Beast Wars Series Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

[Dînadan]

Personally I think the series should be completely rebooted, start from the ground up and make films with the story of some of the most iconic Transformer stories but with the sophisticated writing of Beast Wars. Keep the focus on the Transformers plan it all out start to finish and it could hopefully redeem the series. Thoughts?

Sounds good. Also, Optimus should be contractually obliged to wear his mouthplate at all times.

Unlikely to happen, but what might be nice is if a story arc is planned out in advance rather than playing it film to film; possibly have say 3 films building up to a Unicron movie (maybe a retelling of the original 80s animated film, but with a tighter plot line) which can either act as a cap to that series or followed up by one or two more to tidy up the dangling plot threads, by which time they'll probably be wanting to re-reboot it. Actually, thinking about it, how feasible would it be (from a story perspective) to do something akin to the MCU with films in a shared universe that weave together (in this case replacing Thanos with Unicron, the Fallen or similar TF-mythos substitute). Talking purely story perspective here, doubt it'd be feasible that such an ambitious project would actually have a chance at getting made.

[Winter]

Personally I think the series should be completely rebooted, start from the ground up and make films with the story of some of the most iconic Transformer stories but with the sophisticated writing of Beast Wars. Keep the focus on the Transformers plan it all out start to finish and it could hopefully redeem the series. Thoughts?

Sounds good. Also, Optimus should be contractually obliged to wear his mouthplate at all times.

Unlikely to happen, but what might be nice is if a story arc is planned out in advance rather than playing it film to film; possibly have say 3 films building up to a Unicron movie (maybe a retelling of the original 80s animated film, but with a tighter plot line) which can either act as a cap to that series or followed up by one or two more to tidy up the dangling plot threads, by which time they'll probably be wanting to re-reboot it. Actually, thinking about it, how feasible would it be (from a story perspective) to do something akin to the MCU with films in a shared universe that weave together (in this case replacing Thanos with Unicron, the Fallen or similar TF-mythos substitute). Talking purely story perspective here, doubt it'd be feasible that such an ambitious project would actually have a chance at getting made.

Hm, I had a similar idea only it was six films instead of three, the first one being set completely on Cybertron that ends with them crashing on earth and the sequel directly fallowing that and being based a bit more on More Then Meets the Eye. The next film would be more of a mystery that ends with Megatron teleporting Cybertron into Earths orbit and the film after that being an adaptation of The Ultimate Doom. And than the last two films with the first one being a adaptation of the first act of Transformers The Movie that ends with the death of Optimus and then the last film in the series being the battle with Unicron.

Now this could very easily fall into the same trap that films that did what Harry Potter did with the Deathly Hallows but I think it would work here as the battle on Cybertron can and has been expanded upon in other medias like in the Transformers: Cybertron game series and I think the comics did the same thing. And the death of Optimus is something that kinda deserves its own movie.

I've actually been thinking about posting this on my deviant art page just to get the ideas out there to see what others think but I honestly believe that it could work, if done right.

[Megabob452]

I would just straight up do Beast Wars: The Movie, using the show's story as a guideline. Drop the Transformers branding so that casual movie goers don't assume it'll be like the Bay films. And have the reveal trailer look like a King Kong reboot, specifically teasing the Kong vs. T-Rex fight, ending with T-Rex transforming into Megatron to surprise the audience.

Assuming multiple movies were guaranteed (wishful thinking, I know), I'd break up the story as such. First movie, take the first two episodes and flesh them out, either with character interactions or subplots that were introduced later, ending with the expected climactic battle. Second movie, start with several stasis pod landings to add required characters, then move on to introducing the Vok, ending with the traditional Optimus death. Third movie, fleshed out version of Coming of the Fuzors, ending with a tease of Megatron's true agenda. Fourth movie, Dinobot's S2 story arc, with a B-Plot introducing Rampage and setting up Blackarachnia's defection. Fifth movie, The Agenda, Done. Sixth movie, a longer version of Optimal Situation, incorporating some S3 developments like Depth Charge's introduction, ending with Megatron getting his namesake's spark a little early. Seventh and final movie, start with the return and resolution of the Vok story, transition to Nemesis, and finish with the climactic battle for the fate of history itself.

[Archanubis]

I defiantly think that his kindness to was genuine given how horrified he was upon seeing her death, if it was just a case of wanting a powerful weapon I don't think he would have been as emotionally wrecked as he was shown in the end. I also love that the ones who ultimately destroy Transmutate are the ones who sought to protect her as it was ironic and heartbreaking and I love how the episode ended on such a sad note and right after the death of Dinobot, just, Damn!

