(SEPT-2013) Cybertron Era Characters - Thoughts and Favourites

After the high of Armada, and the low of Energon, the third chapter in the "Unicron Trilogy" was Cybertron.
The Cybertron series went from mid 2005 to the end of 2006, just before the first of the Live-Action movie toys came out.
In Japan, Cybertron was called Galaxy Force.

Details of the Cybertron series can be read here.


Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
Thundercracker: The perfect comic foil and a genuine guy even if he chose the 'wrong' side. While he was often shot at, blown up, kicked around and abused as Ransack and Crumplezone's "shuttle" he was still a remarkably valiant combatant, constantly working on his special attacks and even taking down Jetfire in earnest across their series-long "normal-guy rivalry". I say normal-guy as Thundercracker never really recieved a 'real' upgrade unlike many of the core cast.

Scourge: Although he is the 'honourable-bad-guy-turned-good' archetype his character development was very well handled in the show. From a survival-of-the-fittest ruler of Jungle Planet, to the vengeful soul (after being defeated by Optimus Prime), to the realisation that individual strength was not enough (after getting the snot kicked out of him on Giant Planet) and finally joining the fight against Galvatron as the protector of Jungle Planet.

Vector Prime: Yet another Prime but unique. He had a cool design, minicon, sword and served as Optimus' ageless mentor. Although not the greatest combatant and primarily used as a plot mechanism due to his warp capabilities he became a character unto his own with words and presence alone.

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
Starscream: Although more discreet and cunning than his other incarnations, this Starscream just ended up being mentally deranged in his lust for power and desire to end Megatron. It was kind of creepy.

Soundwave: had 'mysterious motives which simply turned out to be the restoration of their war-planet and the destruction of giant planet

The Humans/Trio of Minicons: I hate to be one of those people but most of the time when they're on screen you're wishing to get back to the real transformer action :p The story could have been easily written without them.

Thunderblast: She had some great comic moments to begin with but quickly became irrelevant and a walking slap in the face to womens equality.

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?

Metroplex: Appearing so late in the series didn't really help these characters which was really dissapointing as Metroplex was depicted as one of the most power transformers without resorting to combinations/upgrades.

Evac, Crosswise and Override: Didn't really get a lot of decent screentime despite being pretty awesome characters.

Scattorshot: Spent most of the time being the humble tech/communications guy. Even after his super awesome upgrade he was largely confined to data management tasks.

Jetfire: He was Optimus' second-in-command, had the respect of all the other Autobots but never really got to shine. Perhaps he would have been a bigger player in air support if Optimus and Vector Prime could not already fly.

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
Vector Prime would be Number one. Great olde timer thing going on and he looked awesome and majestic. Can't get enough of the guy.

Master Megatron really took my fancy this time as he was totally bonkers and didn't give a crap about anything or anyone but himself. And he had his awesome minigun with which he easily took out 3 Autobots.

Lugnut. Coz he was a hipster and a rather nice looking motorbike.

Noisemaize (sideways ?) Cool design, was an interesting character at the start, until Soundwave came along.

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
Thunderblast. Ugh, horrible, horrible.
Hot Shot. I found it annoying that he went from being a good back up from Optimus in Energon back to the annoying kid character. Yet another reason why Cybertron shouldn't be part of the Trilogy.

LigerJack and whatever his names was before, I just found that guy really annoying for some reason.
Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
I really liked Landmine in this series and would have liked to see a bit more of him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?

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My favorite characters in this or any other era in which they may appear, in no particular order, are: Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, Shockwave, Jazz. That will never change. However... as far as their characterizations in this Cybertron series goes (i.e. the first three of those listed) they are by no means my favorite character portrayals, which was the most disappointing thing for me about the show.

Hence, in terms of my favorite character portrayals for this series, the only ones that really stand out for me are:

1. Scourge
2. Vector Prime

Scourge: Scourge was and is, by far, my most favorite character in terms of development. Here was one guy who actually evolved throughout the series in a tangible and meaningful way, as we watched how his beliefs and values gradually changed from one episode to the next, and all without losing his core personality. I really liked his connections with Backstop and the Jungle Planet. He was one damn cool character that I still remember to this day. In fact, if it weren't for Scourge, I probably would not watch this particular series again.

Vector Prime: Another unique character, with a great VA and multi-dimensional personality. I really liked this guy, and still do. I was disappointed with his ending, and I really hoped that he, more than any other Autobot, would be able to help bring to the surface that inner, deeper part of Megatron that keeps hinting is there but never really gets a chance to shine... he would come close at times... sort of, and I remember, especially towards the latter half of the series, watching each episode just hoping, waiting, for that special moment where maybe, just maybe... we may finally get to see that Megatron and (some of) the other Decepticons are so much more than just the "bad" guys, thanks to Vector Prime - kind of like Lori and Optimus were the catalysts for Scourge's development. But, it never happened. Wishful thinking? Perhaps. Still, that's the one thing about Vector Prime that I remember most. He had an insight and wisdom about things and others that no one else had.

