Which idw characters do you love and which do you hate?
What original characters do you like or dislike?
Which characters do you like/dislike that are considerably different than their g1 incarnation ?

 

Galvatron was a great villain
I think its sad many people see Whirl as the guy who is funny because he's rude to people and doesnt care. Whirl is much more complex than that.
Arcee is boring teenbait.
Needlenose is a great representative of the ordinary working decepticon and should go into politics and blow Starsream out of the white cabin.
He would be a far better and more interesting leader of Cybertron.
Tailgate is a coniving homewrecker, coming between Cyclonus and his Mighty Galvatron the way he did.
Skids was a wonderfull ordinary guy character and should be brought back from the dead together with Pipes (maybe Starscream and Arcee can replace them in the afterspark ?)
Grit is also a very interesting ordinary working Decepticon character i want to see more of.
And the Scavengers are off course awesome and should get their own comic series.
Prowl is another interesting character. But i dont know if there is much that can be done with him anymore. I feel like his arc is over.
There's much more but i'm gonna read a couple of other posts now  

 

I really hated Metalhawk and the N.A.I.L.S.

Getaway is an asshole but an interesting character who is in some ways right.

Prowl is one of my favourites, Rodimus too.

 

Characters I like. Rung is my stand out favourite, closely followed by Ratchet and Skids(sob) There are a fair few that I'm quite fond of(Rodimus, Starscream, Prowl, Cyclonus and Getaway) but those guys always make me smile when I see them.

Characters I hate. Well... None? I have plenty of characters I don't care about but I feel hate is too strong a word to describe my mehness towards them. Those characters being Tailgate, Fort Max(although, he greatly redeemed himself in TR) Spike and the DJD...except Nickel, because she's awesome.

 

I can't think of any IDW characters I hate. I mean, except for the ones the writers want us to hate. I guess there are a bunch I'm indifferent to, though. And I will say I wish I liked Brainstorm more.

Characters I like are probably a lot of the cliche answers. Chromedome and Rewind, Ultra Magnus, Cyclonus, Shockwave/Orion's senator friend, Rung, Ratchet, Nightbeat, and Megatron would probably be my favorites, off the top of my head. Plenty of others I like too, though.

edit: and oh, yeah, Sunstreaker! He had kind of an interesting arc earlier on. IDW is probably the first time I ever cared about Sunstreaker even a little bit.

 

Favs: Prowl, Whirl, Cyclonus, Galvatron, Fortress Maximus, Skids (RIP), Nautica, Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Rewind, Thundercracker, Megatron, Springer, Brainstorm, Ratchet, Nightbeat, Krok, Spinister, Crankcase, Misfire, Fulcrum, Overlord, Nova Prime, Verity Carlo

Least favs: Spike, Arcee, Star Saber, Metalhawk

 

EDIT: Placed everything in spoiler file so as not to clog this up with a big wall.

Spoiler

I pretty much love everyone who was a member of the Wreckers in the IDW verse (Except for Scoop and Sandstorm), Nautica is easily my favourite of the fem-bots, Ravage, Magnus/Minimus, Ratchet, Thundercracker, Sixshot (Where art thou?), Autobot and pre-war Megatron, Galvatron was a great villain, even if I was very, very satisfied with his death, Skids, Nightbeat, I liked a lot about Hardhead (RIP), Arcee was in her prime in RID season 1, Swerve, Rewind, Tailgate, Cyclonus, Optimus Prime obviously even if he was too power hungry in All Hail Optimus, post All Hail Optimus Soundwave (I cannot wait to see how his "friendship" with Prime goes), Kup, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Bob, D0C, Shockwave in general, the Scavengers, Nickel, Wheelie (I hope he's okay, last we heard from him he was orbiting the Dead Universe portal), good old normal Hoist, Trailcutter/Trailbreaker (RIP), Ten, Blaster was amazing in his spotlight, Dai Atlas, Drift, I think I'll leave it there. Oh and Perceptor, uh, pre mutiny. Everyone else like Chromedome and Brainstorm I like well enough. Oh, and Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack. That bot contributed too much to not be mentioned.
(I'm sorry for all that there, I've become a textbook of names after reading all this)

As far as other villains go, I loved Nova Prime, even if he got two pretty anti climatic endings. Overlord, Tyrest, Star Saber, Tarn, Pharma, those are villains I loved to hate because of how much of a threat they posed or how much mental damage they caused. Oh, and I loved Tarantulas in Sins of the Wreckers, that was fantastic. Thunderwing and Bludgeon were good villains at times, but only in a more cinematic way.

