The example I gave of a similar scenario being attempted recently is from a series under IDW that is also aimed at children. Sonic the Hedgehog is not an adult brand.

I won't argue with that, as that's a fair take on the complexities of morality that most children's television can't exactly go into well, but consider that these are also fictional robots we're talking about. And if this is following the G1 cartoon then he's a robot who's already had his mental programming altered by circumstance when he was Galvatron. What's to say it isn't an extension of the scenario and will tie into why he's reverted to Megatron? I'm just saying, maybe wait to see the full context before judging whether or not it's trying to send a harmful message to children. Clearly there is a story here to how Megatron ended up redeemed.

 

Ah, well I'm not exactly familiar with Sonic the Hedgehog so I won't comment on that.

There are far too many continuity discrepancies for this to be canonically tied to the Sunbow Cartoon (Wheeljack's alive, no futuristic cars). It's more than likely that this is more of a soft sequel (like a soft reboot) that kinda is and kinda isn't, so I expect that, for simplicity's sake, Galvatron and Unicron won't be brought up. It's more than likely Megatron will have some sort of tragic backstory as to why he's denounced the Decepticons, but I don't see it being convincing. Not as something that's only conveyed in one episode. I suppose "wait and see" is fair, but the mere fact these flashbacks are Sunbow styled kills any interest I have in the show. I'm done with Hasbro continuing it's erasure of the rest of TF history, to appease a crowd whose reality-warping rants about how "everything may be catering to us, but we're still the victims here and any other groups asking for more is being greedy" is both insanely irritating and disturbingly similar to arguments on... More important topics that the exact same demographic of Boomers who can't accept the world moving forwards makes. I'll more than likely just drop out of this fandom, before Earthspark comes out.

 

We really having this discussion?? Guys, we have Loki over at the Mcu. Loki? The dude who tried to kill his father, betrayed his brother, killed his actual father, lead an invasion on Earth, took over Asgard and so on. And yet, he is one of the most beloved characters in the franchise.
Megatron being on the "Good Side" is not new. Heck, even the Armada version fought alongside Optimus and joked with the human kids. I dont see why so much fuzz with this new Megatron having a change of heart.
We know literal NOTHING about what this Megatron did. We dont even know if he is actually helping the Autobots or just waiting til the time to strike.
I swear, sometimes, reactions on this place are way too exaggerated over a cartoon.

 

I’ve been debating commenting my thoughts on this, but I really have to say I’m completely torn on the matter. I can see how this might be somewhat problematic not only within the show but in our current political climate; at the same time I can see how from a story telling perspective it would be a fun challenge to write and a change of pace from other shows. I can’t definitively decide which side I lean on but I do have to say that the Good Megatron from The Prime Wars Trilogy is by far the best character in that show, so I know it can work. I haven’t read much of IDW(just don’t have the time) so I can’t really comment on that. One thing I’ll give the show, I’m much more intrigued now than before, and judging by the amount of fan discussion on here and in general I’d say a lot of people agree. They succeeded in getting people to talk about Earthspark. I think I’ll watch it when it premiers, which I wasn’t going to do before, so in that sense the show has already succeeded from a marketing perspective, especially if any press is good press.

 

I could sort understand someone thinking this sends an unintentionally bad message. Sometimes that happens in fiction, as a byproduct of trying to send a different positive message.

One example I always think of is Cars 2, where the message seemed to be saying "be yourself and don't worry about what others think", but it kind of came across that the movie was justifying Mater's obnoxious public behavior. I feel like I've seen other movies that better communicate the message of "be yourself, but there's also a time and place to be on your best behavior".

But I find it really hard to believe Hasbro or the storytellers are intentionally working in messages about accepting fascism or anything like that. Especially in a show that overall seems pretty progressive. It's more likely they're just trying to tell kids "anyone can change". Or they're just telling a story they think is fun and maybe didn't fully think about all the implications that come along with it.

And to me the world of Transformers is inherently cartoony. I mean, if you watch G1 the Autobots and Decepticons quibble like little kids on a playground, they don't act like real soldiers at war. To me Megatron turning good is something that can happen in the simplistic and unrealistic world of Transformers. And I was even against redeeming Kylo Ren for the same reasons you mention. But I think Transformers has a bit more leeway in that area. It helps that this seems to be a new incarnation, and we don't entirely know what Megatron has done.

I also don't think kids really absorb media that complexly. Kind of feels like people on all sides of the political spectrum are concerned with their kids taking away certain messages. Like the people who get upset at Disney Princesses for promoting unrealistic dating. To me it all feels like paranoia. I don't think younger kids really take anything away besides the most obvious life-lessons (in this case "anyone can change"). Any sort of implications about fascism will go way over their heads. And older kids probably understand it's just a show.

 

I just listened to the Transformers Slag Podcast and Protoman said that long time Transformers fan who attended NYCC said he and the rest of the people who were at the Transformers panel saw the first episode of Earth Spark. And said the writers of the show said it's a sequel to Generation 1. With this news, i'm now more interested in watching the show.

 

Or just Easter egg flashbacks that have nothing to do with with the orginal cartoon just like Animated.

 

All I can say is that as I read this thread, I know that I am going to love this show, simply because of who's already decided they hate it and the (very carefully not fully stated) reasons they're giving.

Also, this Megatron is hot as fire and i am here for him.

