I just started watching it and am toward the end of S2...that's definitely NOT the norm

 

I’ve watched it too, beginning to end, and while it’s not the norm, it’s a cheap cop out. Sure they have Voltron style hero transformations too, and some legit animated transformations, but those cheap transformations were not few and far between.

 

They're very clearly stylised, and also don't pretend G1 never just had characters turn into stupid blobs that turn into cars or whatever, this is the price to pay for 2D handdrawn Transformers.

 

Yeah. I also rewatched G1 recently and some of the transformation shortcuts there are hilariously bad

 

I hope it'll be 3D animation like Marvel's what if or Spiderverse. But another prequel? To Baymovies? Why don't they go ahead and make it a sequel ending the Bay movies once and for all. I definitely don't feel tlk was a decent ending and I have faith an animation would have a better storytelling, a better story at all, and the most important, more robot scenes. I just don't see much need of a prequel rn

"The film is separate and apart from the live-action Transformers film series and the Bumblebee spinoff, and those movies continue on a fast track." Oh I haven't seen it. So, if it's apart from the movies, it's a prequel of what? It looks more its own thing

 

G1 had bad shortcuts too, especially in its later years, but I’ll take morphing mixed with mass shifting (which was also in Animated) over scribbles and smoke.

 

You call those scribbles, they're smear frames, a technique used in animation for donkeys years.

 

They smear framed scribbles then. When used properly, smear frames can invoke a sense of speed. The only speed here is the tornado cutting down the time it takes to animate a proper transformation.

 

....Yes that's the point of it here, it's meant to convey that Prowl can transform fast because he's a ninja.

 

There was an episode where Lockdown transformed in the shadows. All you see is a silhouette converting into a robot. It was so badass. That’s a great and smart shortcut. That’s how a ninja shoulda transformed.

 

Lockdown's scene is supposed to be an ominous reveal of a shady enemy, Prowl's scene is a "robot transforming while turning around trying to stop moving as fast as possible to avoid the motion sensors". It's a very specific situation, the animation choices work great for said context, if you don't like it that is your problem alone and does not speak ill of the presentation of that scene. TFA was mostly badly animated but that specific episode was one of the few TFA episodes that had very good animation and key-frame lineart quality.

 

This has the potential to be the best TF media we get in years.

 

An animated prequel would mean no human characters hogging the spotlight!

 

Fascinating

 

The opening to Bumblebee shows how fantastic a TF movie can be without some human and their problems.

 

Then you don't understand what makes Transformers cool. They're robots in disguise on Earth, that's the cool thing about them, otherwise it's just robots that turn into frisbees shooting at each other.

 

Exactly! Revenge of the Fallen is a perfect example of why a movie without humans needs to happen. Did we really need a movie that (in my opinion) focused WAY too much on Sam and his relationship problems? Also, the Bumblebee opening showed some AWESOME character designs! (Well, minus Arcee, she looked a little...creepy)

 

What makes them cool is strictly opinion so it’s not like I understand or don’t understand. To me, it’s converting robots with alt modes. It doesn’t matter if their on Earth, Cybertron, or an entirely different planet with civilized life. It’s the fact that they can take another form to blend in with whatever planet they’re on or use themselves to travel without the need for a vehicle is what makes em cool.

 

Absolutely. By the logic of it having to be on Earth, that would mean War Within, a good chunk of the Marvel books, and the opening to Bumblebee all suck...and I would hotly contest those opinions.

 

As much as I like a good story involving them needing to blend in on Earth it'd be cool to see them needing to blend in on another planet with a civilization different from ours.