So I just got finished watching Bumblebee for the second time, which I absolutely loved. And it got me thinking that one thing that I dislike about all the Bayverse movies and even this one is that the Cons always die. Why is that? Why do they have to die, and sometimes way too easy, in every movie? Why can't they run away and regroup or something? Please, I'm begging over here, that when Megatron makes his return that they don't kill him off in the first movie that he is in. Make him and Prime have epic battles over numerous of movies. I would like to see him develop as a character like he did in Transformers Prime and sort of became good at the end. Maybe introduce Unicorn on down the road and have Megs and Prime fight side by side to defeat unicorn. I think that would be awesome!

 

Well largely because the movies aren't ongoing fiction like a television show or comic so there is no reason to keep the villains alive unless a compelling explanation can be provided. It gives the story a sense of closure.

 

Cuz TF Movies are action movies and in those the baddies often die

 

Because they were badly written. You don't have to kill the villains to give closure.

 

This was always the question on my mind. Honestly, if you're going to kill a lot of villains, I want to see a comparable number of heroic deaths so everything isn't sunshine and rainbows for the heroes and there's an actual sense of loss on their end as well.

 

Thank Primus this time not the major Decepticon characters. But I agree. I wish Shatter and Dropkick had been around for several more movies and I hope them getting killed is not going to be another trend for the reboots. Is it too much to ask for Decepticon characters to stay in several more movies before they die in glorious battle.

 

He won’t. The only reason Megatron died in TF1 is because the writers were playing safe with tying loose ends incase they flopped. Given Bumblebee’s relative success and better writing I’m confident Megatron won’t be as mismanaged as during the Bay days anymore.

 

If you mean Blitzwing, Shatter and Dropkick, the reason they were killed off is because they were nobodies, fodder. They were grunts, Megs most likely won't even notice or acknowledge their existence because they matter so little in the grand scheme of things. Or if he does, he'll view them as acceptable losses, and if they were truly worth anything they wouldn't have died to a BUG like Bumblebee.

If you mean in the past movies, it was a combination of not having the best writing and the Decepticons being largely two dimensional. They were hostile alien invaders that needed to be put down, nothing more. Most of the Decepticons in the earlier films had it coming anyways, I remember when people would pretend like it was out of line for Optimus to kill Bonecrusher, who in the same sequence killed a bunch of innocent non-combat humans during his entrance, or when he killed a being that was prepared to wipe out all life on the planet using his crazy sun-draining machine, or when he brought down Megs and Sentinel after they both tried to kill him.

I know I'm defending horrible writing at this point, because that's basically these films biggest problems, but the amount of people who were defending the Decepticons after committing such horrible acts on screen is amusing. Optimus growling "Now give me your face" isn't proof that the Autobots are as bad as the Cons or something, it's just incredibly out of character.

 

The only reason I think the Decepticons always die is to end the story on a high note. What if TF 2007 was a standalone movie? The Decepticons were defeated, the end.
Well seeing how Last Knight won't probably see a sequel, I don't know.

 

I'll say it's because (to some extent), it's a screenwriter's cop-out: it's pretty much a stereotypical way of dealing with the bad guy/gal characters, and relieves the writer of actually having to: A)Develop the character fully, B)Give them a valid reason to retreat and either, C)have the bad characters regroup and continue their evil ways, OR D)(in extreme cases) have the bad ones evolve and maybe change sides. Basically it minimizes the bad guys/gals to entities who only exist to bring evil just to bring evil and to end up only as cannon fodder. . .Too easy of a way out. . .My $0.02. . .

 

I just don't think they should ever kill the core Deceptions like Megs, Soundwave, Shockwave, or Starscream.

 

Because few in Hollywood know how to conclude a film without the bad guy being dead.

 

I agree 100%.

 

Yeah, they left Megatron alive at the end of RotF. I think they killed him, and others, at the end of DotM because they expected to end the series. But when they brought him back again in AoE they left him alive through that movie and the next. They probably souls have left him dead after DotM and focus on Lockdown and the creators for AoE...

 

Worth pointing out we've had examples of films where stuff was re-shot so bad guys would die simply because test audiences didn't find it satisfying if the confrontation didn't lead to their death. So clearly there's a significant number of average joes that love carnage.

 

I would personally like to see more movies where the bad guy does win. Let the Cons actually have their plan work in the next movie. Could end it on some kind of cliffhanger to set up the next movie.

 

AOE would have been the perfect movie to have the villain win at the end. I say that because if Lockdown captured Optimus the world would not end.

After that, the next movie could be about the aftermath of Optums getting captured. I also think the first movie could have ended with Megatron winning and the next movie could be about the Autobots fighting the new Decepticons he created with the cube.


I feel the bad guys had to lose in ROTF and DOTM if the sun goes out all life dies same goes for Cybertron meeting earth. That said I do think they could have let The Fallen live. In DOTM the only reason all the cons including Sentinel died was because they thought it was the last one.

 

Lazy writing 101 kill off bad guys until you have killed enough to call it an ending. It takes being clever and creative to come up with a way for the bad guys to get away and still feel like a proper ending so screw it just kill off some bad guys and call it a day. I think lazy writing 102 is kill off a token good guy to somehow make it not seem totally one sided even though your movie is totally one sided because there aren't many people in Hollywood brave enough to pull an Empire Strikes Back to have the good lose and have to come back in the next movie to try to get that win.

Maybe as superheroes continue to take over Hollywood we might see a change as ticket buyers want to see a return of their favorite villains, but it's not easy to change habits that haven't hurt the box office too badly.

 

Because they're way better and more interesting than the autobots will ever be.

 

None of them had any character development. Remain or die therefore is a void issue.