Sometimes. I just think that they need to be background players at best.

The movies were mostly about human’s reaction to the bots whereas G1 was about their time here and their reaction to the humans and their world.

I think TF Prime is a good example of striking a balance between the 2

 

I would actually like to see this get tried

it could lead to the start of the autobot decepticons war

 

I mean, IDW1 did that.
It was stupid and annoying and involved turning a heroic figure (Joe Colton) into a genocidal idiot along with a teamup with a crazy alien, but they did that.

 

I strongly disagree given the humans ended up being, inexplicably, front and center given how the Decepticons couldn't believe Hardshell was killed by Miko.

Oh, no wait, I'm sorry, it was Miko pushing a button that launched rockets at Hardshell. But somehow that made the humans super dangerous in Megatron's eyes (even though there actually was no way any of the Decepticons could have known it was Miko and not Wheeljack, given it was his ship and they couldn't see inside said ship).

And then there's Raf, who was such a deus ex machina that literally solves every problem that doesn't involve brute force that even the animators themselves admitted they didn't know what to do with him in Season 3.

 

To be fair, the second season, where Autobots and Decepticons kinda rolled out openly, included humans' perspective on cybertronians, what's with that video of top 3 epic robot fails (something we would totally have). Now that I think about it, I have to credit Cyberverse Megatron for actually working on his PR, as he publicly announced Starscream's deactivation on human streaming service and made it look a noble sacrifice rather than a failed backstab, painting the entire faction more honorable than they actually are.
But yes, season 1 and season 3, with most the their action remaining on Cybertron, work without humans just fine.

 

Yes , to show scale , fear and drive them around.

What’s the point of their altmodes having seats & cockpits without someone to sit in them?

 

Exactly!

 

Yes. You need humans to disguise from or with in order for the idea of transforming into cars and jets to really work. While series like Beast Wars or WfC are viable, ultimately, human components eventually need to be introduced and utilized.

 

Human characters aren't necessarily needed, but I strongly believe that they are an incredible supplement which can greatly enhance the story. When done well, human characters are the perfect audience surrogate. They provide us with not only a sense of the Transformers' scale, but also strengthen our connection to the Autobot (and on rare occasions, Decepticon) characters, as they believably become attached to our planet through their bonds with the human cast.

With the exception of Beast Wars, all of my personal favorite Transformers series have a strong human presence in their narratives.

 

Noooo... leave the humans out of this. The franchise is called Transformers, not humans, for f*ck's sake! But humans are humans, and they always want to put themselves in their media.

Then again, it is logical for the humans to be put some of the time. Leaves the spotlight out of the bots for a while so we can remember who's homeworld we're on.




But the point of the term "robots in disguise" in G1 was to hide from the Decepticons to get the element of surprise, so in all meanings, humans are okay in TF media.

 

You're completely wrong. The Decepticons used their alt-modes in G1 to con Humans on more than one occasion. Soundwave and his minions very notably used their alt-modes to sneak into Autobot Headquarters on several occasions.

 

We could do with them on other alien worlds again.

 

In masterforce yes

 

I think I like the direction of RID 2015 best in that regard. The setting is on Earth but the Autobots hide from the population (who are either oblivious or too dumb to notice) with the help of a very small group of humans who also introduce them to Earth's custom and culture. Stories set on Cybertron is fine, but what is the point of being called robots in disguises if they don't transform to trick anybody? Not to mention there have been cool humans like Sari Sumdack and Agent Fowler (I don't like it when the army works with the Autobots, but you can't not like him), on top of really nice relationships between bots and humans like Alexi and Starscream, Lori and Scourge, Jack and Arcee. I'd love to see more of these.

 

It all depends on the story.
Beast Wars like story? No
Bumblebee movie like story? Yes

 

Absolutely. While some forms of media don't really show significant human characters (Cyberverse, Netflix WFC Trilogy, Devastation) their existence still plays a role in the conflict between the two factions. Just seeing who's willing to care for a species who in the grand scheme of things is very insignificant & unimportant to them vs who's willing to just walk all over them or actively try to eradicate them communicates to us enough what these characters' personalities & moralities are like.

 

I wouldn’t call them necessary, but they can absolutely add to a setting. Transformers don’t really feel like “giant alien robots” unless you’ve got something to compare them to. Imo the past few years of cartoons and comics without any humans has just made me want more human characters.
It’d be nice to see a series set in the distant future where earth and cybertron are portrayed sort of like allied nations.

 

Depends on the story. Cyberverse and MTMTE/LL did really well without humans because they focused more on Cybertron and the Transformers themselves (even though the brief inclusion of humans in Cyberverse was hilarious  ), but G1 and other shows like that need humans to use as an audience-insert or to give a sense of scale to the conflict and characters. Personally, I really like human characters and I wish they were in more things. I do think they're important to use when a story takes place on Earth.

 

I'm not too fussed frankly. it's just quality that decides if I like them or not.

However the lack of an Animated GIJoe/Transformers crossover is like the only thing that would sway me to say they are a good thing.

 

Humans DO always work and Transformers don’t work if they don’t have humans. Also Sam isn’t annoying.