A lot of us are aware of how ignorant TLK was towards the previous films, and some people have suggested that there are ways to keep its general story and still tie into the previous films. So for this thread the goal is not to entirely re-write TLK, but rather to adjust or tinker it to conclude and wrap up the (confusing) series. So, for my suggestion, I suggest the following things to have been present in the movie. Acknowledgement that The Fallen and Sentinel knew about Unicron being Earth and that is why Earth has always been a target. The Fallen was so hell-bent on destroying Earth to kill Unicron, a better reason than simply "humans are gross, they should all die lulz!". Those bots that have been here "forever" per TLK? The Seekers, like Jetfire. Quintessa was probably in on Sentinel and Megatron's deal, hence why both their plans involved bringing Cybertron into Earth's vicinity. Destroy Earth to kill Unicron. The plots of both ROTF and DOTM work vaguely enough to fit into this narrative. I would have prefered to have kept the Matrix as the main McGuffin since its basically an extension of the Allspark, but if we HAVE to keep the Creation Staff B.S, then try to involve the Allspark to fit in with the whole "Allspark created Transformers" narrative. Quintessa's staff is powered by the Allspark somehow. Maybe it acts as a conduit to the Allspark or maybe it's powered by an Allspark shard. I don't know, something to that effect. Maybe clarify that Quintessa is the last of the Quintessons and she has transcended her techno-organic half or some shit to justify what she is now. Or maybe that she was a Quintesson experiment with the Allspark gone wrong and she destroyed their race and gave life to their machines with the Allspark's power to make the Transformers. This would justify Quintessa being the creator of the Transformers, and the Allspark being the means of her to do it. Clarify the various groups of Knights. Her own Guardian Knights, the Dinobots, Optimus. Maybe they all served Quintessa in the past and at some point Optimus lost his memory. I don't know. Perhaps it was the Knights and the Primes that defeated Unicron the first time around and its why he's just a dormant husk today and is not a legit danger anymore, that way they don't leave us an such a cliffhanger. I don't know y'all, its still silly, definitely not literary masterpiece for sure, and there are still probably lots of plot holes, but I feel that if we were going to get stuck with TLK's narrative that they could have added any of these things to give us a better conclusion than what we got. What do you y'all think? How would you do it?
Hmmm... 1. Show the transition from Galvatron to Megatron. 2. Confirm whether Quintessa is indeed a Creator or not. If she is, have her give a little more exposition to Transformer origins and why she's now a robot. If not, have her connected to the Fallen. I'd prefer the former though. 3. Lockdown said he had captured all of the Knights but Prime. In TLK, we see the Guardian Knights as being on Earth, as if Lockdown didn't capture them at all, or they later escaped! Have it so the Guardian Knights are not on a ship on Earth, but captured and corrupted servants of Quintessa. That would go well with Quintessa corrupting Prime and the Creators building the Transformers to do as they were told. Then have a corrupted Dragonstorm vs. Dinobots as a major battle! 4. Have the Staff be a weapon that gives Quintessa control over other Transformers, and she wants to use it on Unicron in an attempt to control him as the ultimate weapon rather than merely drain his energy! One cool thing about The Last Knight was that it introduced a weapon that played a unique role in Hot Rod's time-slowing gun. We've already had the Allspark and Matrix. I don't think there's a need for another McGuffin that supposedly gives life or whatever. 5. Have it so Unicron is not permanently limited to one planet, but has moved around over billions of years. In response to Quintessa's attack, he escapes to take hold of another planet. Maybe Cybertron? Maybe another world? To Unicron, he's merely a Headmaster, and the planets he controls are his Transistors. 6. Chekhov's gun is always loaded. Basically only include characters if they actually play a role in the film and show them do things if it's said they can do them. If not, cut them. For instance, don't need a WWI tank Transformer that does nothing or a flashback scene to WWII that's extraneous to the story. Infernocus? See my idea about the Knights and Dragonstorm!
These are all good. But including Quintessa in the movies made things difficult to piece things together. I'd remove the WW2 that includes Autobots from TF1. Instead it Would be Jetfire and Bulldog, and a few other seekers from TF2 scene in basement. (Like Submarine) Galvatron is changed into Megatron by Quintessas mind control. I expected Optimus to land on the planet of the creators and losing. Later the Dinobots and Autobots save the day or whatever. Quintessa when meeting Optimus should have explained the wherabouts of the creators. And how she was created as the ultimate weapon to kill Unicron. And tried to destroy the Primes. Quintessa could also try to rebuild the Cube that was believed to be created by the creators, primes and others in the universe. The Matrix of leadership could be used my Wreckgar to bring back the Primes and stop Quintessa from waking up a dead planet (Unicron) which nearly destroyed all the creators? The few creators that survived were changed into knights by Quintessa. You can add more to this.
I feel like TLK would be a pretty solid conclusion to the series if you: Cut the references to Unicron (make Quintessa's motivation simply draining Earth of energy to fuel Cybertron) Kill Quintessa Kill Megatron (or give him some finality, like a redemption or exile). Cut the credits scene Most of these would be possible with a re-edit. The trickiest would be Megatron's fate. I'd also find some way to reconcile Quintessa and the Creators and the Allspark. Maybe a brief flashback showing the Creators building the transformers by using the Allspark to animate the Transformium metal they mined from Earth. Quintessa could be leading them. Something like that would be a neat way to bring the series full circle.