If you are worried about what kids will think (other than that people can change), don't. Who knows what the guy has even done in this continuity? This is not IDW where the writers couldn't decide if they wanted there to be good guys or not and kept playing moral event horizon atrocity chicken with both sides (and I love IDW, but that IS what they did). My goodness, are you also freaking out about Steven Universe?

I'm sure he has been a bad guy but I'm pretty sure that in a Nickelodeon cartoon there will not have been people getting smelted up to make super MTOs, sentient space mines, and DJD leaving messes behind them that would scare Hannibal Lecter.

This is not the first time Skywarp has been female although what I would really love is if Skywarp was female AND as unhinged as s/he was in IDW 2019, I would love to see that in a female character.

...I always thought Nova Storm was a lady. And no I don't mean Acid Storm--they're NB.

SMH and LMAO  

The only thing i'm wait-and-see about is what they're going to do with Soundwave because as y'all all know, he is Important To Me.

 

I will say this, while the designs of the Transformers themselves aren’t too bad, the humans on the other hand look a little bit weird, especially the children.

 

I assume he means the Sunbow cartoon? If that’s the case their gonna have to explain how the hell Wheeljack is alive, why Skywarp is now himself and not Cyclonus, how Megatron is now himself and not Galvatron etc. of course I doubt these plot holes would ever be explained since this is from a 80s cartoon. And practically it’s not a big deal to me if just an mild annoyance at this oversight.

If it’s just a sequel to a general G1 universe, then those issues don’t apply I guess.

Personally I’m in the camp who thinks is Megatron biding his time until he makes a move to restart the Great War. Of course it would be predictable on the writer’s end, maybe this time it will be different.

If he does so, I imagine he might be hesistent about it given he’s seems close with the police officer, a relationship similar to Armada Starscream and Alexis. If that’s the case then his character arc could be him trying to sort out what he truly wants as a person. To go back to the status quo and attempt at defeating the autobots in a never ending cycle of violence or maybe attempt to break it and no longer suffer it even if it means losing.

 

Things like that rarely get explained in continuations of Transformers media. Wheeljack was alive again in Victory, Skywarp was Skywarp in the 3h Wreckers stories and coexisted with Cyclonus who was formerly Bombshell (and that is reflected in the animation of the 86 movie) and Megatron was no longer Galvatron in the Prime Wars cartoons despite it explicitly mentioning that he used to be Galvatron.

 

I think Takara Tomy tried to explain Wheeljack’s sudden appearance in Victory as him being from another universe. But oversights like this do happen and I don’t consider them to be a deal breaker. It would be interesting to see the call backs to sunbow though.

Megatron: Hey Optimus remember the time I killed you in Autobot city?

Optimus: Indeed I do.

Megatron: Good times.

 

BWTF had a write up going into this.

Spoiler

It's the latter. Sequel to a hypothetical G1 story, like how Beast Wars didn't match up with either the comic or cartoon. Some differences though, like no Ark and Grimlock being around on Cybertron.

 

The Terrans being advertised as the first Transformers born on Earth is slightly inaccurate in the scheme of the grand Transformers canon (See: Dinobots), but I know that this series could likely take place in its own universal cluster. And if not, a highly divergent version of Primax could be interesting.

 

If it's a continuation of a composite G1 (like BW), then it's possible that the Dinobots would be using their comic origin where they weren't built on Earth but rather were born on Cybertron

 

Good interpretation. Kids still love dinosaurs, so I could see Dinobots being here and having a different origin.

 

This may be the best summation of IDW and its weird inconsistency of how good/evil both sides and any given character were supposed to be that I've ever read.

On the topic of the thread as a whole, I am...cautiously optimistic? The premise is not another "how the Great War began"-type story (phew!) and even though Optimus' design will haunt my dreams, the other designs are pretty good for the most part. Megatron's design especially works well (the alt mode is neat). Also Soundwave is in the show and I confess that I find the idea of Megatron and Soundwave being on opposing sides to be quite interesting.

And Swindle's in the show. Hurrah! (He's actually probably the character that I'm most excited about.)

The human villain reminds me of Silas or Dr. Morocco and I'm curious to see what they do with him. The human cast actually seems to be pretty good in general and it's nice to see some humans in a prominent role again after a fairly long hiatus.

Good guy Megatron I'm not sure of yet. A lot of it's going to depend on just how awful he was before he switched sides (and, of course, how good the writing of the show proves to be).

The idea of Earth-born Transformers is interesting (if not necessarily wholly unique to the show); I'm hoping that they'll be good characters and maybe give the show some worldbuilding re: how Transformers are created and how Cybertronian society works in this show.

Can we please please please get rid of sports car Bumblebee? I'm totally fine with Bumblebee being around....I just don't want him to be a sports car anymore. At least we seem to have finally lost the radio-speech gimmick.

I don't really care one way or the other regarding Skywarp's gender. What I do want to see, regardless of gender, is a TV Skywarp who lives up to the original bio's "malevolent prankster" description. That would make for a fun character. It would also be nice if this Skywarp is shown teleporting frequently ---even G1 Skywarp didn't get to do that all that often.

 

The radio speak for Bumblebee was pretty much dropped shortly after the Bumblebee movie. That movie came out in 2018, concurrently with Cyberverse, which was kind of 50/50 with the radio speak and normal speak, but the radio speak was entirely dropped in season 2. Curious if Rise of the Beasts will have Bumblebee able to talk or not.

 

Male or Female. Skywarp's still a punching bag all the same.

 

Looks like Skywarp has a chainsaw-hand, Bayformers Starscream style