Quote Originally Posted by Sky Shadow View Post
Just out of interest, SharkyMcShark (it only strikes me because I've just come from reading the recent posts in the Wreckers thread) - if Animated is "very overrated" and Last Stand Of The Wreckers is "thin on the ground for plot and characterisation" - what Transformers stuff do you think is good?
To really draw me in as a Transformers audio visual media I generally want there to be either a good plot with deep characters, and/or lots of visceral action. I prefer the former to the latter generally speaking, but some lines are better at providing one or the other.

For TV shows, Beast Wars and Beast Machines had fantastic characterisation and a good amount of action. To me those series represent the height of Transformers TV show writing - the characters were engaging and the plots were reasonably deep. Robots in Disguise had an interesting (and fresh) plot and I quite enjoyed following that (also the switch to a more 'Japanese' style of animation was a good move at the time. I find both of the movies reasonably visually engaging to keep me entertained. In contrast I found Animated neither visually engaing nor interesting to follow.

As for comics, really it just goes to whether the characters and plot draw me in (I don't value action as much in the comics). Any of the Dreamwave G1 series I found quite stimulating (especially the second series, where Magnus and Shockwave had formed an uneasy alliance). I also quite liked a lot of the Spotlight stuff, specifically Hot Rod, Double Dealer, and Blurr. While its had a lacklustre start I find the Ongoing series reasonably engaging - I like what they're doing with certain characters (specifically Rodimus, Magnus, and Swindle).

While I'll openly admit that I don't much care for the Animated aesthetic, it boils down to the characters for me. The Beast Wars characters to me stood the test of time, whereas the only character that I approached liking as much as that in Animated was Starscream (I felt it was a reasonably interesting take on the Starscream concept). With The Wreckers comics, what bugs me is that the rookies characters are all archetypal rookies thrust into heavy combat - the outwardly self assured one, the one that hero worships the rest of the crew, the one that didn't realise that war wasn't just a big adventure, and the one that hero worships Optimus Prime.