Before I get to the characters I hate, the two big ones most hate. See, I do kind of hate Getaway, but after rereading MTMTE, I'm conflicted with him. He's deceptive with Tailgate sure, but inbetween all of that he's just another normal average bot caught up in the silliness of it all. I don't really hate him, but I kind of pity him in a way. And I'm not done rereading RID yet, but Prowl is just too complicated to hate, he's not really a villain, hell I was understanding him a bit more in the Costa issues despite how he handled the Aequitas mission, but I'll have to finish my reread before I can form a proper opinion, but I don't hate him as much as I used to, even if he can be a jerk in plenty of areas.

Alright, those I hate. First of Chromia, you all know what she did, inexcusable, Atomizer, Rattrap (That ain't the Rattrap I know, this one is just vermin), some of the NAILs, "Lord" Starscream, and... I kind of hate Rodimus at the moment. After that Overlord thing, yeah I know Drift volunteered to take the blame and Rodimus reluctantly went with it, and yes Rodimus did do a self less act when he shut down Tyrest's killswitch at the risk of his own death, but, I do have to bitterly agree with Optimus. If Rodimus did feel guilty about his actions, he should have definitely resigned instead of putting it to a vote. I think after MTMTE, Rodimus has become a bit too smug for his own good, it's a far cry from the more mature Hot Rod we saw in the final few Furmanation issues which was briefly brought back into the character in the final issues of Costa's run. But, maybe he'll redeem himself, I mean he probably already did with Tyrest's killswitch but, his personality certainly didn't change. But it's the one thing I agree with Getaway on, he's not really a good leader these days to me.

I'm done rambling, show me more of Cheetor and Dinobot and I'll add them to the list as always. I just hope Nova didn't kill Rhinox of the Mournsong.

 

And I don't think it's going to. As much as I like Roberts' work for what it is, that just doesn't seem to be his style. He plainly spelled it out in a fourth wall-breaking word balloon. He's going to stretch the quest out endlessly without ever letting the characters really get anywhere. There's going to be fun times and humor and nice character moments, but no real progression. If 'Lost Light' lasts 50 issues or 100 issues or 500 issues, as long as Roberts is writing it, I think the Rodimus we'll have at that point is the exact same Rodimus we have right now.

And for that reason, while I don't quite hate IDW Rodimus (other than his visual design), he might come closest out of the major characters.

 

honestly, Fuck Getaway, Fuck Screamer, Fuck the Wraiths, FUCK Miles, FUCK the GC, FUCK Sentinel, FUCK Tyrest, and FINALLY, FUCK SABER

the ones i like are: Optimus, Rodimus, Megatron, Metroplex, Impactor, and Fort Max

 

It's like a bad 80s band "we're post punk new wave fusion metal....I think"

I gotta get me one of those 3P fort max figures, so damn nice.

 

I got that impression from the moment in the story when they first set out for the "quest". It's just a MacGuffin to tell stories in any setting they feel like, you know it's basically star trek with autobots.
hot rod is Kirk, Magnus is Spock, I don't know who Megatron would be, but I loved his dynamic towards the end of the run with Rodimus, where Megs is disgusted with how utterly incompetent Rodimus is, and nobody seems to care, it's like a big joke everyone's part of, and Megs is the odd one out for calling to attention to all the BS going on that is just normal to everyone at that point.
"the emperor has no clothes" - the irony that the former leader / destron / emperor of destruction being the one in that role is kind of delicious.

 

As much as i would like the quest to make some progress did anybody really doubt after the first few issues that it was just a framing story for a Red Dwarf type comic series ?

(Sorry for going off topic)

I kinda like Rodimus characterisation still: he's a smug narcisistic user of people believing his own hype kinda guy who is just hero enough so people get fooled by him. Never saw the office but he seems like some big mouth faux manager type from something in that vain. The kinda guy who gets everyone believing he can do the impossible and secretly leaves for a job in another firm just before everyone finds out the company went bankrupt under his mismanagment.
And as people have pointed out UM and Megatron are the perfect foils for that kinda character.
But i dont feel he has to evolve right away, in time maybe but for now i thinkhis characterisation leaves enough room for the occasional selfdoubt and temporarily redeeming action.

 

I don't see him as a user, I think he has a good heart, but he's very flawed, selfish and downright incompetent as a leader.
He bends too much to public opinion, and is really not decisive enough in some situations.
Right or wrong a leader needs to be decisive and stand by their decisions, we can never have all the I formation, but we all have to make decisions. Anyone who who watches walking dead will know what I'm getting at.

