Because this can't be stated enough, here is a list of long-term plot points established prior to or early in season two that were hastily truncated in favor of the long-running relic arc:

• MECH creating their own Transformers
• Starscream as a rogue entity
• Airachnid (and Insecticons) as a rogue entity
• Jack and the humans becoming more important; MECH as their foil
• Megatron's posession of Dark Energon
• Dreadwing being a high-ranking Decepticon with a code of wartime honor
• Ratchet and Bumblebee/Bumblee's voice box

More than a seasons' worth of conflicts and developments all ignored or dealt with wholly in the span of one episode, with few real consequences to be seen. For example, save for a single plot point (the Decepticons learning the humans' location), the entire MECH storyline could be removed from the series.

What we got from the eight-plus episodes of the relic arc:

• The Autobots' base was destroyed; the Decepticons have a tower
• Optimus sacrificed the restoration of their planet

Those are all well and good, but the first point could have been achieved any number of ways -- in fact, the Decepticons were already searching for the base independent of the relic hunt -- and the other major element of the arc -- the relics themselves -- seem to be destroyed as expected.

So we lost a lot of character-centric plot arcs with painstaking setup in favor of a half-season arc that resulted in little more than a destroyed base and a tower, which could have been achieved any number of ways.

Why? Why did the relic arc need to happen? Better still, why was it a better idea than the things it prematurely ended? Prime fanatics, convince me. I'm honestly willing to listen.

 

Because the writers scripted season two that way, and not the way that you wished it. End of story, and doesn't need to be defended.

 

Because season two was written by monkeys throwing poo at eachother while jumping on keyboards.

 

Jeff Kline likes Macguffins.

*been rewatching Jackie Chan Adventures on Netflix*

 

Fine, if you subscribe to the idea that no show's quality can be judged on the merits of its direction and how well it aligns with previous events. Or that the right to question a script ends in the editing room.

Which is obviously not true. Or, if it is, the Transformers fanbase alone is guilty of taking Energon to task on its illogical progression and dropped plot points for years.

And I haven't seen anyone bemoaning the fact the writers didn't use all their personal ideas (well, except when everyone was like, "Why talking Nemesis no Trypticon??! Dis sux!"). It's just totally fair to address how summarily everything else was dropped for ... well, what we got.

 

So third party vendors/creators get an opportunity to offer us some pretty cool accessories and Hasbro will fail to take advantage of them.

 

If you're referring to my post, it was more of a joke and/or reference to the fact that Jeff Kline was/is the showrunner of JCA and TFP.

I have no idea why the writers decided to go the direction they did, and there probably were better ways to accomplish all that they set out to do. Regardless of what direction the show took, it was always well executed. Orion Pax, despite its "lost potential", is still entertaining when viewed as a stand alone.

As I've become fond of saying, Transformers Prime is excellent on an episode-by-episode basis, but works poorly when looked at as a series.

 

Oh, no. I got that yours was more or less a joke. I was responding solely to smkspy.

 

There's been word that the writers actually intended to have Season 2 and 3 written differently with the MECH and Breakdown arcs being longer and with proper conclusions as well as the others being longer too but then Hasbro came in and told them that Beast Hunters will be the new Season 3 so they were forced to mix the Season 2 and 3 arcs into the Season 2 we have now. If Hasbro would've let the writers do their thing first then it would've ended up differently and we would get Beast Hunters for season 4.

Now this isn't an offical confirmation yet but it does have reasonable backup with interviews it has so far.

 

Of course we can question the show and its direction, but YOU said defend that progression. Fact is, that was the story we got, so that story doesn't need to be defended.

But, yes, all your suggested plot points could have been expanded upon for multiple arcs, but every show has these one episode plot arcs. I can go through every Transformers show ever, and find one episode plots that could be expanded. But there is no guarantee that if expanded, those stories would have been any better than what we were already presented with.

End of the day, we're pretty lucky to have a toy-selling children's cartoon show that isn't Armada or Energon.

 

The relic hunt does indeed give Prime a "crappier version of Xiaolin Showdown" vibe. Even though the reliance on macguffins rather than actual plots was much, much, MUCH worse in Xiaolin Showdown, no one gave a rat's arse because every single character was so strong, well-written and developed. Prime doesn't have that luxury. At least not with all its characters.
But yes, I do feel that the Iacon relics do hurt the show, and if what Kaijuguy said about the non-relic-related arcs being intended to last longer before Hasbro swooped in and said "Season 3 will have Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and the other four that we don't give a f**k about fighting DRAGONS M*****F*****S!!!!!" is true then I'm very annoyed about that.

 

At this point, I almost prefer the Unicron trilogy over Prime.

Almost.

 

From my perspective the relic hunt actively enabled this, without the relics a lone rogue Starscream had little reason to go near the other factions unless you gave him an army of his own.

 

Heh, I'll watch Prime season 2 a million times over before I ever watch Season One part 1 of Armada again.

 

The relic hunt led to Optimus finding the Star Saber. The Star Saber gave him a message from Alpha Trion telling him about the keys and Omega lock. Without the relic hunt we would not be at this point.

 

The Only Relics hunts I like was the war for the Star Saber and the Four T's episodes just because the four T's were actually fun episodes on their own right and happened simontanouely.


I just hope we are done with relic hunts for good. the less we see of them in Season 3 the better. Seriously writers why did we need to pad out the season with this.

 

They could've just had it be that Alpha Trion sent the Star Saber and the Omega Keys, and not the other relics.

 

^This.

Those we're fine. The rest was not.

You know with all of the time before it we could have done MECH and Breakdown's arcs much better.

 

dunoo ask the writers. only relic episodes I liked alot was triage..triangulation..and the star saber one...maybe operation bumble bee aswell...

 

I always thought the relics were beyond stupid when they ended up being not actual Artifacts (sans Forge Hammer) but more like confiscated technology that got tossed into an old armory and then launched to keep it out of decepticon hands. They only added insult to injury when of the relics, the only one that even actively got used was by Smokescreen, because they had to introduce a character who knew what to do with it in the first place.

I can understand the problems that come from having to compress two seasons into one, but it seems the writers chose to cut the WRONG stuff every single time and only kept around peripheral characters for the exact time they were needed. To be quite honest I don't even know why Breakdown was even in the show, all he served in the end was to give CyLAS a body that lasted one episode.

Oh, and let's not forget Unicron, who is so irrelevant to the plot at this point it's not even funny.

I do prefer Armada and Cybertron at least to Prime. At least their characters weren't cardboard standees.

Hell, this series is even making Energon not look like the worst TF series ever in my opinion. At least stuff of lasting consequence HAPPENED in Energon/Superlink.

Honestly, I think they could have just done all that with a Leadership of Matrix and saved a whole bunch of time via a FFoD moment, since Alpha Trion was declared a member of the original 13 Primes by Hasbro a few years back.