How do you permanently kill off a character in a franchise where the continuity resets every three or so years? I'm pretty sure Simon Furman alone has killed off the same guy like four or five times over his career.

 

I think this is less a "kill off" and more like a "permanently retire" kind of thing. Otherwise you're right. Can't really permanently kill off anyone and really have any lasting effect to tge franchise when we see the franchise recieve both hard and soft reboots pretty regularly.

 

Ultra Magnus - I just can't handle him anymore
Ironhide - Replace him with X-Brawn from RiD2001
Soundwave - Without a Blaster counterpart, I just don't like him
Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime - Get creative and find someone else to be heir to Optimus
Bumblebee - The non-talking Bumblebees have ruined him for me. Cyberverse tried to fix that, but it is too late for me. If you want an immature toon, bring in Sideburn from RiD2001. Atleast he would be different.

 

Assuming all of the likely candidates are eliminated first, I’d next go with:

Rodimus, Unicron, Optimus Primal, Ratchet, Shockwave.

I include Unicron both to be rid of him and because without him there would be no Galvatron, Cyclonus, or Scourge. However, I see potential for Galvatron if he were a character independent of Megs.

 

Yeah, I agree that there really aren’t any characters that need to be permanently retired, because there are literally 100s of characters available whose stories have yet to be told.

Maybe focus on a different Autobot leader like Zeta Prime? Or the tragedy of Bluestreak’s backstory? Or Trailbreaker’s inferiority complex? Or Mirage’s path from the Cybertronian upper-class to reluctant warrior? Or Thundercracker’s wavering devotion to the Decepticon cause? Groups like the Monsterbots never get any focus, when the clash between their brutal tactics and Autobot ideals could make great drama.

I grew up with G1, it’ll always be the best to me. But even I’m getting weary of constant rehashes of the same characters. There’s SO much story to be told, there’s no reason to keep going back to the same old Optimus Prime/Bumblebee/Megatron/Starscream core.

 

A black Optimus clone who wants to overthrow his leader superior to the only Decepticon apart from Thunderwing who forced the Matrix to accept him as host?
Yeah. I don't think so.

 

At least RID Scourge had a personality and did more in his show than just an Army builder did in one episode.

 

It looked to me like the Matrix was killing Soapdish Scourge. I wouldn't exactly call being warped and mutated by the Matrix' power "forcing it to accept him as host." More like continuing to stick your finger in the light socket even after you got hurt.

RiD>Cybertron>G1 is the proper ranking of Scourges IMO.

 

And my nominations are:

1/All Optimus clones, black or otherwise.

2/All Lamborghini characters.

3/Shockwave.

4/Arcee. (The character is as broken as Wreckgar39. Time to put her down)

5/All seekers.

 

The 13 Primes. They always twist the stories into particularly cheesy McGuffiny directions.

 

Black Laser Optimus > Bitch Made Bar Of Soap

 

Rattrap

strongarm

wheelie

most of the human casts in transformers

hotshot

G1 cyclonus and scourge

Most of the Rid15 cons


and blackairachnia

 

The 13 Primes come to mind, just because I'm tired of them ending up in every story as of late.

Windblade and Lockdown, maybe more Windblade, just because they can't seem to decide on who they are as characters. I know that's a tricky thing with different continuities, but you need a baseline character to spread across said continuities, and they're not so much characters as "jobs".

The Quintessons. Has ANYTHING good come out of these things? I don't think so.

 

The Chad RID Scourge:


vs the Virgin G1 Scourge:

 

Just go with it, man. Don't overthink it. I know they'll never kill anyone off forever. Sure, they did it in 1986 but that was a different time and Hasbro wouldn't have the guts to try it again.

Huh??

 

100% agree with you here.

 

How about everybody? Then start a new show with the cast of GoBots. A billion extra credit points if they find a writer who can do something _without_ any major changes to the characters or the world they inhabit.

 

The ROTF Twins
...That is, if Hasbro hasnt already done so internally without telling anyone.

 

The 13 primes concept (Alpha Trion is a keeper), Primus and Unicron. I think the transformers need a better origin. Besides Robo God and Robo Devil stuff. Unicron is just Galactus.

 

Tell that to the male characters named after Artemis.