I need to vent!

[philby]

anyone know how auspost tracking works? as in what stages things are at when it gets updated, who does it, etc?
someone sent a package to me on friday and the tracking says received and then processed through facility. that was very late on friday night and it hasn't been updated since. it's now been 2 full business days plus the weekend and the status hasn't changed.

* i guess i'm venting that i know it takes a few days to get here but at least be a little more up to date with the information or progress

[Raider]

Just watched ep 1 of Combiner Wars and I don't have a single nice thing to say about it....

Voice acting was terrible, script was cringe worthy, only lasted 5 mins of which 25% of it was spent with computron and menasor doing this repetitive punch action in space, menasor sounds like a teenager with an attitude problem, no apparent storyline, I could rant for longer.

I am just so disappointed that we have waited so long for this crap

[kup]

Just watched ep 1 of Combiner Wars and I don't have a single nice thing to say about it....

Voice acting was terrible, script was cringe worthy, only lasted 5 mins of which 25% of it was spent with computron and menasor doing this repetitive punch action in space, menasor sounds like a teenager with an attitude problem, no apparent storyline, I could rant for longer.

I am just so disappointed that we have waited so long for this crap

Beast Wars was the last true 'Good' Transformers cartoon. Animated was okay but it's terrible first season which was the longest was horrible enough to bring the whole series down despite the good shorter 2nd and 3rd seasons. The abrupt cancellation also didn't help, at least BW ended properly.

[MV75]

Cybertron was good, animated was ok. Everything after, especially rid I don't like.

[The_Damned]

Beast Wars was the last true 'Good' Transformers cartoon. Animated was okay but it's terrible first season which was the longest was horrible enough to bring the whole series down despite the good shorter 2nd and 3rd seasons. The abrupt cancellation also didn't help, at least BW ended properly.

you didnt like prime?

[GoktimusPrime]

I liked Prime, but Beast Wars was way better, and I agree that it was the last great Transformers cartoon. Prime didn't have much character development throughout most of its run, and what limited character development that it did have happened towards the latter part of the series in relative isolation (as opposed to being a continual thing throughout the story). Stories are driven by the journey of the protagonist(s) and the isolated characterisations in Prime made these journeys feel more like teleportation rather than an actual voyage. Bumblebee was the immature prat throughout most of the series until he falls into a pool of goop, oops, now he's mature and he can talk. Megatron is totally maniacal until he's liberated from Unicron, oops, now he's become a pacifist and has dissolved the Decepticon faction and is walking away from everything.

Most of the other characters remain stagnant throughout the series, including Optimus Prime. He starts off as being a flawless saviour archetype and in the end of Predacon Rising he is the flawless saviour archetype. He's gone from Point A to Point A, in other words, he hasn't made any emotional journey. He's a walking caricature who speaks in quotations rather than a character. He has the emotional range of Kristen Stewart.

---------------------------------------------------------

Had a different phone scammer call me today. Claimed that he was representing some vehicle accidents claim company. I asked him questions like:
"What is the name of your company?"
"Which client do you represent?"
He kept on redescribing his company but couldn't answer either of those basic questions. He gave me a Sydney based address, but when I insisted on the name of the company he couldn't answer me. I kept on repeating my questions and he eventually hung up.

[The_Damned]

I liked Prime, but Beast Wars was way better, and I agree that it was the last great Transformers cartoon. Prime didn't have much character development throughout most of its run, and what limited character development that it did have happened towards the latter part of the series in relative isolation (as opposed to being a continual thing throughout the story). Stories are driven by the journey of the protagonist(s) and the isolated characterisations in Prime made these journeys feel more like teleportation rather than an actual voyage. Bumblebee was the immature prat throughout most of the series until he falls into a pool of goop, oops, now he's mature and he can talk. Megatron is totally maniacal until he's liberated from Unicron, oops, now he's become a pacifist and has dissolved the Decepticon faction and is walking away from everything.

Most of the other characters remain stagnant throughout the series, including Optimus Prime. He starts off as being a flawless saviour archetype and in the end of Predacon Rising he is the flawless saviour archetype. He's gone from Point A to Point A, in other words, he hasn't made any emotional journey. He's a walking caricature who speaks in quotations rather than a character. He has the emotional range of Kristen Stewart. :

I don't know about all that i just thought it was a cool cartoon.

