Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Really liked the Forbidden Zone stuff especially! As I recall, it was always kind of ambiguous whether Cybertron was entirely artificial, or was built over an existing planet, so it was cool to that explored. Is there precedent for using magic in the TF universe? It was nice to see the much neglected Skids taking on the role of "Autobot Magician".
I'd never really thought about how odd it was how few "sea characters" there were in Transformers. You'd think with the Decepticon base being underwater, they'd have developed some aquatic troopers capable of guarding it.
Liked seeing the origins of Metroplex and Trypticon, and tying the latter to Dinobot Island was a nice touch.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts in detail, Eryk. As some recent posts in Mission Monitor Board's Share Something Completely Random thread indicate, one should never underestimate how much a creative person appreciates such things.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Really liked the Forbidden Zone stuff especially!
That makes me feel really good, because it was by far the hardest stuff to write, since it was the only thing in the story that was not part of established Transformers mythology and I had to create it from whole cloth.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: As I recall, it was always kind of ambiguous whether Cybertron was entirely artificial, or was built over an existing planet, so it was cool to that explored. Is there precedent for using magic in the TF universe?
A little bit. One of my favorite episodes was the one about the planet of the mer-people with their magic wishing pond. And there's a Season 3 episode that I consider rather underrated where a doorway to a magical dimension is opened. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: It was nice to see the much neglected Skids taking on the role of "Autobot Magician".
Yeah. Poor Skids. He was the only one of the second wave of Autobot cars and trucks that didn't get the spotlight even once in the TV series. I had to remedy that.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Liked seeing the origins of Metroplex and Trypticon, and tying the latter to Dinobot Island was a nice touch.
I tend to be very critical of my own work, but I was very satisfied with the way that the Metroplex/Trypticon sequences came out.
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I'm not really up on my 'Bot lore but I fondly remember all these guys from my childhood. I was really disappointed with the movies.
As a result of reading your fic, I was went looking for stuff around the net. I totally geeked out because they are making a new video game set a prequel to the original G1 series and have preordered it for June release.
Both the video game geek in me and the transformer fan in me says this is going to be good.
From: Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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That's great news, TL. I'm very glad I helped you find that game. Enjoy it to the fullest.
I saw the first of the live-action movies and thought it was almost completely without redeeming qualities, save for Peter Cullen returning to the role of Optimus Prime. I skipped the second one.
The animated movie, I'm deeply ambivalent about. I don't mind that it was darker and more violent than the first two seasons of the show. I do mind that the story was an incoherent mess, and that the celebrity voices were far inferior to the professional voice actor voices.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I'm more bothered by the inconsistency of the violence of the movie with earlier seasons. Characters suddenly get killed by damage that is extremely minor compared to stuff they'd been through before. It really just smacks of "Hey, let's snuff out as many of the older characters as we can to clear the way for the next wave of toys".
After re-watching the first season of the original, I decided to check out more recent series. Transformers: Animated was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. Certainly worth watching. Then I watched Beast Wars, which was okay, but had a lot of annoying aspects to it.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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Yeah, the inconsistency of the violence in the animated movie is annoying -- all they had to do was have a character say something like "Since the Decepticons took over Cybertron, they've upgraded their weapons thousandfold."
And I, too, find Beast Wars overrated, except for a Season 2 stand-alone episode, "Transmutate", written by my heroine Christy Marx. That one is outstanding.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
I think I would have preferred to see a lot more of the characters "reformatted" into new roles rather than killed off and replaced.
I remember thinking when the Protectobots first appeared (with absolutely no explanation where they came from), that it would make a lot more sense to turn the existing Firetruck character, Police Car character, and Ambulance character into Protectobots than introduce all these new guys.
And did we really need to kill off grizzled war veteran Iron Hide to replace him with never-before-seen grizzled war veteran Kup?
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I think I would have preferred to see a lot more of the characters "reformatted" into new roles rather than killed off and replaced.
Funnily enough, I've often suspected that the original plan was to have BOTH Megatron reformatted into Galvatron AND Optimus Prime reformatted into Ultra Magnus. The cab of the Ultra Magnus toy was basically Optimus re-painted all-white. The fact that separate Rodimus Prime and Hot Rod toys were released only makes me more certain.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I remember thinking when the Protectobots first appeared (with absolutely no explanation where they came from), that it would make a lot more sense to turn the existing Firetruck character, Police Car character, and Ambulance character into Protectobots than introduce all these new guys.
By coincidence, one of the future Transformers fanfics that I've plotted (did anybody really think I'd stop at one?) has the Protectobots trapped and their functional predecessors having to take their place.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: And did we really need to kill off grizzled war veteran Iron Hide to replace him with never-before-seen grizzled war veteran Kup?
