Idk how anyone can put G1 above any other Transformers show. Unless it's just to say they get lots of enjoyment out of how it's "so bad it's good".

 

Nostalgia could also play a factor.

 

People who worship the original cartoon/series I do not speak for, but you are guilty of overlooking a very critical difference.

The G1 cartoon was a cheaply produced 80s cartoon that the writers even admit had scripts that went from draft to final copy in a week. Sure, the show is flawed as hell, but it also wasn't being promoted as anything of quality and existed purely as a 22 minute commercial for the toys, full stop. Its more the appeal of it being just the first as well as nostalgia for both the franchise as well as that classic 80s Saturday morning cartoon feeling that is largely gone in this day and age.

Transformers Prime cost obscenely more to produce - one episode of Prime probably cost as much as all of G1 Seasons 1 through 3 combined before inflation. It wasn't intended to be a cheap cartoon advertising a toyline, but also an ongoing production with a plot and big name voice actors. So the idea that Prime is held to a significantly higher standard (which is routinely falls short of to many) isn't as unfounded as you seem to indirectly imply, while G1, a show that absolutely wasn't pretending to be anything more than a cheap production, is allowed to get away with some of the same gaffes, because it wasn't intended to be that high quality to begin with.

None of whom have been used since the end of RID

I'm not going to waste time but the designs largely aren't as unique as you seem to think.

The only reason Megatron keeps losing is because he's legitimately the most incompetent incarnation to bear the name, even G1 Megatron didn't intentionally sabotage himself by throwing away anything handed to him on a silver platter. Hell, the entire ending of S3 is literally just repeating the end of S2 but allows the Autobots to have their cake and eat it too.

Except Prime itself also is to blame for why a lot of the content following it is also bad - Hasbro's overbearing insistence on following established franchise norms. Prime went so far off the reservation, as documented with things like the Rik Alverez panel, and brought down the entire Aligned continuity with it because the people in charge were seemingly hostile to the idea of having to play by an established rule book to connect to other aligned properties.

Not saying you aren't free to rant...but we have documented proof at how Prime's quality, or lack therof, seriously hurt the franchise and its direction.

 

TFP was constantly promoted as a dark, high risk show, but in the end, it ended up coming across as pretentious, really dull fluff with only a few highlights. And honestly, that is why I feel people are critical about it. Yes, the G1 cartoon had flaws (I personally can't stand the first season), but it didn't brag about them and just tried to have as much fun as possible with the stories. TFP was constantly announcing "Oh, when a character dies, he dies..." or "Oh, this is going to be so meaningful and really great" and in the end, it was all false promises that really made the show come across as insulting (at least to me). Seriously, Optimus, Megatron and Bumblebee all broke the promise of "when someone dies, they die".

TFP was torture to watch for me (same with TFA), which is why I tend to go to the shows for the kids, because at least they feel inviting and don't seem to be downright irritating or insulting to me.

Probably nostalgia. I tell ya, the first season of G1 I found extremely boring and really bland. Season two was a bit better to me and seasons three and four were IMO the best part of the whole show.

But honestly, most people seem to love it mostly for the first season, but unfortunately, just like TFP and TFA, I don't see what's so great about it apart from like four episodes and a few characters.

 

Its really telling how the only Autobot death that has any real gravitas with the audience is Cliffjumper, and only because we actually get to see him alive and talking, and then a brief fight, for five minutes before he gets killed, thus establishing the ONLY importance of the character being Arcee whining her ass off about DEAD PARTNERS every chance she gets to the point of actively hurting her own side - had she not bitched about Starscream later on when he's seeking sanctuary (or Prime actually exercised rank and told her to shut up because she's not the one in charge and so it's not her decision to make), would he EVER have gone back to the Decepticons? And then Arcee's other major antagonism is focused on Airachnid because...DEAD PARTNERS. Literally another Cliffjumper painted white, he's not even a character so much as an excuse for plot that ultimately has an unsatisfying ending as well given how damn long Airachnid spent in stasis only to be literally thrown into the void and forgotten. And then we get stupid stuff like Seaspray which is a fine example of 'tell, don't show' because Seaspray doesn't exist. We are just told he was killed and people are mad about it, but because we never knew who Seaspray was beyond his name, there's no emotional investment.

This is why people got so emotional over Ratchet dying in Age of Excrement, even though he doesn't do anything in the film besides die. He never did much of anything really, but he appeared in three films and so had something of meaningful presence, which gave his death weight. The same can't be said for ANY of the deaths in Prime on the Autobot side (excluding Prime himself because, y'know, he always comes back because in-universe he's literally Robot Jesus as the Thirteenth Prime) aside from Cliffjumper who was hyped in the advertising (and his design was sick, too), so ALL the weight of loss has to be put onto his death and Arcee ultimately is the only one who seems to forget she's IN A WAR AND PEOPLE DIE IN WAR.

