TF Prime episodes

[Sydew]

You don't really need a human looking character to make a story relatable to an audience, you only need the character to be human and it won't matter if is a car, a robot or something that lacks any anthropomorphic features. That's why you'd have commercial films (box office phenomenons which aren't necessary good) and art house films or cinema (Usually a very good film but it doesn't do that great on the box office).

Now we're dealing with the Transformers brand which in a pragmatic point of view its only real purpose is to make money, so that means it has attract the masses in an as effective and simplistic way as possible based on the primary target consumer: kids. That means you make visually relatable characters like Spike, Sari, the "Prime Kids". It's just a standard advertising procedure.

For Hasbro it's even more difficult nowadays because the original consumers (us) have grownup; now they have to retain the original consumers, now adults, and at the same time attract new consumers, kids, in order to make a profit and not only keep going but to grow as a company which is their goal.

[Dominic]

How many kids actually care about the human characters though?


Dom
-likely not many.

[Gomess]

An increasing number, as the writers dare to actually deepen them.

Sari > Armada kids > Koji > Daniel > Spike...

That's what I've observed, anyway. And I work with kids regularly, so you know I'm good for it!

Heck, the American human characters have definitely caught up with the old Japanese-only ones (Wilder, Cancer, Jean, you know) in terms of personality, believability and entertainment value. *Logically* the Prime kids should've been the most interesting ones so far. Can't say I've seen it, but hey, we all make mistakes.

NOTE: That second line is an illustration of how their *personalities* deepened, not how much we all LIKE them. You've gotta admit there's a real curve of depth there, and the age group who got annoyed by Daniel (me) are now drawing pictures of Sari! That would've been UNHEARD OF re: Daniel.

[Sparky Prime]

It was a nice change of pace to see the kids make themselves useful in the latest episode as Scraplet exterminators. Unfortunately, I don't think they'll ever be that useful in doing anything else.

[BWprowl]

An increasing number, as the writers dare to actually deepen them.

Sari > Armada kids > Koji > Daniel > Spike...

That's what I've observed, anyway. And I work with kids regularly, so you know I'm good for it!

Heck, the American human characters have definitely caught up with the old Japanese-only ones (Wilder, Cancer, Jean, you know) in terms of personality, believability and entertainment value. *Logically* the Prime kids should've been the most interesting ones so far. Can't say I've seen it, but hey, we all make mistakes.

NOTE: That second line is an illustration of how their *personalities* deepened, not how much we all LIKE them. You've gotta admit there's a real curve of depth there, and the age group who got annoyed by Daniel (me) are now drawing pictures of Sari! That would've been UNHEARD OF re: Daniel.

Sari's an interesting case though, in that she's *technically* a Transformer. I wonder if that affects people's opinions of her at all.

And in a sign of how much I really care about this show, I completely forgot there was a new episode of Prime yesterday!

[Mako Crab]

Really enjoyed Scrapheaps. Great, solid episode all around. One of the highlights for me was seeing both the writers and Cullen easing more into Optimus' character with his line about bringing Raf back a snowball. That was cute. And later on when both he and Arcee were facing death in the arctic. That was a truly memorable scene. We've seen plenty of TFs die in battle before, when it was quick and violent, but here when they're just trying to hold out against the cold and had to come to grips with death, it was much more poignant. Prime and Arcee holding hands was a tender moment, and no I don't see it as being romantic. Just two soldiers offering comfort to the other in their last moments. I like how Arcee and Prime dealt with the situation differently. Arcee tries to find a scapegoat (Bulkhead) and then begins voicing her disbelief/regret that after everything she's been through, it's the cold weather that would finally do her in. Prime handles it more gracefully and with more dignity as befitting someone of his stature.

The scrapmetals invasion... OMG those things were adorable! I instantly thought of them as little sharkticons. I always thought the G1 sharkticons looked more pirahna-esque anyway, but there were never this cute. I want a plushy of one!

Bulkhead was the highlight of the main story in this ep. I laughed my ass off when he screamed! His description of what happens to a 'bot when it gets eaten alive from the inside out (right down to the optics) was suitably creepy. I wonder who his friend was that got eaten. Also creepy was the scene when the kids are tip-toeing through a hallway full of scrapmetals! I knew it wouldn't happen, but I couldn't stop thinking about what if the little pirahnas suddenly turned on the kids?!

Oh, and when Miko and Jack were playing video games, I yelled out, "Pole Position!" when I saw it. They weren't kidding when they said the Autobots were using old human tech. What is that, an Atari 2600? Hehe. Anyway, this was a great episode. Probably the best so far and really showed a lot of emotion for all the 'bots involved. Even Raf had his little moment to freak out, which was unexpected. I swear that kid's got issues. I hope Prime continues to make each new episode better than the last as has been the case so far. This could wind up being the best TF series ever.

[Mako Crab]

Sari's an interesting case though, in that she's *technically* a Transformer. I wonder if that affects people's opinions of her at all.

But people genuinely liked her for the first 2 full seasons of TFA before it was revealed that she was a cybertronian.

[Shockwave]

I have to agree with Mako on this episode. When I first saw the trailer and heard the word scraplets, I thought "oh god, really?" I really did not want to like this episode. But I do. The Scraplets actually gave the kids a legitimate literary purpose for being there beyond "TeH KiDz neeDz SomE1nE to IdeNtiFy WiTh!" and the part with Prime and Arcee is just as poignant as Mako describes. Also I totally want a plush Scraplet as well. They're like G1 Sharkticons done in Animated style with BW CGI with a little bit of GIR from Invader Zim and shrunk down to the size of a puppy.

[Onslaught Six]

Sari's an interesting case though, in that she's *technically* a Transformer. I wonder if that affects people's opinions of her at all.

But people genuinely liked her for the first 2 full seasons of TFA before it was revealed that she was a cybertronian.

People speculated Sari was Cybertronian since the first episode.

Anyway, I'm going to watch these two episodes tonight. Maybe they're better than the intro. Skyquake!

[Mako Crab]

Also I totally want a plush Scraplet as well. They're like G1 Sharkticons done in Animated style with BW CGI with a little bit of GIR from Invader Zim and shrunk down to the size of a puppy.

OMG that's it! They're an army of GIRS! That's awesome! GIR had quite the appetite too