I loved Ironhide, but I have a sentimental spot for Kup. In the movie, as voiced by Lionel Stander, he was just a one-dimensional old grouch, but in Season 3, John Stephenson took over the role and really seemed to put his heart and soul into the role. That, combined with improved writing of Kup (particularly in his showcase episode, "Chaos", one of the best Season 3 episodes) ultimately made him just as valid as Ironhide IMO.
quote:Originally posted by Tamper Lad: But Ironhide was an early 80s Toyota camper van. Kup was a pickup truck... of Space.
Yes. I liked Floro Dery's space-age car and truck designs better than the more conventional car and truck designs of the originals.
Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
quote:Originally posted by Fanfic Lass:
quote:Originally posted by Tamper Lad: But Ironhide was an early 80s Toyota camper van. Kup was a pickup truck... of Space.
Yes. I liked Floro Dery's space-age car and truck designs better than the more conventional car and truck designs of the originals.
I have mixed feelings on that. While I liked the futuristic car designs, part of the original fun of Transformers was imagining that the car down the street was actually an Autobot. That kind of got lost when they moved to the futuristic setting.
I actually think they really missed out by not releasing "Cybertronian" versions of their original characters. I would've loved to have one of those Tetrahedron-style Cybertronian jets to play with.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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True, but I think so much was gained by the futuristic setting that it compensated for what was lost. There were fewer silly gimmick episodes (paradoxically, I do love the discotheque episode from Season 2) and more space opera.
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I loved the cybertronian/futuristic designs too. Cyclonus and Scourge were a bit too creepy. Aside from Shockwave (my personal favorite decepticon) were any Cybertronian toys made before the Unicron story? Shockwave appeared quite often but I only remember Cybertron being featured in a few episodes: with the only one really clear in my memory being the episode with the female transformers.
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester:
I actually think they really missed out by not releasing "Cybertronian" versions of their original characters. I would've loved to have one of those Tetrahedron-style Cybertronian jets to play with.
So much so, they're canonizing a video game prequel to fill in and retcon their 80s stuff for a new line. Tetrahedron jets retconned away unfortunately.
I need to convince my brother to pick up the game so we can spend a couple hours making a prequel to our living room floor battles in front of the TV.
From: Canada | Registered: Apr 2005
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Eryk Davis Ester
Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!
posted
Cybertron appears quite a bit. It always seems oddly underpopulated, though.
From: Liberty City | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Tamper Lad: I loved the cybertronian/futuristic designs too. Cyclonus and Scourge were a bit too creepy.
They were creepy, but that's what I liked about them. Cyclonus looked like the devil himself!
One of my biggest disappointments when I first saw the animated movie, years after watching Season 3, was that Cyclonus and Scourge were non-entities with barely a line between them. I loved the way they were portrayed in Season 3, as Galvatron's much more level-headed yet still loyal lieutenants, kind of a Transformers version of the Cobra Commander/Destro/Major Bludd dynamic from G.I. Joe. (I know I've said this before in other threads, but in my opinion the Leonard Nimoy Galvatron from the movie was dull as dirt compared to the maniacal Frank Welker Galvatron from Season 3.)
quote:Originally posted by Tamper Lad: Aside from Shockwave (my personal favorite decepticon) were any Cybertronian toys made before the Unicron story?
None that I recall.
Shockwave was awesome. I really enjoyed being able to give him a bigger-than-usual role in the fanfic, and (spoiler box for those who haven't finished the story yet)
Click Here For A Spoiler...having him be the one Decepticon who escaped capture.
Corey Burton says that he based Shockwave's voice on David Warner.
It really says a lot about Burton's vocal range that he could go from Shockwave's baritone to the high-pitched Spike.
quote:Originally posted by Tamper Lad: Shockwave appeared quite often but I only remember Cybertron being featured in a few episodes: with the only one really clear in my memory being the episode with the female transformers.
That was one of my main problems with the first two seasons, the emphasis on Earth over Cybertron. At the end of the 3-part pilot, the Autobots were supposed to return to Cybertron. But when Season 1 proper started, they were still on Earth with no explanation!
That's also one of the reasons I've never been a GoBot-hater -- I think that show, while inferior to Transformers, did have its merits, most prominently that we saw plenty of their home planet.
And BTW, the episode with the female Transformers is one of my personal Top Three episodes. Besides the Cybertron setting and the thrill of seeing kick-ass female Transformers, it's also the episode where Starscream says, "How fitting that the Decepticons have finally captured Optimus Prime under MY leadership."
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