Transformers: Dark Awakening

[AlucardNoir]

PRIME, that's it. That's were I remember even more Transforming Zombies.

[TorroesPrime]

As for Rebirth/Return of Optimus Prime... I am kind of a fan of Return, it definitely had it's moments. But as a story overall it's pretty weak, and I would have preferred the writers going for a deeper story arc with Rodimus continuing to grow and struggle with the responsibility, we got a few episodes and moments where he stepped up, but there was no real arc.

I've been working on putting together information for my own review series and one of the TF episodes I'm looking at doing is a Season 3 episode "The Burden hardest to bear" or something like that. I may be off a bit on the exact title, but the point of the episode is Rodimus looses the matrix to Scourge who becomes powerful enough to become a genuine threat and ultimately Rodimus, now Hot Rod has to step up and address his actions to reclaim the matrix. It's a decent exploration of the burden of responsibility. And then the very next episode is: The Return of Optimus Prime.

So Hasbro just hated Rodimus apparently.

[MyUserName]

As for Rebirth/Return of Optimus Prime... I am kind of a fan of Return, it definitely had it's moments. But as a story overall it's pretty weak, and I would have preferred the writers going for a deeper story arc with Rodimus continuing to grow and struggle with the responsibility, we got a few episodes and moments where he stepped up, but there was no real arc.

I've been working on putting together information for my own review series and one of the TF episodes I'm looking at doing is a Season 3 episode "The Burden hardest to bear" or something like that. I may be off a bit on the exact title, but the point of the episode is Rodimus looses the matrix to Scourge who becomes powerful enough to become a genuine threat and ultimately Rodimus, now Hot Rod has to step up and address his actions to reclaim the matrix. It's a decent exploration of the burden of responsibility. And then the very next episode is: The Return of Optimus Prime.

So Hasbro just hated Rodimus apparently.

Burden Hardest To Bear could have been excellent, but it exists in a vaccum where there was no real lead in to scourge wanting to betray Galvatron, seeing as how he was one of the most loyal troops, and there was no real arc of Rodimus just getting fed up with the responsibilities of leadership.

And then yeah, Return of Optimus Prime happened and removed Rodimus.

Rebirth could have had Hot Rod taking control of the team on Nebulous, showing that his character had grown and changed in the time he was leader, but nope.

This is the reason why the show doesn't get much respect from the casuals, The fans love the characters and personalities behind the crew, but as a animated series it lacks a flow and continuity that some of it's contemporaries had.

That's not saying it doesn't have it's good episodes. Star Trek Writer Diane Duane wrote Web World, the episode where the Decepticons get so fed up with Galvatron they take him in for therapy and his madness is so intense, when they try to leach it out into the planet, the planet ends up destroyed. Paul Dini, headliner for the Batman Animated series wrote Dweller in the Depths, and episode where one of the quintisons recounts a story where they tried to create a monster that rebelled and ripped it's damn face off. On Screen.

Damn I miss the 80's sometimes.

[Maximara]

Return of Optimus Prime has continuity issues out the wazoo with Dark Awakening:

The body of Optimus Prime was destroyed in the nova seen at the end of Dark Awakening (and in really bad shape) while in Return of Optimus Prime he is totally undamaged. Then none of the events seen in Dark Awakening even come up.

[Maximara]

This is the reason why the show doesn't get much respect from the casuals, The fans love the characters and personalities behind the crew, but as a animated series it lacks a flow and continuity that some of it's contemporaries had.

Actually of its non anime import contemporaries only Gi Joe really had a real flow and continuity. He-Man and She-Ra had very little flow and only had continuity when it was relevent to the story in question.

ThunderCats went off the rails so many times that in terms of flow and continuity it is a total disaster. It certainly didn't help that the one female voice actress simply didn't have the range to make Chetara, Willow, and Mandora sound really different.

[MyUserName]

This is the reason why the show doesn't get much respect from the casuals, The fans love the characters and personalities behind the crew, but as a animated series it lacks a flow and continuity that some of it's contemporaries had.

Actually of its non anime import contemporaries only Gi Joe really had a real flow and continuity. He-Man and She-Ra had very little flow and only had continuity when it was relevent to the story in question.

ThunderCats went off the rails so many times that in terms of flow and continuity it is a total disaster. It certainly didn't help that the one female voice actress simply didn't have the range to make Chetara, Willow, and Mandora sound really different.

Thundercats was a show that ran extremely hot and cold, but it did indeed manage to have a stronger continuity than most series. As did the short lived but decent Droids animated series. And then yes, there was the Force Five weekday afternoon airing block that featured dubbed anime as well as Robotech and GI Joe.

It is a shame that the Third season of Transformers couldn't have been written better. It was following up on the movie and had potential to truly have a strong arc for Rodimus, but alas it was not meant to be.

Oh well, at least the transformers comics of the era were decent, especially towards the end of its run.