Name a character in tf that has either been downgraded overtime or a character that has upgraded overtime
I think bumblebee from transformers prime to bumblebee from rid2015 has to be one of the biggest downgrades.

 

In what way? Physically? Character? How much one likes them?

 

Character

 

I feel like this is a great honor to be the first person in this thread to mention Starscream from Armada into his later Unicron Trilogy incarnations

 

Basically any of the ones from the Bay movies were a severe downgrade despite just being nameslaps for the most part.

Plenty of IDW characters were pretty big downgrades (if not at the start, as time went on) as well. Some major ones I can name off the top of my head would be Arcee, Galvatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Thundercracker.

I'd mention Cyberverse, but there's so little in regards to actual character that isn't just super shallow and surface-level.

 

When a character gets downgraded, it's called "flanderization." Named after the Simpsons character Ned Flanders. When a character's most complex traits and human features, are thrown out overtime for a more simple character. This mainly effects comedic relief characters, and is rare for action shows.

• Optimus Prime went from being the voice of reason, a fun loving goofball and father figure, to just being "the stoic leader." Besides being wise, he has no other character. Which is why I love G1 Optimus so much, he wasn't afraid to take jabs at his teammates, it made him feel more youthful!
• Bumblebee went from being the little brother, to the mute. I like this and hate it. I like it because writers can be creative and have Bumblebee communicate with his body and face, other times it's obnoxious like in Cyberverse (when he didn't have a voice.)
• Cliffjumper went from being a recolor who was able to standout as his own character separate from Bumblebee to just being either "Red Bumblebee" or "That red guy who dies at the beginning of the show."
• Ultra Magnus can either be a foil to the younger Autobots, or an Optimus Prime clone.
• Acree in IDW's comics had a troubled history. In tv shows her personality can sometimes just be: "girl."

 

I miss the days when Prime was allowed to have a dry sense of humor "Amazing. A booby trap that actually catches boobies!" You'd never hear Aligned Optimus making a joke like that, or playing basketball.

Cliffjumper is even worse than you claim - he wasn't a recolor originally, but a unique design and character. The whole Red Bumblebee thing didn't start until the Classics toy.

Arcee started out as "The Chick" so characterization beyond that is an improvement. Personally I think Prime Arcee was the most interesting, followed by Animated's schoolteacher-turned-spy. "Daniel's nanny" not so much, but G1 is still better than what I've read and read of IDW's version. (But I hate IDW in general, so ...)

 

I definitely miss G1 Optimus' sense of humor. Cartoon G1 Optimus is still my favorite incarnation of the character, just because he managed to be a strong leader without being boring and overly stoic. (I like Animated Optimus Prime, too, primarily because, like Optimus Primal and G1 Optimus Prime, he isn't overly stoic.)
RID 2001 Optimus, the Unicron Trilogy Optimus (except, from what I've heard, at the very end of Armada), Prime Optimus Prime, RID 2015 Optimus Prime, the Prime Wars trilogy Optimus Prime, and, at least to some extent, Cyberverse Optimus Prime all fell into the "overly stoic and serious" trap.

Yeah. Poor old Cliffjumper. Making him into "Red Bumblebee who dies" has not been good for his character.

I agree with you on this....sometimes it's clever, and sometimes it's annoying. The more he beeps, the more annoying I tend to find it.

 

The stoic and boring portrayal for Optimus didn't really take hold until the movies came out. RiD was a fun take on the character, UT Prime did to what degree the dub script was decent - Armada and Cybertron he was decent. Animated was great, I agree.

It's mostly the modern Primes voiced by Peter Cullen that fall into the stoic, ultra-heroic, and dull as a rock persona. I blame the voice direction, since he was amazing as G1 Prime. It's like the directors are fans, but only remember the epic hero moments Cullen voiced, and not the human, relatable ones.

 

I haven't seen much of Armada, so I totally believe he was decent there.
I've seen more of Cybertron, but it's been years since I watched it. Now that I think about it, though, I do remember that time where Vector Prime punched him in the face during his crisis of confidence. I retract my earlier statement about him being overly stoic. The things I remember about Cybertron are really weird: I remember the never-ending racing arc, the planet of giant Scottish robots, the aforementioned punching scene, DJ Soundwave, Thunderblast, Ransack and Crumplezone's antics, the heavy accents Thundercracker and Jetfire had, and giant Starscream. The actual plot of the show sort of fades into the background in favor of quirky characters and really distinct vocal performances.
RID 2001 Prime was okay....maybe it was just his voice that I didn't much care for.

Yeah...it's really weird how that happened. It's like everyone wants Cullen to be Prime....but only 1986 movie Prime; not G1 Seasons 1 and 2 Prime. Cullen was great in the 1986 movie in part because he'd previously been great as a more lighthearted Prime in the first two seasons.

 

As far as I'm concerned, most characters touched by IDW underwent some kind of downgrade by either turning them into generic psychos or generic poor misunderstood outcasts. But one character sticks out more than most:

Megatron. He went from a cast-iron badass conqueror who inspires awe and terror to some morose failed revolutionary who only inspires pity and annoyance. I'm not even going to talk about that cheap ratings stunt IDW pulled with him at the end of Dark Cybertron.

On the other hand, I feel that IDW did give Galvatron a good character upgrade.

 

I don't think this is that easy, because every series has robots that once played a major role now playing a minor one. Major players in one series can be cameos in another, and likewise minor characters in one series can become prominent in another, so I don't think that's an apples-to-orange comparison

So ignoring, "My favorite character from G1 became a cameo," scenarios, I'm going to go with the biggest downgrade being Energon Cyclonus. I like crazy, maniacal Decepticons plenty, but Cyclonus/SnowCat is just plain annoying, and a huge downgrade from G1 Cyclonus.

 

I think Optimus Prime has suffered quite a bit. He went from an inspiring leader and father-figure to murderous psychopath to... literally the opposite of inspiring father figure. Nowadays he's incredibly dull; he lacks the life he once had from 1984 to about 2008 with the Animated incarnation.

Bumblebee had the biggest upgrade overall, from token kid-appeal character in G1 to the face of the brand next to Optimus Prime. Of course, how he got there is certainly a downgrade. He stole Hot Shot's personality and Hot Rod's schtick, while also becoming an annoyance with the whole mute gimmick.

 

Regarding Optimus Prime not being like his G1 days.

Apparently his Cyberverse incarnation has kind of recaptured that. At least this guy thinks so.

Bulkhead started out as a pretty minor character in Energon, now he’s kind of replaced Ironhide in terms of prominence.

And Ironhide, from G1 to Energon. Need I say more? At least the movies brought him back.

 

It's like Megatron downgraded all his troops in Energon, I think they just suffered villian decay because they became more comedic than threatening.

 

Well he literally wiped their memory cores.

I agree Cyberverse Optimus is the best in awhile. At his core he's really Marvel Optimus, motivated by the guilt he feels for not stopping Megatron early in the war and for launching the Allspark (Underbase anybody?), and he does have softer, more human momemts. The Party Down episode showed he's really not all that socially adept, and his dancing scene was super sweet. I haven't gotten to the back half of Season 3 but I'm curious what he'll do in a quasi-peacetime.

 

Yeah, he does at least seem to be better than most of the recent Primes.

 

Was that just superlink?
One line that stuck with me from Energon is when Demolishor and Snowcat are firingaway at Autobots.
"This is just like the old days, aye Demolishor" "huh, I thought megatron wiped your memory" "no, I thought he wiped yours"

 

It was my impression that that was a SUPERLINK line but I haven't watched either in years.