Honestly I'd probably put Russel down as one of my least favorite kids, right around Kicker and Koji. He was super-smart sometimes and super-dumb others, and he didn't really have a personality, either. I think I'd still say Rescue Bots had the best humans.

 

Yeah Russell's dullness is outweighed by my love for Denny and the guest humans.

You could tell he was a "must be relatable to any kid" sort of thing.

 

The humans who constantly bump into giant robots and go ohhh yeaah some guy in a suit or new robots cool! Ugh so cringe worthy.

 

Robots in Disguise didn't really have a supporting human cast. You only had Denny and Russel as main characters.

I really enjoyed Denny as a character, but Russel was just forgettable, similar to Koji from the original RID.

The environmental human characters were such god damn idiots all the time, it actually became irritating as the series went on. Personally, I don't see anything good about them.

 

The humans is just fine for me. I don't hate them or anything, but I didn't care for them all that much except for Denny and I find that the majorrity of the humans doesn't seems to care of all of those "Transformers" stuff that's going on, which just seems weird.

I still find both Denny and Russel to be tolerable at worst however. I'll take Russel and Denny over Miko and Sam Witwicky no matter what.

 

They became forgettable as the series progressed.

 

I liked Denny. He was a fun and different kind of character.
But if we're talking the human cast as a whole, I much prefer Animated. Sari and Isaac had a much better relationship than Denny and Russel, so it got me more interested in what was going on, and Fanzone helped round things out.

 

I thought Denny was fun. Russel not so much, but I suppose he was a straight man to his dad.

 

I voted no. Denny was fine on his own and actually served a plot function(providing shelter and a cover story when needed) but Russel was just pointless. Take him out of the story and very little changes.

Prime/rescue bots had the better humans. No doubt!

 

I liked Russel and wish we'd seen more of Hank but they dont beat Sari from Animated IMO...

 

First I'd take Miko over Same any day (Shia Can't act!). Also a fan of Tania Gunadi who vioced her.

Second Sari should not be considered human

Spoiler

she's a protoform

.

 

Just as long as the human sidekicks learned Chris Rock's method of shutting the fuck up, then all is good. RID humans seemed aight.

 

Best humans in a TF series, actually useful and their job of rescue and damage control during battles made sense.

 

I feel like you could make a good argument for RID using humans the best, especially with Russel and Denny being incredibly likable, especially early on, and not falling into many of the cliches that plague less popular human sidekicks. However, the disguises do get a bit too silly as the show goes on, and I do like the development of the Prime kids and their friendships with the Autobots. That said, I'd have a hard time picking my favorite set of human sidekicks between the two series.

 

I've got no problem with Russel or Denny, and RID had its share of stand out secondary characters like Hank and Brother Gunther. They are good, but far from the best or my favorite. But the background humans are the worst out of all TF fiction. They are unbelievably stupid, to the point that it is highly doubtful that they could function enough to get through the day, much less form a fully functional society. RID humans still do not know that there are giant alien robots running around all because a guy in a floral shirt, a kid in a poor disguise, a small robot with glowing eyes, no nose, and wheels instead of legs who is wearing an even poorer disguise than the kid, and often times vehicles and the giant alien robots themselves telling them that they are normal Earth machines or some sort of isolated optical illusion. That fact throws any iota of believability that these are normal, everyday humans just like in real life so far out the window that the distance can only be measured in astronomical units.

 

Wow a lot of people hate jokes.

Robots in Disguise is tongue in cheek absurdism driven by it's characters with a few major story events sprinkled through to keep it interesting. It's not supposed to be "airtight realism" and criticising a cartoon effectively for being the wrong genre is just a little odd to me.

It's okay not to like absurdism or to say absurdist humans aren't your thing. But leveling criticisms against your change cars with feelings cartoon for "throwing realism put the window" is.. fascinating.

 

I agree but only when it comes to one particular NuRID human character: Brother Gunter. I absolutely loved this character. I don't know why but I actually loved his interactions with Grimlock and the other Transformers especially making donuts. The best scene that won me over was when he said he wouldn't tell anyone while in cased in a heavenly glow and BB's reaction to it.

