The End?

[Hero]

TFP: Beast Hunters to wrap after 13 episodes?
tformers.com/transformers-prime-beast-hunters-to/19496/news.html

Not sure if this is more of a rant than a news article.

[The Doctor]

*reads*

Hmmm, if someone has stopped watching a show, why can they complain when it has ended?

Also: 65 episodes for a show is very healthy indeed.

Also: a planned ending is still very unusual for a kids cartoon.

Also: it's for CHILDREN. It doesn't matter if adult fans stop watching! Most of them are torrenting it anyway!

-Ralph

[Toph]

Well, it's not surprising. I mean, this is a terrible kids show. It's written with adult drama in mind (While Animated managed to straddle perfectly what adults like to see and what kids like to see).

Kids are the target audiance, but hell... this is one of the most boring shows I've ever seen AS AN ADULT. I can't emagine what they think kids enjoy about it. It moves at a snails pace, revolves around prime making dramatic speaches, starscream making plots that take weeks to inact in a 30 second scene, and meagatron snearing.

I think most fans have their heads up their arses about how popular this segment of Transformers really truly is. The toys sell horribly, the show has very poor ratings. Just because a handful of fans are very vocal on a select few messageboards about how wonderfuyl they think it is, does not make it a smash hit.
Animated made a ton more money than Prime has, and Hasbro proved it when they posted the annual net earnings per year.
And the fact that Hasbro cut Prime right in the middle for a complete one eighty and changed it's entire direction into a much more kid friendly gimmick(Seriously, the Beast Hunters toys look fun. That's not something I've been able to say since Animated ended), and then decide to cut it and end it completely before it's even began? That means hasbro is well aware that Prime has been a massive failier for them.

Please note, I feel I would be saying these things even if I loved Prime. Because as much as I hate the movies, I cannot and will not deny how successful they are to the brand.

While I think the entire "Aligned" continuity is one massive dumb move, mostly due to poor management on Hasbro's behalf, and I feel that "Aligned" brings absolutely NOTHING new to the table, instead just rehashing things we've seen coutnless times over and over again, I am willing to give the continuity a chance if Hasbro will get it under control.
Prequels that do not align up with the core of the continuity in any way, hasbro playing sloppy seconds for the toy designs, by allowing people who have no concept of how transformers work to design them... and writers that are full of themselves and have no idea how to write for alien robots to plot the brand direction. This is not a winning formula.
They need to look back to what they did right with Animated, where the toy designers and the show designers worked hand in hand and exchanged ideas, and altered ideas when one wouldn't work for BOTH mediums. A show writer who knows how to write engaging childrens shows. And a concentraited effort to make sure every segment of the brand, across every medium matched up and worked well together, with minimal to no contridictions.
THIS is a winning formula. If they followed this formula with a Cybertron-like series/line (variety of alt modes, an extensive universe, ect), they would knock this thing out of the park.

Greg Weissman is now free. Let's get him to helm the next series. He knows how to do it. He can write engaging mature characters that kids can identify with, and are complex enough for adults. He can write plots that are exciting, but can build across multiple episodes.
He also knows something that is completely foreign to Jeff Kline (I think?). Consistant character developement that lasts for more than one episode.

[blueshift]

65 episodes is the magic number for syndication isn't it? Still, it's a bit of a surprise, especially since it was supposed to be one of their flagship shows, and wasn't it announced that it had been signed off for 6 seasons a while back?

That adds to my suspicion that the show was successful in spite of itself (ie of course a show based on a movie that made over a billion dollars would initially be a huge hit, you could have put a turd on screen for half an hour and it would have got good ratings.

I can quite believe that the ratings are decent but not enough to justify the incredible cost of the CGI. Simpler flash animated shows like My Little Pony and Littlest Pet Shop seem (by Hasbro's own admission) to be topping the ratings while their big expensive transformers show doesn't find its ratings climb exponentially with its budget.

It definately seems a bit of a disaster for this 'Aligned' continuity (which I agree seemed a bit of a 'nothing' project as nothing about it was particularly interesting or new and the idea of being stuck with it for ten years filled me not with dread but mild ennui. Of course the replacement series might be set in the same universe, and just another revamp under another name. Who knows!

Hopefully it's not boring this time!

[Toph]

Say what you will about the Unicron Triligy... it was never boring, and was always unique.
Each segment introduced concepts completely new to the franchise.
Armada brought us Minicons, which was the first true third faction. While they played out like Pokemon, it had a lot of really deep moral implications that could be exploited.

