The Transformers

I’m curious. What does it do right?

The villains to me have been handled pretty well, and what little screen time Russel has has been spent in some decent service to the typical ‘believe in yourself’ message, but other than that…

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one of the things i think RiD have done a good job at is to not have Megatron as the main villain. Because of Steeljaw, it’s one of the few western Transformers shows that have used a new/different antagonist instead of using a variation of the same old Megatron. And so far, they have not brought Megatron back and reverted all of his development from Predacon Rising. Now that is a good thing.

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Well Grimlock for one. He’s my favorite character in the show.

i have seen some people dislike him because he “ruined the character” however, i don’t think RiD Grimlock is the same as the Grimlock from the games.

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I like the idea of big green robot T-Rex as much as the next guy, but I can’t stand the blatant dumb muscle trope used it such a straightforward way.

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Fair, though he does go through a lot of development. Like in my favorite episode of the series.

They almost did

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Of the main Autobot cast, Grimlock is the one that the best handled, but that’s not really saying much. He’s the focus of one of the best Season 1 episodes (the one where the other Dinobot shows up) and honestly has the most intrigue surrounding him. He was a Decepticon how exactly? His record states he accidentally destroyed some stuff, but seems too young to have fought in the great war. So does the Cybertronian Counsel just label all criminals Decepticons? Is that how they get away with carting them off on a prison ship? This has been an interesting plot point since Day 1 that they have barely addressed. I think the last few episodes of Season 3 are going to address this (but Wikipedia has been wrong before, as I remember looking up stuff for Animated back in the day and seeing stuff on Wikipedia saying that Barricade and Blackout were going to show up on Earth in Season 3, specifically), so hopefully it’s satisfying.

But this is a huge problem with the character. Despite the intrigue, that’s pretty much literally all he is. He’s had a few interesting episodes dedicated to him being a giant green T-Rex on Earth, but, again, like all the other characters, he hasn’t grown any. He’s still basically the exact same Dinobot that yelled “Did someone say punching?!” with half his head stuck out of a stasis cell in Episode 1.

It’s like I always say: always consider the Cybertron games to be completely separate from the TV shows. They don’t line up at all.

Also, the writers on the show have stated he’s a different Grimlock and that “Grimlock” is just a common Dinobot name. :confounded:

Another area that RiD fails in is something that Transformers has never really dealt with before. Granted, what I’m about to go through may be too dark for a more kids-oriented show, but since RiD is a continuation of Prime it should have shown up at some point.

How long has it been since Prime? It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but that may just be the style and it’s been a long time (the former military base looks like it’s been abandoned for a decade at least). So what about the human characters from Prime? If this isn’t too long after, wouldn’t Bee want to go see Raf? Is Raf alive? What about Jack and Miko? Would he like to visit with them, too? If it has been a long time, have they all grown old and died? For giant alien robots with lifespans FAR longer than humans, what’s it like to lose a human companion and still be there long after they’re gone? Sure, they got to say goodbye at the end of Prime, but they didn’t think they’d be coming back to Earth (even though it was a quick space-bridge away since Ratchet got to Cybertron from there easy enough and Bee later on). Wouldn’t actually being back make Bee want to see his old friend if it wasn’t that long after? Raf was some sort of tech genius, what if he started a tech company and just so happened to be located in Crown City? Could Jack and Miko be the new government liaisons, checking in now and then?

For all the faults Energon has, at least it included the old cast from Armada to some extent. RiD doesn’t even have to go dark with the “how do I feel that this person I knew as a kid died a long time ago?” thing. The creative team had some interesting material there on a silver platter with a grown up Raf, and has done next to nothing with it. I wouldn’t be that bothered by it, except the majority of stuff in the show is just rehashed ‘lesson of the week’ stuff we’ve seen time and time again. You know you’re running low on ideas when you do a brain-switch episode.

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Well they did include Soundwave and Ratchet, and Knockout’s vehicle mode has been showing up from time to time. Not to mention the several vehicons. Also Bulkhead is apparently going to make an appearance somewhere down the line.

They didn’t show up until late into Season 2, though. And my main point above was the lack of the previous human cast, not so much the bots.

That’s probably just an easy use of an existing model to fill in backgrounds. It’s only been directly referenced the one time with Strongarm’s “common criminals” comment.

And is supposedly going to team up with Grimlock. The muscle trope showing the muscle trope how it’s done. That I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Probably going to be underwhelming like Ratchet, but oh well.

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Fracture is one of the few decent figures from the line. I have him as well, he’s fine.

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I just realized something. What is it with Transformers and having really rad police dudes?

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dear primus, its true

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They’re assisting in the hunt for ladiesman217, isn’t it obvious?

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Fowler isn’t really police tho.

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Well he is an operative of law enforcement none the less.

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Oh hey.

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Woa! Where did this come from?

Idk I just found it on an image website. It’s form the IDW comic I think.

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yeah, apparently it’s from IDW’s First Strike issue 6.

And really, They have been building up to Unicron’s appearance in the past Transformers comics. Not outright saying his name, but making hints and saying things that points towards him.

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