(APR-2013) Beast Wars Era - Rate it

[griffin]

The Entire Era/Series as a whole (you can include the Japanese parts if you want), how does it rate in the world of Transformers:

- Best Ever
- One of the better ones
- Average
- Not very good
- I refuse to have anything to do with it

[KalEl]

In my Honest opinion, Beast Wars was and is the overall best Transformers series ever made. If you haven't seen it, you need to watch it! If you have seen it, watch it again!

[GoktimusPrime]

Beast Wars = Transformers Renaissance.

[i_amtrunks]

Best series ever, because instead of getting talking toys in 30 minute ads showcasing how cool they were to sell toys, we got characters in story arcs who developed and learnt and changed to sell toys.

Beast Wars is one of those few shows that gets better to watch (storyline wise) the older you get. However never does it feel as if it is dumbing itself down to the target audience, or treating them as though they are dumb.

It also started the turn into focussing on a smaller range of characters to move the action forward, something that has best been seen in Animated and in Prime decades later.

[Autocon]

The Best.

[BigTransformerTrev]

One of the better ones in my opinion. I'd still take G1 or Animated over it any day though:

Positives:
*Long story arcs
*Great character development
*Plots interesting for adults as well as kids
*Proper homages to the G1 cartoon
*Cameo's by G1 characters (Ravage, Starscream, the deactivated bots in the Ark)

Negatives
*Instead of awesome huge robots turning into tanks, jets, trucks, race cars etc you have small robots turning into rats and crabs?!!? Boo, boo I say!
*Small groups. I know that makes for more character driven stories but I liked G1 where you had huge casts and giant battle scenes. Real armies on both sides rather than small gangs
*Weak bots: I saw a Predacon get taken down by spears - spears for Primus sake!

[Bartrim]

I liked it. But it just doesn't feel Transformery enough to me. I am also not a fan of the small group dynamic. I like the big army feel. Actually the best series (imo) for introducing characters was Cybertron. They started small then ended up with quite a nice size cast by the end and yes some characters didn't get the screen time they deserved, I still feel they did a great job sharing the screen time with such a sizeable cast. I had this problem with Animated. I really liked Rodimus' team in Animated but they only had the one scene

Also I hate the sterotype characters like Cheetor (That shoot first, ask questions later who needs to learn patience because he will be a great leader one day and even though his "gung-ho" attitude will cause him or a team mate to get into trouble and he is remorseful for his actions he still carries on like that again)

Plus Rattrap annoyed me so much. He is definitely on my top 5 of most annoying TF characters ever. At least with Wheelie there were plenty of other characters to use for screen time. When you only have half a dozen Autobots and one of them grinds your gears you will be seeing that guy quite a bit.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah but Cheetor grows out of that annoying rash and impulsive youth character. He's not like Wheelie who's forever impishly annoying for his entire run in G1! And Rattrap did annoy the hell out of me when I first saw the show too - he was my least liked character. But I grew to like him a lot. Rattrap is a lot like what Gears and Huffer were meant to be in G1 -- they just hate being in the war and openly complain about it. He's also desperately homesick for Cybertron. In the Season 1 pilot when Optimus Primal tells Rattrap to go rescue Cheetor while he provides cover, and Rattrap refuses so Optimus Primal has to go do it (and gets shot in the process) really irked me! I wanted someone to come and slap Rattrap really hard. But later it was funny when Dinobot would often put Rattrap in his place (and later on Rattrap would sometimes put Dinobot in his place too! Those two characters had a great dynamic! ), but more importantly Rattrap soon accepted his role as a combatant, proving to be highly resourceful and even charismatic (as seen when he was elected leader of the Maximals in Optimus Primal's absence). His constant pessimism and grating sarcasm became an ongoing thing that gave the show some comedic pauses in tense situations.

Rattrap: "I know, I know, I know... shut up Rattrap."

Rattrap: "Like I said, you're just a blasted slag-spoutin' saurian... but it's nice to know where ya stand."
Dinobot (with dying breath): "Upwind of you... for preference, vermin."
Rattrap: (smiles)
^More emotional depth in this brief moment than the entire Michael Bay Trilogy.

[Gouki]

Beast Wars is the kind of creative high point the franchise will most likely never reach again, unfortunately.

[Sinnertwin]

Didn't like it then, still don't like it.