Energon introduced several concepts, of varying success. As far as the show went, they did some interesting things with Unicron, by turning him into a location instead of a character.

And Cybertron introduced the fairly brilliant concept of lost colonies developing into "themed" planets.

[primenova]

Hasbro seemed to have been pushing BH with the news of a comic tie in that we have no details about yet. So they are dropping it for TF4? & another new line to fill after the film.

[Andy Turnbull]

I'm actually contemplating giving the Unicron Trilogy a rewatch.

However, what i will say is Megatron to Galvatron, back to Megatron did annoy me back then.

Andy

[Toph]

Would have been awesome had they skipped Armada Galvatron, and just called E-Megs Galvatron. I can't see how they would not have had Energon Megatron in the plans by the time they had Armada Megs repainted and renamed to Galvatron.
In that case, it would have been completely forgivable for him to be back to Megatron by Cybertron.
Wouldn't have been nearly as annoying as Megatron>Galvatron>Megatron>Galvatron>Megatron>Galvatron.
A secondary storyline for Cyb could have been Megs obcessed with trying to aquire the power to become Galvatron again. Maybe believing the Cyberkeys to be the means to that end.

[The Doctor]

Feb 15, 2013 15:21:35 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

I'm actually contemplating giving the Unicron Trilogy a rewatch.

However, what i will say is Megatron to Galvatron, back to Megatron did annoy me back then.

Andy

I cannot let you do this alone. 

-Ralph

[The Huff]

Feb 15, 2013 15:21:35 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

I'm actually contemplating giving the Unicron Trilogy a rewatch.

However, what i will say is Megatron to Galvatron, back to Megatron did annoy me back then.

Andy

Do it! Although the dubbing was annoying and didn't make sense most of the time, there were some great episodes ainly involving Sideways for Armada (as well as Starscreams progression and death) and the episode where Unicron transformed (that was pretty much happenning throughout the entire 25 minutes!)
  
   And Vector Primes death episode in Cybertron is very nicely done!

Back to Prime, I quite enjoy it - this is how Optimus should be done in the films as he comes across as very compassionate and fights as a last resort.

[The Huff]

Although just to add to the above, I just couldn't get through the Energon series - I have them all on DVD but they annoy the hell out of me every time I've tried to watch them.

[Toph]

I hate alcohol. I hate being around people drinking. I simply refuse.
However... even *I* have to suggest there's no way to watch through Energon without being drunk.

Much as I hate TFP, I do have to agree that the way Optimus is in this series, is how he should have been represented as in the movies. Optimus is not Wolverine.
They wanted someone who'll leap onto a decepticon, scream "GIVE ME YOUR FACE!" and rip it off, they should have introduced Grimlock.
While it wouldn't happy me at all, I could accept Grimlock being presented as a homocidal maniac.

[Andy Turnbull]

Feb 18, 2013 13:36:50 GMT The Huff said:

Feb 15, 2013 15:21:35 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

I'm actually contemplating giving the Unicron Trilogy a rewatch.

However, what i will say is Megatron to Galvatron, back to Megatron did annoy me back then.

Andy

Do it! Although the dubbing was annoying and didn't make sense most of the time, there were some great episodes ainly involving Sideways for Armada (as well as Starscreams progression and death) and the episode where Unicron transformed (that was pretty much happenning throughout the entire 25 minutes!)
  
   And Vector Primes death episode in Cybertron is very nicely done!

Back to Prime, I quite enjoy it - this is how Optimus should be done in the films as he comes across as very compassionate and fights as a last resort.

I have started.

See tmukhub.proboards.com/thread/7160/transformers-armada-rewatch for my thoughts.

[Deleted]

aye, it's aaaaaall over after 13 eps

after that

no idea what the new show is going to be about though?

[Toph]

I don't think there is going to be anything from the alligned continuity until fall 2014 at the earliest. maybe even late winter.
Unless there's another something of/for Cybertron game.

They'll be killing everything for the next movie line, and that will pay out from spring '14 through to that christmas.
That's pretty much what they've done for all three other movies.
So we have Beast Hunters stretched out until early '14, movie takes over, with whatever constitues as an anniversary filler line to help beef it out. Everything dies for "Trans4mers" (Goddess, I hope that's just a stupid early promotional gimmick title and absolutely will NOT exist by then).
About a year of that, and then either another alligned series, or a new reboot.