Optimus and his close team of Autobots: Looking back on the series now, I really don't have much to say about them. They come across as rather predictable and boring. Hot Shot was okay - reminds me of Steve McQueen from Cars for some reason (or maybe I'm thinking of someone else? :p It's been a few years since I watched this show)... Override was interesting, especially at the beginning when she appeared resistant to the Autobots' plight. Scattershot, Red Alert and Jetfire? Kind of like the nerds of the show.

The humans in this series were okay. I remember liking Lori, probably because of the way she interacted with Scourge, and Thunderblast.

Thunderblast: Ehh... she's... well... one of those characters you just love to hate. Annoying, funny in an annoying sort of way... you get the picture.

Starscream: Because Starscream is one of my favorite characters, I found it hard to watch. My biggest disappointment overall. I found myself wishing that he'd just hurry up and get defeated already by Primus so that I wouldn't have to watch anymore scenes with him in it. :(

Megatron: Awesome, awesome character... intelligent and with so much potential. Again though, so much disappointment for me personally. The more the series went on, the more he became predictable, until the dreaded G word replaced him. It was at this point, actually, that I lost interest in the rest of the show (same as with the original TFTM). My heart just wasn't in it anymore. :(

Soundwave: Soundwave... Soundwave was okaaaay. Not great, could have been worse. Again, another potential to be something more that was lost.

Sideways: This guy gets some character points. Intriguing, he was all just for himself, and you always knew that you could never trust his loyalty or allegiance to anyone, ever. This made him quite different, and unique, to any other character in the show.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?

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Disappointing:

1. Starscream - see above
2. Megatron - see above
3. Soundwave - see above
4. Thundercracker - all I can say is, wtf? :confused: This is a good example of why we should not reuse names for (new) characters that have no similarity whatsoever to their namesake.
   

Over-used:
No one really that I can recall at the moment.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by griffin

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?

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1. Wing Saber - he could have been more kick ass, more rebellious. I liked his arrogance.
2. Snarl - I don't remember why but I really liked this guy for some reason.

So there you have it. I hope you found some of the above interesting, and thanks for taking the time to read.

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
Scourge - I found his character development really interesting
Sideways - I enjoyed his mystique until Soundwave came along and ruined it
Leo Breaker - His trying to supress his animal instincts to kill, character development was interesting to watch

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
Thunderblast - She just flat out annoyed me
Override - Just too much of a feminist for my liking (I'm not sexist but I just think the strong willed feminist has been overdone)
Ransack and Crumplezone - Again enough with the bumbling bad guys. Crumplezone had awesome shoulder cannons that could of made him real bad ass instead he is comic relief.

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
Crosswise - I liked the idea of his character and then he just faded away.
The Cybertron Defence Team - Given their upgrades I thought they really should of had more scenes showing what they can do.
Evac - I just saw more potential there.

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
Shortround. A Decepticon Transformer who collects transforming robot toys! :D

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
Thunderblast. She was made into bad comic relief.

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
Shortround! Sucks how one of the most interesting TF characters ever written has never had a continuity appearance! It'd be great to see a moment of Shortround going into his quarters at Decepticon HQ and we see shelves and shelves full of Gobots! Seriously! Imagine him sitting at a control panel and there's Cy-Kill standing above the keyboard or maybe he's piloting a vehicle with Leader-1 on the console; or he transforms into hovercraft mode and there's a bunch of Gobots on his dashboard (or whatever the equivalent it would be on a boat). It'd be also great to have him report late to Megatron and when demanding to explain his tardiness Shortround replies, "Sorry my lord... my engines got clogged up by a school of eels." (Monty Python'd! :p) In my head, Shortround sounds like Eric Idle. ;)

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
1. Vector Prime
2. Primus
- why? Time/dimension travelling Prime and his god - Boo Yah!

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
1. Thundercracker - way to F'up a great G1 character!
2. Thunderblast - a great femme Con character and they stuffed it


Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
1. Non-irritating and fully fleshed out characters
2. See above

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
- Scourge: the whole troubled soul/honourific character was interesting, he was never sure of what he was doing and was good to watch.
- Vector Prime: underused but tried his best to keep things going forward
- Sideways: Shady character is shady!
- Red Alert: Last time we had a non crotchety medic (which I love), him trying to keep Hotshot under control on Velocitron was a nice pairing.
- Thundercracker/Crumplezone/Ransack: Team rocket, without the annoying theme song.

Which characters were disappointing or over-used?
- Starscream: I liked Starscream in this far more than Energon, but it got silly fast, and didnt explain how he would siphon energy to enlarge his size. He was everyones punching bag at one point or another.
- Thunderblast: turning her into a Megatron fan girl was irritating and since she was one of only two female characters it was sad.
- Armourhide: whine whine whine

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
- Evac, Crosswise and the ancients bots and cons: an interesting twist that felt rushed and overlooked.
- Gigantron: got there, left there as it was right at the end of the allotted 52 episodes, a pacing issue as too much time was wasted on Velocitron.
- Landmine: the Rhinox of the series was heavily under utilised.
- Cybertron Defense: reformatted after being more or less destroyed, they had a little revenge but then faded away.

Who are your favourite characters in this era, and why?
Vector Prime
Savage claw Optimus
Primus

Who would you have liked to have seen more of in this Series for being under-used?
Lots but hey hindsight