 

Couldn’t have said it any better myself. And another thing on the topic of deaths, Megatron’s. It was so undeserved for Bumblebee to deal the finishing blow, the Bot who had the least amount of presence in Team Prime. I would have been okay with it if Bee ACTUALLY did stuff and wasn’t just there to make annoying beeping noises only for someone else to repeat what he said, but in English. I like Bee’s radio chatter in the films because they had access to real voice film clips to be used at opportune moments of comedic relief or just talking. That and Bee is usually always there, be it trashing Cons or ya know actually doing character stuff. But they decided it was best in TFP that he should make earrape beep noises, and the loss of his voice box means Jack shit since every Cybertronian can understand him anyway. And somehow RAF does too, he even says he understands Bee and doesn’t know why. Jesus.

 

Raf's existence is just further proof that show wasn't as robust as people keep saying it is. Namely, you have this grade schooler who is not only able to understand how to interface and use alien technology exponentially more sophisticated than anything mankind has ever encountered, but is able to completely outhack Soundwave (who somehow couldn't do something as simple as lock out all external ports to shut Raf out completely and make the VLA an isolated system, he had to sever the physical connection), then HACK LASERBEAK WITHOUT SOUNDWAVE FIGURING OUT HE WAS COMPROMISED AT ALL, and really any solution to any problem in the show that wasn't solved by brute force? Raf. Every single time. I'm not counting the whole 'Human Factor' thing against Raf because the whole situation was so goddamn dumb in order to even allow it to work in the first place (you have a government agent allowing a CHILD to access a GOVERNMENT BLACK SITE from a REMOTE LOCATION using an unsecured consumer laptop...just no.)

It got so bad that even the people running the show admitted they didn't know what to do with the character in Season 3 because Raf was more deus ex machina plot device than legitimate character.

 

Yeah, in the case of Megs, I really feel he should have stayed dead from the start, but no, they just up and broke their promise immediately by bringing him back. Once Screamer took out that shard of Dark Energon in episode six, Megs shoulda stayed dead.

And yeah, Bumblebee was also an annoying cheat because we see Megatron literally killing him and then, he is revived by the Omega Lock's energy.

Yeah, it really annoys me that the whole purpose of Cliffjumper is basically make Arcee an unlikeable bitch.

 

Wow. Probably the greatest first post that I've ever seen. Nicely done.

 

I also wanna just mention it was fucking cringe when Ratchet was kidnapped by the Cons and Raf started acting like Ratchet out of nowhere and only once.

 

ADAM Baldwin. Not Alec.

 

I liked Prime. It had really good voice acting and dialogue (Knockout's VA for the win ), understandably since it had a high production budget.
But a lot of its flaws stemmed from the writers trying too hard to make the show serious and dark. A lot of lazy ass writing too as already stated here- useless characters, lack of emotional investment etc.
Although to be fair, other TF shows like Cyberverse are guilty of lazy ass writing too. At least Cyberverse had the excuse of not trying to promote itself as dark and edgy but more as a show marketed at people with ages above the RBA audience 

Prime makes me nostalgic for the days of not half-assed, not cheapy budgeted TF shows.

I agree Bumblebee should have stayed dead. And Miko killed off. That, for sure would guarantee more fan reaction and give the show legendary status 

 

If this is your thesis then you're never going to enjoy Transformers ever again. This statement is absurd.

 

While almost everyone here would have liked to see Miko offed but its a cartoon YOU CAN't JUST KILL KIDS lol. I say that with a chuckle

 

Plus Miko isn't even that bad. She's not Fred, Billy and Carlos from Armada levels of useless and annoying.

 

Yet another reason for Transformers to go back to anime.

 

I wouldn't call that a good thing. Really, she was "too" useful, because the entire ending of S2 is largely framed over how Megatron was amazed at how she killed Hardshell.

Except she didn't. She pressed a button to fire missiles, from a Cybertronian ship, at him. Furthermore, there literally was no way the Vehicons would have even known it was her and not Wheeljack due to the limited visibility they had.

On top of that, it was Miko who had the whole 'bittersweet regret over revenge' conclusion to her arc when Bulkhead wasn't even dead, while Arcee who should have gotten that moment because of how much she bitched about DEAD PARTNERS, instead decides to not kill Airachnid for literally no good reason and thus never really actually has development from what she spent the majority of the show being an annoying bitch over.

 

Yeah I understand that, and it's all valid. But I'm really meaning to say Miko doesn't make me feel the hate and irritation like the three cunts I mentioned do.

 

Fair enough.

 

Regardless of how annoying she can be, Miko's got agency and even a character arc, that automatically puts her above most of the other kid characters. A damn sight better than Raf existing just to do computer hacking stuff, or... the other guy... just existing.