Just as the title says. How come they create new humans for almost every series?

 

So kids have someone to relate to and so the audience has someone to explain the various alien terms. The human characters pretty much act as a guide for the audience, asking questions that the audience probably has and other miscellaneous things of that nature.

 

I don't disagree with anything you said but it still doesn't answer why they make new human characters for every new series. Wouldn't Spike for example, work as a kid today?

 

Probably, but it's way easier to just invent new characters rather then reinventing old characters.

 

Because every show is different and new and not a straight reimaging or reboot. They just take basic ideas from former incarnations of the show and make something new. If it would be a straight reboot, we wouldn't have discussions everytime, that they look so much different everytime.

 

Thing is, you don't necessarily need human characters for viewers to relate to in order to have a successful series on your hands. Take Toy Story, for instance. Human characters took a real backseat there, and yet we remained absolutely entranced by the events unfolding on screen. Same goes for Beast Wars.

I'm sure I wasn't the only kid who didn't give a damn about the secondary human characters in shows that involved giant robots, space monsters and the like.

 

Oh yeah, you definitely don't need a human character bounce things off of or to be there so the audience can relate to them. It's just that most writers like to use humans like that, especially with most Transformers shows.

 

They need to break clear of that formula then, or otherwise give us human characters we can really root for.

 

Oh yeah, you'll get no arguement from me. They need to up their game and reinvent the wheel.

 

I was gonna go with the humans not having a lifespan of 4 million years, but I guess the fresh meat theories work too.

 

Their only created so "we can relate too".


It's hard to relate to any idiot human in Bayformers except for the NEST guys like Lennox and Epps.

Transformers Prime as better written it is, the humans still need fine tuning, basically make Jack less boring and emo, Miko is to be responsible and Raf to get a personality.

 

I guess someone decided you can have lots of Optimus Primes across multiple universes, but only one "Chip Chase" or "Kicker"

Imagine if Captain Fanzone was a multiversal singularity, hating machines in all worlds at once.  

 

Wait, Jack's emo?  

 

You'd think in this day and age people wouldn't need human characters to relate to what's happening on screen. Maybe way back when non-human stories were the norm in screen and print, but nowadays everyone is familar with aliens and robots and weird stuff like that. I feel shoving a human eye gateway on almost everything so people can 'get it' is kinda insulting to people now. 'We added this human character so you'd understand what's going on, you dullard'. I feel it's a generally outdated idea these days.

 

I agree with wondering why Cybertronian characters get reimagined in every series, yet new humans every series.

 

I have no idea why new human characters need to be created. It's too bad Fanzone's such a product of his environment. I'd love to see more of him, but you'd pretty much need a culture where robots are commonplace and Transformers function out in the open as heroes.

 

From a marketing perspective, the human characters have no brand equity. While the Optimus name and look may move product, Sari or Miko do not, or would do so at a negligible rate. Better to give the writers freedom to make whatever character they think works best as opposed to chaining them to a pre-existing template.

From a storyline perspective, humans are required to act as a conduit, connecting the space toys with the real world. Their interaction with the robots not only allows the viewer into the world of Transformers, but also brings the Transformers into the human world. It thus allows an exploration of events and themes that won't be available to either world on their own.

Furthermore, humans are a necessity for scale. Without them, the robots seem more like dudes in cardboard boxes as opposed to alien lifeforms. Humans thus emphasis the size and alieness of the transformers. The lack of humans was one of the great failing of War for Cybertron, which ended up feeling anything but a game about giant robots.

As an aside, the general dislike for humans tends to be strongest amongst the hardcore Transformer fandom. For those less invested in the property, they tend to quite like the humans. In fact, a majority of non Transformers fans whom I've shown TFP to have liked the humans more than the actual robots.

 

Best answer. Solid.  

I am also someone who doesn't quite understand the rampant human hate. Without the human world as context, I think Transformers very quickly lose their raison d'etre... though I agree that annoying child sidekicks are probably not the best options for human characters.

As for a series without humans... well, we have Beast Wars. However, with the primitive world context, the animal modes themselves provided the necessary sense of scale (well, sort of) and "connection to the real world". However, as relatively well-written as BW was, I think it is by far the least interesting and most barren environment that Transformers have occupied.

zmog

 

Snark said it all, honestly.