[MayzaPrime]

I disagree, I thought Prime had a lot of character development, especially Starscream. I actually enjoyed the human relationships with the bots which is a first for me. When Bee got his voice back and then called Raf... 'shivers'. Predaking was also another character that went through a massive change, literally.

I love Beast Wars, it is my favourite TF cartoon, but Prime is a close 2nd.

I do agree with Goki in regards to Optimus... he did go from super warrior to super warrior, but I am interested to know what might you have changed to change the character?

[kup]

you didnt like prime?

No. I gave it a really good try but it was so frustrating to watch it episode per episode. First season was horrible and I stopped watching just before the season finale as I couldn't go on. I was then told that the season finale was good so I decided to finish of the season to see it but it was just garbage to me so I had no further motivation.

I actually find Animated more watchable than Prime by a long shot despite it also having a terrible first season but you actually see some improvements as things go on despite that as well as character progression - I don't see any of that in Prime. A frustration with Prime was also how characters would not learn from their mistakes despite terrible consequences, specially that stupid hyperactive girl. They had no reason whatsoever to have those kids hanging around and they were far more trouble than they were worth. That as well as a terribly weak plot that had nothing interesting for me. I could tell that even as a kid I would have disliked it.

The way I see it - This is how it goes with cartoons:

1st Sunbow G1 - Only first as this is the cartoon that started it although it is very cheesy by today's standards but can still be enjoyable. Several episodes were good with a unique take even if sometimes it was a bit far off.

2nd Beast Wars - Pretty much the absolute best of all Transformers cartoons - Proper character developments, story arcs that pay off, cool cameos and references, aims at both adults and kids without dumbing things down or adding too frustrating characters.. I am only placing it second because for lack of a better word, it is still a spin of show from G1 to the point that they share the same continuity. Kind of how Star Trek Next Genertation is technically better than TOS but TOS is what started it all.

3rd Animated By a considerable distance after 2nd, I place Animated in this catergory. It has a bad 1st Season but considerably improves in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.

4th would probably be RID/Cybertron at about the same.

5th Armada only because it actually has a good end of series story arc.

The rest are just absolute rubbish and I place them in the same pile which includes Prime, Energon, etc.

[Bladestorm]

There was potential for Optimus to have character development in Transformers Prime but the writers seemed to isolate his character and make him cold and flat as a consequence.

If they imbued some of the elements from G1 Optimus - the desire to be not only a leader but comrade and friends with your soldiers; the curiosity to understand humanity ... especially from a child's eyes. In fact, if they had taken the opportunity for Optimus to reflect on how distant he had become due to the burdens of leadership and time... the Orion Pax storyline would have led nicely into exploring that.
Optimus's fatal flaw (excluding movies) is always the unwillingness to take ANY life and I would have loved to see the show confront that more; give him more personal interaction where we get to see how he FEELS and reacts and grows as a character because of that. There were ample situations they could have done this but chose not to.

As much as I dislike RID2015 there was a hint of Optimus getting a bit more personality/humanity/reality check when he was with Windblade (when he wasn't giving ridiculously pompous speeches). I would have liked to see them continue along that path of the two characters discovering themselves thanks to each others flaws and insights. I see massive potential with their pairing to create a father-daughter/teacher-mentor relationship that I can see kids liking. My daughter LOVED seeing Windblade and Optimus working together.

Ultimately Megatron will ALWAYS win because of Optimus unwilling to sacrifice innocent lives but maybe that could change too if they actually did try to give Optimus a character arc where he has to sacrifice something or someone.

Interesting to note as a complete side: At Cybertroncon they had a video that showed the evolution of Transformers cartoons over time. When Transformers Prime came on the Chinese audience cheered loudly and there were calls of "bring Transformers Prime back!" much to the surprise of the head of Transformers media so the show definitely had some popularity behind it.
There were also lesser cheers for G1, Beast Wars and Animated.

Personally, if I could get Transformers Prime animation with Beast Wars storylines and G1 personalities that would be my idea of a great Transformers show.