I don't know if there is. It just seems as though there is a sentiment from some that "one is enough". I'm pretty sure if the new characters were males, we wouldn't be seeing all these comments of "They only added them to get more male characters!". All I was saying is that I find the "one is enough!" sentiment is silly.

I do think there needs to be greater effort to have more variety in team-stories in general, as historically they have been GREATLY dominated by male characters, even when it doesn't actually make any sense.

 

I just want to see Airazor again.

(and not paired up with Tigatron because ugh).

 

how is being an advocator for a peaceful resolution being an idiot, in that vain the original primal in season 1 was def an idiot because he kept going "im a mamximal i have to give peace a chance" or "defeating them doesnt mean destroying them" and kept stupidly thinking the BAD GUYS could be trusted

i feel the same way lol, i thought probably maybe tara strong would fit nyx well and correct me if im wrong but some keep saying skold is female, but where is that shown because i thought it was a he

 

I wouldn't say he was acting like an idiot, he was questioning if a diplomatic option exists. Little was known about their actual goals at this point, and without that information it's not clear how reasonable diplomacy actually is.

 

It was mentioned in the various tweets/news releases since she was revealed, but if you need a direct source, the writer refers to Skold as 'she' a couple of times in the interview at the end of the first issue.

 

Because in a male-dominated brand like Transformers which is primarily targeted towards boys/men and has the vast majority of existing characters as male, it's natural to have more male characters than female and for new characters to likely be male. Exactly the same way girl brands feature predominately female casts and few male characters because their target audience is girls. It's just how the brand is and likely always will be, as all properties reflect their demographics rather than dictating them.

The simple fact of the matter is that if new male characters were added they likely would've been added due to other reasons beyond their gender, whereas female characters are typically added because of their gender, and all other qualities are secondary. I mean, if they'd made Nyx into Sonar instead of a new character it wouldn't be as obvious, but Skold and Nyx were obviously created just to add a sole female presence each to the teams in the first place. To me that is exactly the same as the "quota" filling you spoke of.

Diplomacy went out the window when they stole a warship. There wasn't any question at that point.

Also him questioning whether there was room to talk is not what made him an idiot, his little snide aside to himself about "assuming the worst" of everyone made him an idiot. Primal was only ordering the ship disabled, since it was an immediate threat and risk of escaping. Primal never made any assumptions beyond what was plainly evident, and Rhinox just seemed petulant for implying it was anything but.

 

This is a bit tricky at this point in time, seeing as we don't have a whole lot to work with regarding their personalties. I was able to extrapolate aspects of Nyx's based on promotional material and the like, but she spends most of the first issue laser-focused on pursuing the Predacons, up to and including just ramming them when they've run out of any other options. Skold only gets a grand total of three lines, so even less to work with at this point in time. But this is only the first issue. Based on the solicit for the second, I have reason to believe we'll get to see more of their personalities shine through as the cast gets a bit of time to breathe-- seems like the second issue is going to revolve around scouting this strange new planet they find themselves on.

 

I liked it. Setting up a similar scene to make the big changes later. I'm curious to see how Tarantulas's arc is handled, and if he'll go off on his own or not again.
I did make the mistake of reading Nyx's lines in my head with a male voice until they dropped a "She." Concerning her and Skold, I'm indifferent. Part of BW's appeal is the small cast that allowed for a lot of growth, but that was in part due to CG limitations. I like that their presence changes up the character dynamic (Now a 4th character to be annoyed at Rattrap!), but I'm afraid if more of the protoforms drop, the rosters will start feeling bloated.
Neat seeing Scorponok being effective.

 

For me, this issue was like new version of Dawn of Future's Past.

 

Even extreme actions can lead to diplomacy. It's called de-escalation. The first step is working out what the motivations are so you know what you are dealing with. I'm not saying it is the correct route in this case, but it's not an insane or dumb idea.

I think the idea that a male-dominated brand should have male-dominated characters is a bad thing. I also think female-dominated brand should have female-dominated characters is also a bad thing. I think that mentality leads to exactly this, questioning the motives of the writers just because someone from the opposite gender is added, and is exactly why it needs to stop.

 

So, what do you guys think of the name Galavar? Personally, I think it's a weird fit for a cybertronian name, as they usually have names that are reminiscent of pilot call signs (Scattershot for example). I don't think it's bad, but it does feel a little out of place. Would you guys have preferred Gnashteeth?

 

I don't think it's that bad of a name, but for whatever reason whenever I read it I read it as Galivar or Galvar inconsistently and I have no idea why.