 

I don't have a problem with some characters being played for laughs, but RID was not 100% comedy. It had some tense, serious, and dramatic moments too, but the fact that every background human is only played humorously does not gel that well with the show. Or the fact that it was the same joke every time. It is more of the homogeny of the humans and their scenes that bother me.

The problem with the humans is not realism, its believability. And believability is a fair point to bring up considering the 1st post on this thread specifically mentioned how believable the humans were in this show. People don't need to know that a fictitious world could exist or function in reality, but it helps people get invested in a story if characters react in a believable or relatable way. It's believable that there are some people dumb or gullible enough to be told that the giant robot fight they witnessed is an everyday occurrence, but it is unbelievable that everyone would react that way.

And yes, applying believability to absurdism is pretty common and separates actual humourous stuff from complete nonsense. There are believable ways that characters can react to the absurd. Arthur Dent is upset that his home and then his entire planet is destroyed right before being more upset about having an alien fish jammed up his ear. The Death of Discworld is a pretty hardworking guy and just wants to take a vacation before, say, having to fill in for Discworld's version of Santa Claus. Heck, the entire concept of a straight man in comedy is built on this concept.

 

I see what you're saying and appreciate the thought you put into that post.

When I said believable I was referring more to the characters given depth, such as Denny's divorced Dad angle with Rusty which was surprisingly touching albeit brief for a kids show. How often do kids living in a separated parents situation get to see that dynamic and the real rift it puts in the relationship born out and worked out on TV you know?

Then with the exception of the running gag, I also really enjoyed that Crown City and other human populated areas were so, you know, populated. It felt like an apology for Jasper that RID is brimming with people doing just all sorts of normal people shit. Concerts, fairs, commuting, going to museums, meditating at spas, just living little people lives like a game of Sims inside a Transformers cartoon. Then you've got speaking extras like the tour guide who clearly hates her job, the pretentious band manager, the boy scouts not wanting to dig a latrine, the hermit who thinks the government puts LSD in his water, all add up, to me, as being a very authentic and varied human society for the Autobots to exist in. I suppose I'm appreciating them more as props than people but that attention to detail with some of them is commendable.

The gullibility when presented with robots is the only part of them that isn't thoroughly realistic. Well, that and the nuclear waste dump. But that might have been snark about the detiorating state of environmental regulations although that's a far stretch and was probably lazy (or perhaps even innocently uniformed) writing.

Is it always funny? No. But it's just one of the running gags in a show that's defined in a lot of ways by balls to the wall goofy absurd humor. The animal cons, Grimlock wearing that whole hero get-up, Grimlock Flintstone driving that crane disguise, Denny and Russell's casual felonies, Bumblebee's battle cries, and what not. The running gag is actually funny sometimes too and I can forgive it's obnoxiousness when considering the quality of RID's humans because of the other stand out qualities I listed before.

Plus the running gag does let them keep their disguises without too much extra stuff gunking up the meat of the story but still use the topic of disguise to drive character conflicts, particularly Grimlocks.

Fixating on that running gag as a "ruins the whole thing" kinda thing just doesn't seem to me like the sort of frame of criticism RID warrants considering it's nature as a goofy action adventure. Drama and realism is a special thing used sparingly to give it more impact, not the baseline for RID.

Ultimately though it just comes down to taste and neither of us are right or wrong.

I stand by my original claim that RIDs entire human factor is the most solid of any Transformers show when all considerations are made. I wanted to get the real public opinion out of this though not just mine so thank you for your participation.

Also Animated might have had Fanzone but it also had those human villains. Zero humans actively sucked in RID. It was competent to great. The closest thing to subjective suck they got to was the gullibility running gag.

Some of those human villains really did actively suck in animated and Fanzone can't save them all.

 

This show honestly lacked that human element outside of Denny and Russell the humans were just there, there was not much going on.

Russell was kinda bland, likeable but bland. Denny was a hoot but never had enough screen time honestly.

any other human rarely appeared outside of a few episode. The Hermit was funny and Brother Gunter was the greatest who deserved another episode.