 

Note: I am not entirely up-to-date on either series, but from what I've seen so far:

Guys I Like: I'm not even gonna bother listing reasons, just because there's so many great characters IDW has given us, in my opinion. So, without further adieu,

Optimus Prime, Megatron, Prowl, Starscream, Ratchet, Ironhide, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Jazz, Sideswipe, Mirage, Cliffjumper, Kup, Springer, Perceptor, Rotorstorm, Pyro, Ironfist, Impactor, Whirl, post Not-RID Season 1 Arcee, Nautica, Nightbeat, Skids, Swerve, Tailgate, Cyclonus, Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus, Rung, Rewind, Chromedome, Trailcutter, Pipes, Brainstorm, Thundercracker, Marissa Faireborn, Verity Carlo, Hunter O'nion, Bombshell, Dirge, Swindle, Blurr, Sky Bite, Waspinator, First Aid, Amblon, Pharma, Aerialbots/Superion, Stunticons/Menasor, Cosmos, Firestar, Alpha Trion, Metroplex, Thunderclash, MTMTE Drift, post Not-RID Season 1 Constructicons/Devastator, the Scavengers, Grimlock (both before and after his mental scars), the Dinobots, Nova Prime, Red Alert, Fortress Maximus, Ten, Tarn, Kaon, Vos, Tesarus, Helex, Overlord, aaaaaaannnnd...!

...Bumblebee. With a username like mine, this seems like a no-brainer. However, since this version of the character in particular is so overlooked, I feel he deserves a paragraph explaining why this Bumblebee in particular appeals to me so much.

He was a decent supporting character in Infiltration, but he never really stepped into the spotlight until he was voted Autobot leader against his will. I just find him to be a really sympathetic character in that he's trying to do the right thing, and he's trying to be a good leader, but he doesn't have the force of personality that Optimus Prime and Rodimus do. However, Bumblebee never attempts to abandon his new responsibilities. Even though he never asked to be leader, and he has almost everyone acting against him, he never gives up and still tries to do the right thing. Then we see him brought to his lowest point, having been severely injured by Megatron and kicked out of Iacon by Starscream (after having helped SAVE the darn city, no less), and after that, I feel he goes through a bit of a change (and I don't just mean his armor). He asserts himself more, he doesn't let Prowl push him around, and he ends up calling Megatron out on his violent ways, actually playing a major part in Megatron's decision to become an Autobot. Even after his death (Bumblebee wasn't the only one shot through the spark that day...), his ghost, or at least, the memory of him is actually helping to keep Starscream in check these days. Whenever I think of unappreciated, I'll think of IDW Bumblebee and how both in-and-out-of-universe, he never got enough credit for all he did and tried to do.

Enough of positivity, though. Time to get onto what the internet was really made for! Whining!

...ish.

Guys Who Kinda Rub Me The Wrong Way, But Not Enough To Outright Hate Them:
Chief Justice Tyrest - He had a really cool design, and his evil plan was epic in sheer scale, but, a nitpick though it is, something about the fact that he became religious because he drilled a hole into his brain kinda rubs me the wrong way... It's a sensitive topic, so I won't go into too much detail, but it really does strike me as a little questionable. I think I'm being a bit harsh, because he was gradually building up towards it with drilling himself over his guilt, but something about the fact that he only became religious after wounding his head rubs me the wrong way.
D-Void - I love the idea of Transformers fighting powerful cosmic entities, but D-Void never really struck me as all that well-developed, as a character or an idea. I appreciated the spectacle, but felt the execution was a little lackluster.
Ratbat - Felt like a wasted opportunity. I feel he could have been a decent villain for a while, stirring up more obvious unrest while Shockwave and Prowl and Megatron plotted quietly in the background.
Rattrap - I love the character he had in Beast Wars, so the departure from that in favor of making him more of a schemer and a villain is a little offsetting. I don't think he's a bad scheming henchman for Starscream, and some elements of Beast Wars Rattrap, such as his cowardice and selfishness do shine through. It's just that they don't stand out and make him unique as much as the Beast Wars character since he's an antagonist rather than one of our main heroes.
Metalhawk, and by extension, most of the developed N.A.I.L.S. - I love the idea behind the civilians not trusting/disliking the Autobots as much as the Decepticons after the war is over, but Metalhawk just felt like a confused characters. I wasn't sure what John Barber wanted to do with him. He writes him as resenting the Autobots as much as the Decepticons and constantly, heck, almost certainly intentionally worsens the public view of the Autobots, but he's supposed to be the obvious right candidate, because Bumblebee isn't strong enough and Starscream is Starscream. After he became friends with Starscream, I do feel he started to feel like he was developing and growing to accept the Autobots as fellow Cybertronians, and he did serve as a nice morality chain for Starscream. However, his friendship has no effect, and he's just blasted and forgotten about. Heck, his whole resurrection feels superfluous and unnecessary until he sacrifices his life to destroy the Ammonites. Guys like Tappet and Zetca are a little too one-note in hating the Autobots, as well, and don't really evolve beyond being afthole civilians.