I've heard that's actually some people's issue with this episode: they don't consider it a bad episode, it just comes on the heals of the death of one of the series' most beloved characters - not to mention coming before the game changer that was "The Agenda" three-parter.

Personally I think the series should be completely rebooted, start from the ground up and make films with the story of some of the most iconic Transformer stories but with the sophisticated writing of Beast Wars. Keep the focus on the Transformers plan it all out start to finish and it could hopefully redeem the series. Thoughts?

I'll admit to enjoying Age of Extinction, for all its flaws, but even before I heard of the problems with The Last Knight, I was of the opinion that Hasbro should consider rebooting the movie franchise. Given the poor performance of TLK, I'm sure Hasbro and Paramount will be banking everything on the Bumblebee prequel that's in the works. If that bombs, they probably will consider a reboot with a new writing team.

Sounds good. Also, Optimus should be contractually obliged to wear his mouthplate at all times.

I have no problem with Optimus Prime's faceplate being retractable. I came into the series with Beast Wars, so I'm used to an Optimus character with that feature (granted, that was Optimus Primal, not Optimus Prime). And judging by how the cartoon versions of Optimus Prime have had the feature since that horrid Energon series, Hasbro seems intent on using it.

And have the reveal trailer look like a King Kong reboot, specifically teasing the Kong vs. T-Rex fight, ending with T-Rex transforming into Megatron to surprise the audience.

I would pay for a movie I have no intention of seeing just to see that trailer!

[ORCACommander]

maybe i am just tired of franchises larger than a trilogy but that seems like an awful lot of movies

[Dînadan]

I would just straight up do Beast Wars: The Movie, using the show's story as a guideline. Drop the Transformers branding so that casual movie goers don't assume it'll be like the Bay films. And have the reveal trailer look like a King Kong reboot, specifically teasing the Kong vs. T-Rex fight, ending with T-Rex transforming into Megatron to surprise the audience.

Something that could be interesting to see in a BW reboot series is possibly redesign the beast modes of the 'dino' characters (Dinobot, Megatron, Terrorsaur and any others/new characters) to be more in line with current paleontological thinking (e.g. feathers rather than all scales). Although that said it's hard to imagine Megatron choosing a giant chicken for a beast mode And I suppose the feathers wouldn't show up on the fossil scan, so there'd be no reason for them to assume its supposed to be feathered.

[Ghilz]

Although that said it's hard to imagine Megatron choosing a giant chicken for a beast mode

He does love his rubber ducky.

Also, I don't know...

(Also, more recent studies seem to indicate that while T-Rex might have had feathered ancestors, Tyranosaurids likely lost all their feathers by the time T-Rex came about.)

[Archanubis]

http://sfdebris.com/videos/animation/beastwars2e10.php

So, Chuck's review of "Transmutate" has finally been uploaded. Thoughts?

[CareerKnight]

On the subject of Transmutate I have to say that I have Very mixed feelings about the episode. On the one hand I love the interactions between Transmutate, Rampage and Silverbolt and the ending is, in my opinion, one of the best in the series. On the other hand, I don't like how Megatron is written as here is a powerful creature that is being handed to him on a silver platter that can knock out every transformer out in one shot except for Rampage meaning that Megatron can destroy all the Maximals in one attack, AND HE THINKS ITS USELESS BECAUSE IT CAN'T TRANSFORM?!

We have no idea if Megatron is aware of its firepower and given that Transmutate is so damaged that it can't even transform the fact that it has that much power at its disposal is unexpected (especially that it can use it without blowing itself up).

On the Bay movies hopefully the with the latest one under preforming he will finally get booted off and they can try again after letting it rest for a bit. Why couldn't he have gotten GI Joe instead? That's a much better fit for Michael Bay and his love of military porn.

[Beastro]

I could see Megatron quickly despising it regardless due to its gentle nature. It wouldn't want to attack Maximals in every battle and Megatron would quickly lose patience having to keep pushing it to over and over no matter how powerful it is, just look at how long Silverbolt lasted in the Predacons.

The only use I could see him finding Transmutate for would be to find a way to overload its powers and turn it into suicide bomber. That way they make the most of its power while removing it as a problem alongside the Maximals.

As for movies... I think Transformers simply isn't built for them, as much as I'd love to see some that really do put the "lore" first. It has too much of a massive ensemble cast to fit them in appropriately and that isn't including the producers knack for sacrificing more screen time for things turn human beings into the leads of the cast when they've always been supporting cast members at best.

I could see Beast Wars being handled better in a movie setting, but even then there's huge problems.