I agree. A lot of cartoons were meant to sell toys so of course there was a push to add a bunch of characters for the sake of the toy line. Centurions is one of the better examples because each character had a clear purpose and they maintained that these were elite professionals. Doc Terror was easily one of the most creative cartoon villains in that he was always looking for a new approach. The Centurions' weapons are too powerful, so he attacks the factory that builds them. They transporter allows them to quickly respond to an attack so he tries to sabotage it.Aotrs Commander wrote: ↑Sun Dec 24, 2023 3:25 pmI have to disagree, I'm afraid, having re-watched it (more than once) as an adult. They added literally two new characters and they did actually made a spirited attempt at doing things with them. They did a bit of a martial arts movie homage with John Thunder for example, and honestly, dude was kind of cool, even if they were a little heavy-handed with his native american theming. (But I'm not an american of any sort, so I can't speak to how that was recieved.)Nealithi wrote: ↑Fri Dec 22, 2023 5:44 am
Centurions was great with the original three characters, and the concept of a base suit that mission specific gear could be attached was inspired in my opinion. But when the show expanded to the new 'figures' it felt like what it was. A toy commercial rather than good entertainment.
The quality of the stories didn't suffer and more than Transformers ever did from adding new characters, really and honestly, stuff like the two-parter Battle for Atlantis makes for a better series finale than the five-part origin story did.
I kinda like the idea of the Centurions trying to train a new generation since that would open up a lot of character possibilities. Imagine Jake trying to deal with a fanboy who practically worships him and won't shut up about the honor of being allowed to work with an actual Centurion.There is plenty of narrative room for expansion; I occasionally toy in my head with continuations, wherein the Centurions get some new specialists (the next generation) to help boost out their numbers in their old age and tretchery. I mean, comouter specialist (especially in the post1980s-technoloogy period) and paranormal specialist (e.g. magic, which is Literally A Thing in centurions, which is completely delightful) before you even start. Of course, given what stuff has been destroyed by modern reboots on the cheap (e.g. Reboot), it's probably as well in this timeline Centurions stands as it was, but that's the distopican hellscape we live in.
As for a reboot, I thought if I outlined a reboot for Centurions, sorta like they did with She-Ra and Voltron, I would make it a 'semi-post-apocalyptic' setting. There was some kind of global catastrophe, like a nuclear war or asteroid or something that didn't quite destroy civilization but some areas came out better than others. This would explain why some places are practically Mad Max while New York is a sprawling futuristic city and also allows story opportunities because it would lead to tensions among the different factions. Some arguing 'we need to colonize space so we won't be wiped out by another catastrophe' while others would be 'why are we wasting time on space when Earth is still such a mess?'
Ah don't worry about it. I love both these shows and I really get a chance to talk about them.Wow, sorry, I'm ranting about Centurions in a thread about Galaxy Rangers. I'll get me cloak...
