Making sense of Beast Wars and beyond

[Paulbot]

Since nobody actually explicitly said it yet, I just want to add that Beast Machines is a direct sequel to Beast Wars. It's basically series four and five of Beast Wars so it doesn't make a lot of sense if you haven't seen Beast Wars first.

[kup]

Beast Wars is a great series and if you watch it as a G1 fan then it enhances both your apreciation and enjoyment of both G1 and Beast Wars as the series support and enrich each other when it comes to concepts and lore.

Beast Machines on the other hand is drastically different to Beast Wars in story telling and style although as Paulbot mentioned, it so happens to be a direct sequel but aside from the first few episodes, it is mostly its own unique series.

Beast Machines is the type of series that there is a chance you may hate if you are a Transformers fan as they move radically away from the core concept of what makes Transformers..well..Transformers :P. Its a good series by itself if you watch it as a non Transformers fan but it could leave you a bad taste in the mouth if you happen to be one, particularly at the end.

Beast Wars despite the realistic animal altmodes; it follows traditional Transformers concepts and enriches them without crossing the line, Beast Machines on the other hand doesn't and many TF fans (Including hardcore Beast Wars fans like myself) do not like Beast Machines very much because of that.

To put it simply, don't expect the same storytelling style or dynamics of the Beast Wars series when watching Beast Machines. Try to treat it as a separate series, even separate to Transformers if you want to enjoy it for what it is.

Beast Wars on the other hand will not only make you a bigger G1 fan but also enriches many of the already stablished concepts touched upon in not only the G1 cartoon but the G1/G2 comics too while giving you great apreciation for the series itself.
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Armenian Recipes

[GoktimusPrime]

Try to treat it as a separate series, even separate to Transformers if you want to enjoy it for what it is.

But that goes against what Beast Machines is meant to be - as Paulbot said, it is supposed to be a direct continuation from Beast Wars... a sequel and essentially the fourth and fifth seasons of Beast Wars.

Yes, it is a massively major departure from the more orthodox perspective of what Transformers is in some regards (not all), and like it or not, that doesn't change the fact that Beast Machines is part of Transformers - specifically it is part of G1/G2/BW continuity. That is a canonical fact whether you like it or not.

Saying something like "Beast Machines is more enjoyable if you ignore the fact that it's Transformers" is like saying, "Olympic Taekwondo is good martial art if you ignore the fact that they can't fight" or "smoking isn't really bad for your health if you ignore the various diseases associated with it." For better or for worse, Beast Machines is part of Transformers.

And I submit to you that accepting Beast Machines as Transformers is a LOT easier than accepting Animorphs as Transformers!

"Gah! What's the word 'Transformers' doing on top of 'Animorphs'?!"

[kup]

Sorry I didn't make myself clear on the previous post.

When I said try to treat it as separate series I didn't mean for him to ignore that it is canon because it is even if I don't like it. I just meant not to expect or feel disapointed when the series takes such a radical departure from traditional Transformers concepts and story telling.

The departure from 'traditional' Transformers is a huge culture shock and if you can't see passed it then it ruins the series for you even though the series is reasonably good despite this. The changes made to some of the BW characters also causes a big shock but if you don't see passed it, it can make you feel bitter.

I am not saying to ignore canon I am saying to treat the show as its own creative effort without expecting a continuation of the same story structure or characterizations that we saw in Beast Wars as well as regular transformer concepts. After you get over the culture shock after the first few episodes where they begin to distant themselves from any references of what happened before, it becomes its own series and arguably enjoyable.

What I meant as a separate series it was more of in 'mindset' than canon.
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Ferrari America Specifications

[Sam]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do.

[1orion2many]

I personally enjoyed both Beast Wars and Beast Machines but like most people I was dissappointed with the end of Beast Machines as it left the story line no where to go unfortunately.

[GoktimusPrime]

The changes made to some of the BW characters also causes a big shock but if you don't see passed it, it can make you feel bitter.

Actually I find some (not all) of the character changes more difficult to accept than some of the other changes made... character change is a good thing and important for driving a story... but it needs to be done logically. The problem with some of the character development in Beast Machines is that they took an illogical departure from Beast Wars. Some didn't, and were done well, but others just didn't make sense.

When we develop a character in a story there needs to be a logical progression. e.g. Anakin Skywalker...
1. Innocent well-meaning boy who is born in a world of incredible injustice and yearns to somehow bring justice and free his mother.
2. Becomes an impatient but still well-meaning heroic Jedi apprentice. Finds difficulty separating emotional desires from his sense of duty - death of his mother leaves him feeling incredibly impotent and gives him his first taste of the Dark Side (a taste that he dislikes). His battles with Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku (he is a Jedi Knight by this stage) during the Clone Wars also gives him more tastes (but he still dislikes it).
3. His emotional desires change to overwhelming greed, allowing the Dark Side of the Force to consume him and becoming Darth Vader.

Beast Wars always had a logical character developmental process - in the transition to Beast Machines, whilst some characters continued to logically develop, others didn't... and in some cases, their characters became entirely contrary to their BW selves, which isn't a bad thing but needs to be logically explained but sadly wasn't.