Prime wouldn't know fun if it bit it in the ass. The show went out of its way to be as joyless and lifeless as possible.

 

Prime is a good show. Not even baiting.

Definitely this.

 

There were some decent critiques beneath the heavy layer of nitpicking and whining you just did.

 

Was anything I said wrong? And if so, please, let me know. After all, if my perspective of The Things They Carried can change after one good discussion with a teacher, then perhaps the same could hold true with somebody who finds the back half of Prime more worthwhile than Energon.

 

The plot was really good.

 

Yes, Prime was awful. Horrible characters, dry dialogue, a stale Optimus Prime, and plots that kept getting over-dramatic with no causality on the plot or characters. I don't like comedy like how the MCU does it, where the dialogue is nothing but wisecracks. At the same time, a show has to have some life and energy. Prime went out of it's way to be edgy in a cringe-worthy way.
The animation, music and art style were lifeless. RID2015's art style was muy bueno, however. I wish every TF series followed that art style or 2D animation.

 

This Megatron was really scary

 

It REALLY could have been a lot better

 

It’s like threads like these that show how we all have different ideas of what makes a good Transformers show.

 

Whoa I'm surprised to read some of these responses. thought Prime was regarded as like the greatest Transformers show.
overall I thought it was good. However they really needed to kill off some major characters. Starscream, Megatron, Bulkhead, Fowler, Smokescreen, and Ratchet should've died.

 

It's either praised for being good...or widely derided for having plot quality literally on par with Transformers Energon.

 

gotta admit, If I stop and think about it for a minute...the plot wasn't too great. I mostly liked it for the characters. (Although there was a point in season 2 where I was wondering what the Decepticons were even trying to accomplish and why).

 

It's disturbingly close:

Repeated arch structures used to pad out time? Check
Subplots "resolved" by being rendered moor or simply forgotten? Check
Character arcs "resolved" by the character in question simply dying and thus the arc simply doesn't have to resolve? Check
Macguffins introduced seemingly at random to give purpose to a story that otherwise has no clear goal or progression? Check
Characters and stories limited by the chosen method of animation, namely CGI? (though in Prime's case it was at least largely high-quality) Check
Starscream having seemingly important character development that just ends with him being a lackey with no ambition or goals of his own? Check

In fact, on a personal level there's some things Energon did better, namely building up and executing on Megatron's return. When Megatron comes back in Energon it's an immediate game changer and he becomes a chaotic force threatening both Autobots and Alpha Q, and actively participates in nearly all engagements. When Prime Megatron comes back he stands around doing nothing until the plot just falls into his lap. Optimus also has an actual personality and character arc in Energon, though more so in Superlink, in that he struggles with his violent nature that comes from being a commander. (continued on from Armada's conclusion, but largely underplayed and almost completely excised in Energon due to the shitty dub) Prime Optimus by contrast has zero personality or character, and is such a blank slate he's physically difficult to listen to. (Peter Cullen being completely restrained by dialogue and voice direction doesn't help)

I also preferred the character design variety in Energon. Prime's style was far too homogeneous and bland, with everyone looking far too similar in regards to details and proportions. The faces especially were embarrassingly plain and interchangeable. Though for all Energon's lovely variety in alt modes and designs, nearly every character had the exact same firepower and could fly in either mode, so it didn't really do much. Still, it's cool to have a Decepticon team consist of jets and trucks and snowmobiles and satellites and boast instead of everyone just being a single-colour car or plane.

 

You forgot the part where Unicron gets defeated partway into the series and it's a major plot point later on that Megatron is key to his revival - and the last thing Megatron does is fly off into space, though with Energon it's to destroy himself in the sun/star/whatever because he realizes as long as he's alive, Unicron can control him for whatever reason (been over a decade since I last bothered reading up on Energon's plot so I'm unfamiliar with the 'why'), whereas Prime in Predacons Rising came up with some random bullshit that instantly entrapped Unicron, freeing Megatron, who promptly just flies off into space because fuck you that's why.

 

Starscream going back to Megatron was such bullshit. Threw out everything interesting he did and just made him completely loyal and even more pathetic. Season three was just sad with him being jealous of Shockwave and trying to prove how committed he was to Megs, only for Megs to keep treating him like trash and beating him up.

