I was talking about the franchise more generally rather than the movies specifically, but agreed.

 

Fair enough. Personally, I'd love to have a new TF series that acts as a sequel to Beast Wars (ignoring BM) set in the distant future on alien worlds, with entirely new characters and factions as the focus. But Hasbro would probably never do this as it's too risky.

 

I've always been interested in what Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio had in mind for BW S4. They basically said that it was "Beast Wars in space" but I wonder if there was anything more specific in mind. I wouldn't be opposed to something like that; I can't see it as a series, but maybe Hasbro would be willing to do a comic or something like that.
Also Hasbro please make an Animated S4 comic. Have Marty Isenberg write it.

 

They should have had Autobots vs Super-Villians, Ala Marcel and Animated
It would distinguish the films from the prior 6 and establish a comic book film setting...

 

I agree (obviously), but will a corporation actively have the Decepticons act like facist? I don't know

that is true. I mean you can do a bit more, but You do make a good point.

 

I don't see why that's a problem. They're the villains.

 

...Have you not seen Star Wars?

 

Good point. MCU has crippled my brain in regards to the caution taken when making villians. Starwars is a great example.

 

I am indeed troubled by the apparent total lack of beast megatron… fingers crossed for beast movie 2

 

I think the MCU has hurt a lot of cinematic villains recently. One of my biggest pet peeves of recent years is any villain with moderately understandable motivations being compared to Thanos. It's like when things kept getting compared to Dark Souls.

 

I thought the Beast Wars version of Megatron pops up at the end?

 

It's a sociology; that besides Unicron, as in being next to Unicron, Megatron can be the important aspect, not denoting the nature of his character as part of the proceeding of the evaluation on display.
Strip it down: Megatron becomes the basic - again, no political meaning to his history - and the result of him being a worthy revelation compared to a Unicron essence is astounding, but, ironically, as no condescension to the situation of the comparison.

 

Souls are awesome .

Regarfing Thanos, Yeah it was dumb.

 

Prime Megatron is literally worse than Movie Megatron, because the latter effectively isn't even the one in charge despite what the characters are saying. He just goes chasing after the AllSpark and dies. After that he's never the main villain, such that it almost becomes a joke in how he keeps having to be dragged back into the plot somehow just for participation and to sell another few toys.

Prime Megatron is actively the biggest single threat to the Decepticons. He literally shows up with Dark Energon and the end result is the Decepticons losing their Energon mining complex which Starscream had successfully kept secret for years. Then subsequently, every single advantage the Decepticons get across the show, if it isn't outright destroyed by the Autobots, is thrown away by Megatron because he won't even accept mixed results. Seriously, Starscream is unironically the better leader until he is impaled by the idiot ball at the halfway point.

Yeah, Megatron only follows Fallen because he wants to be a Prime, and after Optimus points out The Fallen can't do this, Megatron and Starscream literally just abandon The Fallen to die at OP's hands.

Because, in a sense, he really was - the show starts by Megatron barging into the Ark and kicking everybody's asses, and he would have gotten the AllSpark if not, ironically enough, for Starscream's bomb which damaged Megatron and gave Prime the opening to kick him out the airlock, whereupon Earth's gravity did the rest.

It also ties into Optimus's rise as a fighter because at the VERY end during their final fight is the ONLY time Megatron actually calls Optimus by name, meaning the biggest monster of the Decepticons finally sees Optimus as somebody actually on the same level as him.

While I do like the idea Megatron is a Fallen Sparticus type, I do agree he just needs to be unapologetically evil. Dude's one of the all-time greatest 80s villains after all, he's got a rep.

Counterpoint: it's the Russian Revolution but with space robots. The Bolsheviks/Autobots were supposed to be overthrown the Proletariat/Decepticons and, well, look how that turned out.

You miss the point about the human supervillains entirely.

In Animated, the sole purpose of the human enemies was to be a baseline measure of power for the Autobots, since initially they were in no condition to fight ANY Decepticon whatsoever. This is why they're gradually phased out over the course of the show, with their last major appearance being Society of Ultimate Villainy, while Decepticons start filling in as the actual enemies.

AFAIK none of the leaks even implied this, it's the first time I've heard that. Before then, one of the Predacons who was supposed to show up was BM Megs under the name Gnashteeth but I don't think he's even in the movie.

 

Hey its our biggest TF PRIME fan ever   .

 

Also to provide narative variety and prevent the Decepticons from becoming boring through over use.
Which is exactly why they should have been the focus of Bumblebee or its sequel.
An earth centered way for Bee to build up his skills, and explore humanity before the Decepticons arrive.
Using human villians instead of the Terrorcons, and Predacons is also better than jumping to Unicron too fast...

 

Nah, I still disagree, if only because there's so many Decepticons in the franchise that are fairly weak that it should be a gradual build up of Decepticons within their own hierarchy, as opposed to having to having to resort to human villains the likes of Angry Archer.

There's also another key difference you're overlooking: literally none of the core Autobot team from Animated were combat veterans with the sole exception of Ratchet who instead is simply old (unlike the greenhorns that are the other four). The moment Megatron breaks into the Ark is, quite literally, the first time Optimus, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Prowl have knowingly seen a Decepticon in person (since Bumblebee and Bulkhead don't learn Longarm was a disguised Shockwave until the ending of S2). This is even done again later in the show when the Elite Guard show up and Sentinel freaks out at seeing Starscream, because he too also hasn't ever seen a legitimate Decepticon until that point. Forget individual combat strength, the Autobot core group couldn't work together as a team and were easily defeated by Lugnut simply punching the ground at his feet. It's only later that they are strong enough to conquer even him through teamwork to get linked Stasis cuffs on him.

Movie wise, it's a different story because the war is still going on. Bumblebee is an experienced soldier so he can handle a weak Decepticon or two. This would be the perfect time to use weaker characters like the Battlechargers Runabout and Runamuck, or for a little more punch perhaps the Decepticon Triggercon trio Ruckus, Windsweeper, and Crankcrase who have heavy weapons but are individually quite dysfunctional and would require outsmarting more than overpowering. From there you can springboard into the more conventional guys like the Seekers or even a combiner team once Bumblebee has the other Autobots around.

 

That's an issue with the writing of the film
They want Bee to be both an experienced Bayformers esque soldier and an underdog, so his memory is damaged to achieve both.
The simpler route would be have him legitimately inexperienced and a possible washout.
Giving the character more legitmate room to grow.
Better than the Cybertron scene where he's kicking heads like footballs.
Any villian such as the Angry Archer or Nanosec can be a worthy foe, they're not inherently jokes.

 

This doesn't seem to be working out all that well for the Earthspark tv show.
Human villains in Transformers are usually filler, and these movies tend to be excessively human focused as it is. Not to mention, I think "comic book fatigue" is starting to hit hard with general audience.

 

Well Mandroids's an Archeville type character, not a Marvel/ DC expy with a visually interesting power set.
And yeah they didn't strike while the iron was hot, and now they're pretty much out of time and chances to catch up.
Because of Lorenzo's pride they weren't able to genuinely pivot and and adapt to the market in a coherent manner.