Yeah, so the whole fanfic writing thing has kind of ground to a halt (I blame Soundwave), but that has given me more time to revisit the entirety of the Transformers Prime series, which was *so* great after the gloomy War For Cybertron entry in the franchise--though it also proves that more episodes does not always improve the story!

Overall, I felt it held up well enough to a second viewing. I'm not savvy enough on CGI animation to note how that's aged (and, y'know, I've rewatched G1 episodes too. Animation-wise, Transformers Prime is light years better than 90% of G1, and I *prefer* hand-drawn stuff) and the emptiness of the backgrounds has never bothered me.

One of the fun things was being able to look up my old posts on the newsgroup to find out what I thought of the episodes the first go around and see if my reactions had changed. This time around, for example, I found Miko entertaining from the outset, whereas on first viewing she annoyed me intensely and it was a very slow warm up to enjoying the character. There was one episode where other posters on the newsgroup called out sexism in the portrayal of the female characters (I believe it was the one when June has just been introduced to the Autobot base and she's annoying Arcee.) Ten years ago, I didn't find that episode sexist, but this time around it did bother me. Maybe that's because I'm now identifying a lot harder with June, as a single mother of adolescents rather than a married mother of toddlers. Or maybe I've just become more aware of the insidiousness of implicit bias and the effects it can have.

I vaguely remembered season one being good while S2 and S3 went downhill, but S2 is actually pretty strong for a good chunk of the season, while S1 does take a while to find its feet. Peak TF:Prime is probably something like the last two thirds of S1 and the first third of S2. Story arc wise, season two starts floundering fairly quickly, but there are some real gems of individual episodes, even within the interminable Hunt the McGuffin stretches.

The big problem TF:Prime has for me is that it sets up a really good character dynamic among its original cast, and then when it has to add new characters to the mix, it never quite gets them to fit organically. The old characters end up as passive supporting cast while newcomers take their roles--Smokescreen largely replaces the main attributes of both Arcee and Bumblebee.. Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus get the character conflict stuff normally given to Ratchet or Fowler and the action plots that used to feature Bulkhead. And then right at the end of the series, they suddenly decide to make Bumblebee the protagonist, except he's nothing like the Bumblebee from earlier in the series. It should also be noted that the writers frequently didn't know what to do with Optimus Prime, which makes me wonder if the series would have been better taking a Rescue Bots approach where Optimus would check in on the team every now and then rather than being a main castmember.

The Decepticons largely fare better with Megatron and Starscream being possibly my favourite incarnations of those roles (though, to be fair, I've not seen most of their incarnations now), and Knock Out remaining tremendous throughout. They do suffer from an ongoing series of Stoic Decepticon Warriors who hang around for the length of their storyline before getting killed off, while losing Breakdown costs them an important part of the mid-ranks dynamic (and Airachnid had so much fun potential that was largely wasted in repetitive guest appearance plots). But Megatron and Starscream are rarely sidelined for long, and the changing dynamic between them usually feels like a realistic evolution (though Megatron is plot-conveniently inconsistent in when/how he disciplines Starscream for treachery).

It's the original lineup that's the favourite for me, and probably what the show is best remembered for--in particular Jack, Arcee, Bulkhead and Miko. One of the things I'm most surprised by is how little effect these have had on future reboots. I thought Bulkhead (particularly since Prime followed Animated) would become a standard for a main cast lineup, and I also thought Prime Arcee would become the prototype for Arcee characters. Yet it looks like Bulkhead has largely been forgotten by the franchise (I predict a comeback in the future when the kids who grew up with Animated and Prime are the ones making the toys and shows), while Hasbro's decision to use G1 for its 'evergreen' designs has made Prime Arcee the anomaly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very fond of G1 Arcee so I don't really regret her being the template, but considering the other modern go-to female Autobot is Elita One, it's incredibly problematic that they're both pink. (OK, it's different shades and you can argue that Elita One is coral or something... but...) I wish they'd change Elita's colours, or at least use Chromia or something. Prime Arcee also did a great job of making Arcee an honest to goodness main character who had depth and took a leading role in several episodes--including the pilot. That doesn't seem to have happened for any Arcee since then; regrettably, I'm not sure it's happened for any female transformer since then. Maybe some of the human girls have fared better?

I might choose the next TF cartoon I watch based on which one has the strongest female representation. Or whichever one is easiest to watch--I'm kind of tempted by Earthspark just because of the cast, but every time I read the synopsis, I cringe. I'm not big on alternative methods of Transformers reproduction--certainly not ones that involve robots having a child stage.

But anyway, when it comes down to it, Transformers Prime remains a great example of what *I* like in characterisation and interactions. It's probably also the gold standard for use of human characters (until the final season when they mostly forgot about them until the last episode). I'm disappointed that it's had so little influence on what came after, but honestly, I think we're incredibly lucky to have the franchise reach this level in the first place. Especially since it came so soon after Animated--it was really a golden era for TF television.

Velvet Glove (Modern era is a golden era for toys it seems. And maybe also comics.)