 

This is the only place I've seen Prime get as much hate as it gets, just about any other site I go to tend to consider Prime one of the better, if not, best TF cartoons. And honestly, the hate I see it get here is....hyperbolic, to put it likely

 

The absolute shit show that was Prime in all aspects is the sole reason that Hasbro hasn't made a reinvention reboot of the franchise ever since. It's been nothing but G1 and movie, purely because that way Hasbro can't lose control the same way they lost control over Prime.

It can not be understated how much of a failure Prime was. Why people think it's so good...honestly, I'd love to see what other sites have to say about it because it probably all overlooks the glaring narrative faults and the fact the CGI itself was more trouble than its worth (they literally didn't have the budget for Predaking's robot mode for the first few episodes of S3!)

 

What would you change about the story? More action? Less humans? I’m curious.

 

The story is absolutely garbage, but amazingly slightly salvagable, if only because the way things worked out for the most part actually provide a possible out for why Megatron is so goddamn useless and also makes the bizarre 180 at the Senate in demanding the Prime title even though his political viewpoint up to that moment would have been recognizing that the position of Prime was only going to support the kind of oppression he himself supposedly was fighting against.

The reality I would subject is that Soundwave is more important than he seems - in Ratchet's recap of the history of the war, he specifically mentions Soundwave being at Megatron's side but really, Soundwave's presence in the show becomes increasingly in question because he's even more goddamn useless than Megatron! He can't stop a mere human child, whose biological brain should not be able to even remotely handle going up against a guy who is a literal computer made of technology that is far superior to mankind's, AND it's also his damn fault for what happened with the Kill Sat in 'Human Factor'. However, he never faces consequences for failing Megatron, who instead takes irrational and self-defeating courses of action as a result such as basically letting Silasdown die even though Silasdown wasn't the one who failed to do his job. And yet, all through this, Soundwave continues to support the increasingly failable Megatron when it's already obvious Starscream is far and away a better leader. And in turn, Soundwave is the only one Megatron treats with any respect even though, again, his failure record exceeds Starscream's. Why is Soundwave just this perfect individual in Megatron's eyes when Megatron openly punishes every other soldier under his command for far less?

This is because Soundwave's the one in control, he's been in control all along. He got cozy with Megatron during his political rise and then successfully mind controlled him to cause the war and generally be the figurehead of the Decepticons. And this is all because Soundwave isn't a true Cybertronian - he's actually a sentient computer virus hell bent on destroying the entire Cybertronian race. However, he had to send Megatron off to go find Dark Energon and thus give Starscream a few years in control to pacify the upstart air commander, partly so Megatron could stage a grand return (which didn't go quite to plan) and also to make Starscream look more like an obvious loose canon and everybody pays more attention to him, instead of the already silent guy who doesn't really seem to do anything anyway. And his control is gradually eroding because it's been in place for so long, causing Megatron to generally be a goddamn idiot and make poor decisions as Soundwave tries to control him, but Soundwave really can't do anything without exposing who he really is.

Scrap Unicron, because Unicron as Earth was ultimately stupid, and scrap the relics because the relics were stupid, and also Arcee would brutally kill Airachnid because that character needed a bloody, viscious death for how much of a mary sue she was.

Breakdown would NOT die, but instead see actual development of that 'bad blood' relationship he had with Bulkhead, which was legitamately one of the more interesting things the show ever teased and never followed up on.

And no kids. Raf was a plot device even the writers admitted they couldn't figure out how to use effectively by the third season, Jack is straight up dull, and Miko would need to have different manerisms befitting somebody who actually had lived in Japan all their life and not simply use the exchange student excuse to justify being a 'quirky' character.

 

In Superlink, it's because Unicron feeds on hatred and conflict, and embodies himself within all Transformers somewhere deep inside them. Since that's pretty much all Megatron is, he destroys himself in order to once and for all assert his free will and destroy that essence. In Energon it's not that clear, but it supposed to be the same deal, killing himself to never again be slave to another's will.

I make it sound so much more grand and empathic than it was, of course, but that's about the size of it.