Guys Who Aren't My Favorite But Still Deserve Some Recognition:
Galvatron - I'm not a fan of the idea of Galvatron not being the reincarnation of Megatron, but I like the personality he has in IDW, as well as the fact that the separation allows for some good development for both him and Megatron separately.
Lockdown - Not all that developed, but it was cool to see him show up.
Rumble, Frenzy, Skywarp, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain - A nice set of supporting Decepticons, but ones who don't really shine in the spotlight.

Guys I'm Undecided On:
Sixshot - I liked him well enough in the Metroplex spotlight, but I really need to see some of the early, Furman-written stories featuring him to form a solid opinion on the guy.
Getaway - SPOILERS!
Victorion - SPOILERS!
Sentinel Prime - SPOILERS!
Windblade - I haven't been able to get ahold of her series, so I don't have a clear enough understanding of her character to form a real opinion. I like what I've seen of her, though.
Chromia - Same as Windblade.
Rhinox - He only appeared once, and I don't recall him doing much.
The Protectobots other than First Aid - Not all that developed just yet (though I could be wrong, as I've not been able to read the Combiner Wars story just yet), but I don't hate them.

Guys Who I Actually Don't Like:
Pre-Not-RID Season 1 Arcee - Her backstory came across as a highly offensive way to introduce gender to the Transformers. The fact that she was a violent psychopath who is feared by the other Transformers only makes things worse. I'm highly impressed the current writers were able to save her character the way they did.
Star Saber - While the backstory behind his turn towards God is a little touchy, I do think Tyrest was an interesting character in spite of that, and felt believable in his fanaticism. In contrast, Star Saber just feels like a cartoon character. He has no backstory beyond he thought the Circle of Light weren't devout enough for him, and he's got no personality beyond his fanaticism. While Tyrest feels like a balanced villain with a personality beyond religious fanaticism (a stern, higher-than-thou judge), Star Saber is one-note and has no personality or development beyond his fanaticism.

 

MTMTE really gave me a better appreciation for Megatron. The tragic revolutionary, warrior poet, and lost.

Skids was always a back-burner favorite since the old Marvel books and seeing him rise in the series was a highlight for an odd favorite. and heartbreaking too.

Springer, again another from G1 until forever favorite, although there are some questionable ideas

Spoiler

Still not willing to buy the whole Ostaros angle, but I like Nick's writing

Brainstorm. Genius Period.

Nightbeat. a Classic Furmanism continues.

Nautica. Love the quirky Fembot.

Wheeljack, the most important words in the Cybertronian language.

Whirl. Ker Click. Choom.

Hate:

Prowl. prick.

Galvatron. very galvanizing, just a bland 'evil for the sake of evil'

 

Sadly i never watched Walking Dead either   I get what you say about having a good heart and being selfish and an incompetent leader, but i dont see what you mean with bending too much to public opinion.
I see him as a user because he is constantly talking Chromedome into tapping into peoples brains even though it is harmfull too him, and the way he handled the Overlord fallout was disgracefull, letting Drift take the fall like that.

 

I still want to believe

Spoiler

Rhinox became Fat Tankor.

I'm still holding out hope Rodimus gets his shit together someday.

 

Spoiler

That would be a good story, Rhinox evades the corrupt functionism of Nova Prime by reformatting himself into Tankor, or alternatively, Jhiaxus is so disgusted with his beast mode he forces Rhinox into a new body as the first victim of proto-Shadowplay and proto-Empurata, this leads Tankor to rediscovering who he once was if he comes into contact with Onyx Prime, and this leads to him going on a silly quest with a few other beast formers (3 established ones in particular) to fix himself back to normal. Yeah, sounds silly but nothing is impossible in the comics anymore when it comes to silliness.  

 

Love: Autobot Megs (great characterization), Magnus (Just love 'im), Prowl (so much potential and conflict), Tarantulas (crazy cool bad guy), many more

Hate: Getaway (as intended), Windblade/Chromia (just crappy characters), and Starscream, of late (he's become TFP Starscream?)

 

FAVORITE: mtmte Drift, kup, magnus, starscream, PRE-Mtmte rodimus

HATE:chromia, getaway, sunstreaker, that stubby bot from RID, every self rightous NAIL