Spoilers if you haven't finished watching season one yet.

After finishing Season one, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of new Autobot's introduced and even further by the fact no additional characters joined team Prime as regular members.

For me, the show's biggest flaw is the Autobot cast itself. It feels to much of a rehash of the Animated and Bayverse cast. I expected by the halfway mark of T: Prime it would of introduced more characters to make the cast more diverse and stand out from previous shows but that didn't happen. I'm really hoping now they rectify this problem come season two and give us a few new members this time.

What further contributes to this issue is how the spotlight was shared amongst the Autobots. Some people will argue a smaller cast is better for more development for each individual member but Prime failed to do that compared to shows like Animated and Beast Wars/Machines. For most of Season one, It was the Arcee and Bulkhead show with special guest appearances by Bumblebee, Ratchet and Optimus. While each character got some development at some point in the season, the spotlight was never equally shared amongst them. It was boring seeing so many episodes after episodes following the same character. It became repetitive, especially when the episodes are self contained stories, and barely progress the overall story of the show. I'm of course not saying the whole season was like that.

So whats everyone else's view on this? Were you fine with the same cast from beginning to end or would you of preferred at least one or more new additions?

 

While I do have a preference for smaller casts, the Autobots did seem a lil lacking to me. Although the kids do help bring more to they Bot cast, still felt like they could've used another member or two for a bit more diversity. Hoping for some new Bots in season 2 that'll stick around. As long as they don't flood the main cast.

 

Five-Man Band - Television Tropes & Idioms


The Hero

Optimus Prime



The Lancer

Arcee



The Smart Guy

Ratchet



The Big Guy

Bulkhead



The Bumblebee

Bumblebee


The defense rests. If Arcee gets now the "hero" role, they will need a new "lancer" (Wheeljack?)

 

Hope there will be more characters for Season 2

 

This.
It's a little sad that while Prime has such a small cast most episodes only featured those two (Arcee and Bulkhead) while the other characters were pushed into the background.
They could have had used the small cast as a way to flesh out all of the characters more.
Instead most of the episodes featured Arcee and Bulkhead.

I dont want to say that the other characters dont get any character developement; it's just that Bulkhead and Arcee seem to be the characters who get pushed into the most plots and therefore have more character development because we see more of them.

But we can assume that because we saw so much of them in the first season that in the second season the character-focus will shift towards the "background-characters".

Also another cause for the focus on Arcee and Bulkhead could be justified by them having each an archnemesis who were used as tools to give the characters more development.
Then there is also Miko who being Bulkheads partner also brought him into the spotlight due to her reckless behaviour.

While the other characters had none of that.

 

I think that the focus on Arcee/Bulkhead was chosen for Season 1 because of the fact that they're new characters to the audience.

Bumblebee, Optimus and Ratchet are THE Autobots nowadays. they're in movies, TFA, games, comics... yet Arcee and Bulkhead are very much brand new to the audiences, specially in their Prime versions since Arcee is COMPLETELY different from the old ones.

 

I went in seeing Prime with an open mind but I didn't expect such a limited amount of transformers.

Although, I would like to see new autobots and decepticons in season 2.

 

It's a CGI show. Models cost a lot of time and money to make. Hoping for a large cast in season 1 is moot. Though I am surprised how they killed off characters after such an expense. Meh, makes for a compelling drama if you feel anyone can die though.

Anyway, now that season 1 is done they don't need to make models for the main cast now. That means season 2 can can make more characters.

I would like them to imitate Animated and have a second team arrive and be involved throughout the next season.

 

Maybe they'll get a sixth ranger

 

They should of never did wheeljack that what I mean is have him show up for one episode a never again see him in season 1.

 

I still don't understand why they never use such big casts as they used to, I mean yeah I know that it takes them a while to design and render these things...

 

It's small.

 

Every character got a good amount of characterization. I'll take that over a massive cast, thanks.

As for Bulkhead and Arcee getting a lot of spotlight time, I don't really see a problem with that. Bulkhead still falls under the 'new to the franchise' banner, and pushing him for the new audience is good for seeing how he fares against the more well-known Optimus/Ratchet/Bumblebee-type characters. And Arcee, it's about damn time they had a properly awesome female character that isn't relegated to only an episode or two. She's the one with some pretty deep emotional scars and has shown a good amount of character growth, and it's been fun to watch that. Yes, Optimus also has a very heavy weight on his shoulders, but as was pointed out in more than one episode, he's the rock. He has to be stoic for the sake of keeping the team together. Sure, it means we've seen him as rather bland until the second half of the season, but he's had good reason - look at how defeated the Autobots look at the end of the season. He keeps them strong and battle-ready.

Also, keep in mind, Season One introduces the main characters and universe. Now that it's been established, Season Two can take the ball an run with it like mad. Just have patience.

 

The Autobot cast does feel on the small side to me. It doesn't help that BB is a non-speaking member of the team, so his input into interactions is limited and never as important for relaying information as say Ratchet or Arcee's inputs. So often when they have group discussions, it feel more like it's a conversation between just 2-4 participants. When on the field, only Arcee and Bulkhead have speaking roles really, not including Optimus. It never really feels like there's interaction between a decent-sized group imo.

I think it might have better if one of the children had been substituted for another Autobot at the outset. 3 of them has always seemed like an unnecessary number to me. 1 or 2 might have worked out better. More time and focus could then have been devoted to those 1 or 2 kids instead of having to share it out between 3. And with another Autobot, Prime's team wouldn't seem as small.

 

Well, then you DO understand why!  

 

Not to mention animated shows can only use up to 14 voice actors in one episode...

 

The Autobot cast is missing
Sunstreaker
Sideswipe
Brawn
Windcharger
Trailbreaker
Ironhide
Mirage
Jazz
Wheeljack
Bluestreak
& Prowl

 

+ Hound, Gears, and Huffer

 

I hope they replace 1 character fron eachfaction per season. I want casualties, it adds o the drama, and shows they can kill characters and add new personalities to freshen the series. Something like Beast Wars would be great.

 

The Autobot cast did seem a bit small. One of my biggest gripes was that Bumblebee was essentially a rehash of the movie character, and unlike Optimus, his personality gets a bit old. I hope we get at least two new members for Team Prime next season.