Hello, all! The Transformers (G1) cartoon is my favourite version of the Transformers continuity. But I have a question. Are there too many characters? I am mainly referring to the Autobots here, as there are less Decepticons, but this does still concern them. There are over 100 major characters from G1, and Only like half of them get properly fleshed out. They all have distinct personalities, but some are a lot more developed than others. Now while I flip-flop often on whether or not there are too many characters, I want to know what you guys think. Are there too many characters? If so, who do you think are the only ones to pay any mind too?
Nope. I don't think there are too many. Sure they keep adding to the G1 roster with the Generations but I don't have a problem. These are all very iconic to me, doesn't matter if its Optimus & Megs cast in 84 or the unknown Action Master & Micromasters of the 1990.
Never. Even if a lot don't get their time in the spotlight, they can still act as foils for other characters and provide jumping off points for later writers and speculators to work from. I love a lot of the lesser known guys.
I always so it as the Autobots were mostly civilians and the Decepticons were the military. As such, the Decepticons are more powerful but there are less of them.
Well it does make since if we take their origins in consideration... at least from the cartoon. As stated in the five-parter "The Fives Faces of Darkness" the Cybertronians who became Autobots were workers and the ones who became Decepticons were Warriors.
Actually, a large roster of characters is one of the things I like about the G1 toon. It gives the feeling that any episode I watch is taking place against the backdrop of a larger story. It's also one of the things that annoys me about the more recent series. You have a TV show meant to move a toy line yet you limit the number of core characters on each side to only five? That makes no sense
Are there really 100 "major" characters? To me, it's more like the Simpsons - lots and lots of interesting supporting characters and guest stars. I mean, they are supposed to be an army, after all, so it's all good.
There not too many characters. There is too much focus on too few characters, and always the same ones at that.
Yes and no. I don't think there were too many characters, per se, but too many "main" characters. Look at the Star Wars universe and perhaps Rebels as the most comparable portion of that property. You have thousands of characters, but the story (be it the Original Trilogy, Prequels, Rebels, or New Trilogy) mostly focuses on a core group. G1 tried giving the impression that all of these 200+ characters were somehow just as integral to the story and I think that hurt the structure of the show.
Okay let break it's down, so in '84 there are 25 Autobots (if you count Bumper, Jetfire, & The Dinobots as part of 84) and 27 Decepticons (if you count Shockwave, The Rainmakers, Refector, The Construticons, The Insecticons, & Other Seekers as part of 84 to) so you got just 52 characters in the years alone, and some are major characters (like Prime, Bee, Megs, Soundwave, Grimlock, etc.) with '85 to '87 they adding of how Autobots and Decepticons from 52 to 178 characters all together for the toy line alone if you adding some of the cartoon and comic characters like Alpha Trion, Arcee, Elita One's Femmbot Squad, Scrounge, Lord Straxus, & Unicron you got 189 characters total with some major characters.
It never really bothered me that there were a lot of characters in G1. Sure, it would have been nice if some of them were developed more (and there were some that I find utterly annoying), but still... I don’t see a problem with having that many characters in a single series.
I love that the original cartoons had so many characters. With that show I felt that a bigger cast worked well.
Should there only be 100 humans? We are talking about an entire species of lifeforms that are the dominant race of beings on an entire planet. The more characters we get, the more populated Cybertron becomes. Only having a few characters may help with story-telling...but when it comes to world-building, it sucks. And if G1 didn't have that fantastic world-building, we wouldn't be nerding out about it today.
I'm also in the camp who loves the fact that there's so many transformers in the cast of Generation 1. Sure we know that the real reason is because of the vast amount of toys they were ploughing through, but it gave us a huge world and a vast amount of different characters to enjoy. I don't think it would have the same appeal if we knew the whole war was between two groups of like 5-6 robots. I think i remember Armada being like that to begin with? Even having obscure bots is fun too, as it gives us fans a chance to create our own personalities to them in our own head cannon
Most people in the US are familiar with General George Patton and his exploits in WW2, but nobody except the family members of Pvt. Allen Green know anything about his story. Why can't the TF universe war be the same? I think that one thing that hurts the most beloved TF series on these forums is exactly that, there is no huge background pool of characters that are fighting this epic war, and no vagarities for you to develop your own personal connection to that one character who got little to no exposure in the fiction.