 

Unfortunately, it all comes down to marketing. Transformers is about toys first and foremost, and female Transformers toys don't generally sell as well as their male counterparts. As adult collectors, we value having a diverse cast of characters, but the primary consumer of this brand is the young male demographic. Go look at a local Walmart and see which new Netflix deluxes are shelfwarming. We were all excited about Bumblebee and Elita, yet Elita is the only one clogging shelves. Why? Because the little boys that these are bought for just don't have the same interest in her that we do. Children lack the critical thinking skills to see value in something to which they can't immediately relate.
The same can be said for a brand like Barbie. The female dolls will always sell better than the male ones because the girls that typically buy them relate to Barbie more than Ken.

 

It is dumb given the circumstances. The Preds had a warship, and the top priority was to disable the immediate threat. Primal never even said they wouldn't talk them down, just that they had to stop them from running/shooting, because the Maximals didn't have the capability to survive a potential conflict.

Again, if Primal was gung-ho about shooting them down or didn't even care about diplomacy in the first place that'd be one thing, but Primal's motives were sound, reasoned, and completely acceptable. Rhinox's remark was just bitchy, certainly not befitting someone who seems so experienced, and he was proven wrong immediately.

I think it's pedantic to believe one or the other is a "bad" or "good" thing at all. It's just natural that a predominantly male brand will have mostly male characters, and nobody should feel bad about that.

You can choose to be upset about it if you want but it's as Lore Keeper said; marketing.

 

Upset is the wrong word. I'm in no way, shape, or form upset. The opposite, in-fact. I'm simply commenting that it's unfortunate that fans are upset with the addition of new, female characters. If they HADN'T introduced them, I wouldn't have said anything like "shame they didn't add more female characters". I would have accepted the writer's decisions.

However, they went they other way and indeed added new female characters. I'm not upset about that. What is frustrating is the mentality that it is somehow wrong because the brand is for boys. That mentality is wrong, and in my opinion, harmful.

Writers are making more of an effort these days to include more mixed-gender groups, and I for one support it. It's simply strange for people to call me "upset" about how branding works when the brands are literally doing the opposite and people are getting upset.

 

Checked out the first issue yesterday. Really solid start to the series so far. It's basically an expanded take on the opening of the original two part first episodes with dashes of Days of Future's past thrown in but I say that in a good way.   Looking forward to the next issue.

 

I dug it! Only thing I didn't really like was some of the dialogue, for example: "Where are we going," "Why... *Dramatic closeup* to our destination of course!" Like what... The sparring scene of exposition between Primal and Rhinox went on a little long I think, but it's the first issue so I can give the comic a pass for giving us that kind of scene. Also it was just nice seeing those two characters interact after so many years. Other than that all the characters are pretty solid in their portrayals. I love that they hung back on making Megatron say Yess all the time, and when he did in this issue it wasn't a drawn out "YEEESSSSSSSSSS", which would have gotten annoying quick. Not entirely sure how I feel about the Axalon being redesigned to look like a mini lost light, but I can see it as being a nice way of calling back to the previous continuity where Josh achieved much of his fame for his stellar colouring. In some panels where it is more in the background than not it looks a little too blocky and simplistic, but it's not distracting or anything.

In terms of his art, I like it a lot. There was a while where people on the IDW forums were championing him to do the art for a book and I really didn't understand it at the time. Now I actually appreciate his style a lot with it's hard edges and simple charm, and it feels perfect for Beast Wars here. Only negatives I can say is Terrorsaur's confused little o face looking... not great imo (I honestly can't explain why, I think I've just seen Josh draw this exact face before in another comic or something) and some of those ship designs that straight up just look like tetris pieces. Not that big of a deal either since they are only there for a short period of time, though.

Oh yeah, in terms of the new characters, Nyx's personality isn't super defined yet, but I like that she isn't stealing the show and isn't doing like a manic pixie dream girl thing. It was nice seeing her excited about having wings.

I didn't notice Skold's size when I read it, but her being more of Brawn than a Lugnut is PERFECT in my opinion. Have we ever really had an evil Brawn lady in Transformers before?

 

That part made me gnash my teeth. Such a lame semi-4th wall break. Like seriously, what's the actual chance this ends up not being Earth? Not that I would mind if it weren't, but in the interviews it feels like they're trying to pretend it's open ended, when I just don't get the feeling that it is.

 

Of course people are going to freak out about the new characters being political insertions since they are new and female. Who cares lmao.

I didn't even see it as a fourth wall break, it just felt like a lackluster line and the emphasis put on it in the panel layout felt kind of cringey. Like it's not a good line of dialogue but it was treated as though Megatron dropped a bad-ass one-liner. If he said something like "We're going to earth" it probably would have landed, but if I was Tarantulas in that scenario I would be like: "You didn't answer my question, why are you talking like that?"

 

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