I don't think it was mentioned in his toy tech spec or on the G1 show, however.

Edit: nope, tech spec says 'likes to party'.

 

I think most people remember his bad bedside manner with the twins in Sunbow and that's where grumpy Ratchet originated.

 

I've actually got an interesting theory on grumpy Ratchet's origins...

In the Animated production bible, the character who would become Ratchet went by the name of Red Alert. At this point, Red Alert was a male character similar to his Unicron Trilogy self. Since Red Alert had a somewhat detached demeanor in Armada and Cybertron, I think that crew behind this new show wanted to do something different with the character. They took that sort of "damaged" nature and changed him into a grumpy old war veteran who had experienced trauma at the hands of the enemy. Still had some personality issues and unresolved trauma, but now he was a grumpy old 'bot instead of a cold and detached one. When the character was changed to Ratchet, the personality of Red Alert was left in tact because (presumably) it would've been too late to change it. Then Prime and by extension the "Aligned" continuity come and take Animated Ratchet's characterization for a new incarnation of the character, and the rest is history.

 

But in japan Red Alert was called Ratchet.

 

In Micron Legend yes, but in Galaxy Force he was called First Aid.

 

It's also possible they needed a character to provide experience and a veteran's perspective to the team, given Optimus had been made a much younger, less tested character (and bumblebee and bulkhead were also played up as somewhat inexperienced or 'unworldly'). The medic, who would have to deal with the consequences of their battles and put things back together makes a good choice for a character who has seen dark times already and been affected by them.

 

That's probably more likely, but I like to think of my theory as more fun.  

Anyways, to get back on topic, I've noticed that Ultra Magnus has changed rather drastically as well. G1 Ultra Magnus was someone who feared taking command despite actually being a really great leader. RiD Magnus directly inverted this by having him covet leadership, which isn't entirely fair since he is technically an entirely different character (God Magnus) all together. Animated Ultra Magnus was Supreme Leader of the Autobots, and by the looks of things he was rather comfortable in his position of power. And then, of course, IDW has made Ultra Magnus a strict, by-the-book commander who wouldn't know a joke if it bit him in the rear. That personality carried over to the "Aligned" version of Ultra Magnus, and it feels like it will be the default Ultra Magnus personality.

I kinda touched on this before, but it seems Optimus and Megatron have swapped views when it comes to freedom and peace. Optimus used to be all about freedom ("freedom is the right of all sentient beings") while Megatron used to be more about peace ("peace through tyranny"). Nowadays it seems like that has been swapped to create an honestly less interesting dynamic between the two characters. Megatron is the freedom fighter while Optimus is the one trying to obtain universal peace and all that.

 

Interesting. Ratchet in various media throughout the years has been channeling Doc Bones McCoy for so long with his grumpy bedside manner that I honestly can't imagine him as a party animal dancing it up with the likes of Jazz and Blaster. They should totally use this more light hearted version of Ratchet in a future show or movie, maybe as his way of compensating and coping with years of treating horrific injuries and seeing death from the war.

 

Definitely Thundercracker. Granted, the only part of original G1 fiction to do anything with him were cartoon episodes written by Doug Booth.
I think he was trying to depict TC's uncertainty about the cause, the synopsis for Fire On The Mountain even suggesting he might actively help to sabotage Megatron's plot. But the actual scenes, both kept and deleted, boil down to this: He resents taking orders from Starscream.

Mirage is another. He gets given Huffer's homesickness trait, and Traitor doesn't do anything (in the finished episode anyway) to exposit on him being a snobbish, high society type who would want nothing to do with the Autobots if the war hadn't wrecked everything for him. All of this is valid motivation for Cliffjumper to accuse him, but it never actually gets touched on.

I think Marvel Productions had somewhat of a traditionalist "good vs evil" mindset when it came to writing and characters. They weren't as ready as Sunbow was to seize on the potential for "shades of grey" that was provided by Budiansky's bios.

 

Fortress Maximus is described as a pacifist, who fights because he is in war and believes all violence is pointless.

In MTMTE he is far more ruthless and attacked fellow Autobots on one occasion.


Blast-off is described as being self-centered and lonely, but he much rather prefers being lonely.

Till All Are One gave us a more emotional Blast-Off. Which in my opinion is the worst depiction of the character.

They also made Onslaught and Blast-Off a couple... why?

 

Metroplex's low self-esteem and constant criticism of himself needs to come back.

 

Not gay. Aristocratic. Maybe that's associated with certain male homosexual speech patterns these days but, back in the 80's, it was intended as an exaggerated Mid-Atlantic accent popular in the early 20th century.

In other words, he's supposed to sound "snobby".

Mid-Atlantic accent - Wikipedia

 

The only thing that really comes to mind is that Starscream was once a scientist and friends with Skyfire which is mentioned in the episode where Skyfire is originally introduced and then never brought up again.

Also in Armada...

Thrust was introduced as this bad ass super intelligent strategist... which is immediately forgotten the first time he actually reveals himself to the other Decepticons and he stops using his personal cloaking device.

Tidal Wave is introduced as a brilliant leader which is contradicted in the same scene pretty much immediately after that's said.

Sideways is shown to be an individual character who works for Unicron but is not actually Unicron himself... and this is contradicted when Unicron as Sideways claims that Sideways never really existed and was just a puppet the entire time.

 

I should re-entitle the thread "Transformers: Depending on the Writer"