There’s not really an answer to that, at least none that I’ve ever been able to find. It’s just one of those things strangely enough..

 

Cartoon Network was rushing the team to get the show ready for it to he aired but it wasn't really ready, hence why there are a lot of errors in animation and script.

 

Seeing the g1 title to ML is a passing of the torch from g1/beast era to the Unicron trilogy.

 

Micron Legend, you say?

 

I still kind of think the Armada aesthetic is the best the Transformers have looked within a vehicular Autobot Vs Decepticon sort of context. They really learned how to add a level of stylishness and complexity to the traditional G1 context that never went overboard in its creative style, nor did it feel too conservative either. Robots had complex faceplates, visors (both see-through and solid), various unique head shapes, unique, even alien looking proportions, like in the case of Demolishor, but these never felt out of place, in fact it's sometimes easy to not even notice when a character's proportions are so different from the rest of the cast, because the rest of the general aesthetic helps them blend in so nicely. The designs all looked great. The toys not so much, but that's fine given the kinds of engineering the concepts demanded and where toy engineering kind of still was at that time. For the longest time I was obsessed with the aesthetic of shows like Animated, but I don't think anyone would have demanded Animated to be the end-all-be-all reference for designing Transformers universally. If Transformers WERE to have a specific universal aesthetic, I think I would go with Armada. It just comes off as this perfect evolution from the simplified sunbow G1 designs into something more complex, but far more subtle in what makes it stylistic compared to what came after. Ever since Animated (and again, I don't want to make it sound like I'm disparaging Animated or anything since it is actually my favourite show), Transformers shows kind of all maintained this highly curvy, fluid looking design aesthetic that has always been based on what Animated brought to the table in some way. This is, again, fine, but we haven't had the kind of blocky, more industrial look that the original series implemented and shows like Armada, and to some extent RID, developed further.

 

An Armada Appreciation Thread?

 

Imma appreciate each character while I'm here

Optimus Prime: not my favorite incarnation (yet) but he always felt like the leader Animated Prime would grow to be. He's very familiar and casual with his crew most often but he knows when to take charge. That brutal ass beatdown with Galvatron at the very end was the best fight in the series.
Hot Shot: grating but by design. He grows and matures a LOT in this season, and when Prime dies, he steps up to the best of his ability, but knows it isnt much. He doesn't get greedy with power and that's a great sign.
Red Alert: I'll admit, he's my least favorite of the autobot cast but he's an essential role and that laser scalpel hand was a nice touch to add to his identity.
Smokescreen: Very impactful death scene, gave me Brawn vibes with the short grumpy one taking Megatron one on one. Hoist was a nice body to upgrade him to and it wasn't just repaint like most
Jetfire: loved his intro and Jet Prime is my favorite combination.
Overload: Goddamn is he cool in combined mode
Blurr: An interesting take on the character and I think the Silverbolt name fits better but the racer motif works wonders.
Sideswipe: Annoying but, like Hot Shot, by design. I believe he was added to give Hot Shot a taste of his own medicine, show the growing pains of stepping up as a leader, with obnoxious subordinates. Even then he isn't as bad as most made him out to be. It was mostly a bad toy and a couple annoying scenes.

Megatron: love his dynamic with Starscream. He's trying to get him to live up to his potential, he isn't an ass for no reason. His dynamic with Prime too was great. This one I believed would team up with the autobots for the greater good. WAY more than IDW
Starscream: What can I even say? Best Starscream
Demolishor and Cyclonus: Talking about them in unison because you really can't have one without the other. One of the better comedic duos that I think Ransack and Crumplezone tried to mimic but never could, not really. Glad they lived throughout the series.
Tidal Wave: Such a badass character design and that introductory fight was amazing.
Thrust: An interesting design and I loved how independent he was from the rest. Most humorous death of the show I think.

Sideways: You know damn well he was the best character of the series, don't even try and @ me.

Unicron: interesting take with him as one of the moons and fueling the war and the negativity involved.

Minicons: buttloads of unique designs and quirky robot modes oozing with personality. The weapons are great in concept as well.

The humans aren't the worst theyve been nor will be. S1 Spike levels of eh. They certainly tried to make them useful with communicating with the minicons and giving them Laserbeak to not be defenseless. Billy and Eddie were pretty bad and wish they got written out but overall harmless.

 

I've already talked about why Demolishor is probably my favorite member of the Armada Decepticons, being undoubtedly loyal while still being intelligent enough to recognize when things aren't right with the leadership and having a surprising amount of nuance as a result, but I feel I should give the Autobots their due and talk about Jetfire. Armada Jetfire is great. He seems like the kind of guy Hot Shot could eventually grow into-- cocky and brash, sure, but with more than enough skill to back his swagger up. His bravado serves as a good counterpoint to Optimus' more reserved style of command which renders him more personable to the Autobots, and this combined with the fact that he's willing to tell Optimus to his face when he thinks he's made a bad call makes it abundantly clear why he was appointed SIC. Jetfire knows his job and he doesn't just do it well, he does it with panache. Plus he's voiced by Scott McNeil in the English dub, so that automatically elevates him as a character.

I'd love to see him and ROTF Jetfire in the same room together. Would they hate each other, or would they get along like a house on fire?

 

I really like scavenger he was pretty cool from what I remember of him

 

An addendum because my dumbass forgot a couple of people in my previous post (quoted below)

Scavenger: I really liked his intro and an Autobot fashioned after the constructicons was such a neat idea. I'd love for these subteams to have members on each faction to provide depth to them

Wheeljack: My absolute favorite character from the concept alone. An Autobot turned into a Decepticon is not at all common and one who looks so painfully like an autobot is amazing. He's as shocking as G1 Jetfire, in my eyes. I wish he had any future in the sequel series as I would've loved to see where he wound up after the Unicron battles.

Nemesis Prime: Not really a character as much as he is a plot device, but he was mysterious and brutal. Excellent concept that has been done to death these days.

 

Reading this thread confirms something I’ve always felt about Armada- that despite the sometimes shoddy cartoon, there was something there in the toys, in the characters and stories, in the videogame that tapped into something great. There was enough good in there to outweigh the rushed animation, dubbing, and the standard-fare anime story to really stick with people years later.

 

Armada had a lot of ambition, and I think that shines through in the end. For all its faults, Armada was really trying to do something different, to set itself apart from its predecessors in a big way. The toys accomplished this with the Mini-Cons and their respective gimmicks with the larger figures, the television show achieved it by getting surprisingly mature about halfway through and really digging deep into what makes the characters (particularly the Decepticons) tick, the comics focused on the Mini-Cons as individuals and their view of the conflict (an aspect that was similarly given the spotlight with the Linkage manga, excellent in its own right) and as I've previously discussed, the video game was far more fun and polished than it probably had any right to be. Sure the toys were lacking in poseability, sure the cartoon was effectively sabotaged by Cartoon Network thanks to their demand for X number of episodes before they would even consider airing it, sure Dreamwave as a company sucked, but underneath it all it's impossible to deny that Armada and the people who worked on its facets had drive.