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Transformers/YMMV: Difference between revisions
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* [[Creator's Pet]]: Kicker.
** Bumblebee has become this, due to his [[Transformers (film)|Movie]] and [[Transformers Prime|Prime]] incarnations being overpacked in case assortments and, especially in Movie BB's case, having too many just-slightly-different versions of the same toy.
*** [[Transformers Rescue Bots]] is filled with Bumblebee toys, including a large playset. Bumblebee doesn't appear on the show at all.
*** A lot of fans are bemoaning the oversaturation of Bumblebee, and wishing [[Transformers Armada|Hot Shot]] would make a comeback.
** [[Simon Furman]] has Grimlock, Thunderwing and Bludgeon.
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* [[Fanon Discontinuity]]: Exactly what it is varies from person to person. The live-action movies are especially popular for this treatment.
* [[Just Here for Godzilla]]: Fans generally only want to see [[Rule of Cool|giant robots turning into cars and beating each other up]]. Everything else is window dressing and human characters tend to be [[The Scrappy|automatic Scrappies]].
* [[Memetic Badass]]: Optimus Prime is the Robo-Jesus.
* [[Running the Asylum]]: Arguably, it's one of the few series that has benefited from it.
* [[The Scrappy]]: Wheelie and most of the human characters. Apparent exceptions are [[Transformers Armada|Stella]] [[All There in the Manual|Holley]], [[Transformers Cybertron|the Cybertron humans for not being Kicker]], [[Transformers (film)|Lennox & Epps (and]] [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap|Simmons]] [[Transformers (film)|from Revenge of the Fallen and Jerry Wang and Dutch from Dark of the Moon)]], [[Transformers Animated|Sari Sumdac and Captain Fanzone]], and [[Transformers Prime|most of the humans apart from Miko]].
* [[Villain Decay]]: Usually dealt with by upgrading the villains to new forms (with new toys, naturally).
** ''Animated'' tried to prevent this by way of making appearances of the Decepticons in season one and most of season two rare, with human villains picking up the slack. This backfired horribly, turning off many fans who wanted to see the Decepticons and didn't want to suffer through countless episodes of the Autobots fighting lame archer and princess-themed villains.
*** However, [[Broken Basejust|as many fans]] think that the Decepticons' rare appearances, and the sheer effort it took to fight them, successfully kept them from succumbing to villain decay.
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*** On the other hand, if Megatron had gotten it, his plan was to use it to create an army of Decepticons to conquer the universe. On top of that, there's also the fact the whole war ''started'' over it in the first place, meaning the only way to stop the war at all was to get the thing out of there, and as shown in the movie, they did try to find it, so that might have been the plan from the start. So it may have just been "it's too dangerious to let Megatron get it, no matter what the cost". And considering Megs was in league with the Fallen to destroy populated solar systems, he was right.
*** And he didn't actually condem his species to extinction. Its shown in the second and third that alternate sources of Energon exist. Plus, its shown that most of the species has become Decepticons, so its more of condeming his enemies to death. It wasn't so much as doing it so Megatron wouldn't win, more of 'sacrificing the most powerfullest source of energon in the universe to stop it from being used for evil. Not really fas Morally grey as it seems.
** Actually, the theme "Prime" from ROTF's score could refer to the other Primes and not just Optimus (minus The Fallen, obviously). On the brutalness, there's debate in that in the first film, Optimus is trying to lessen collateral damages (humans and buildings), whereas in the forest fight for ROTF, he can go full out.
** As far as the "discarding Jetfire's parts" point goes, if you pay attention to the fight, a lot of those parts get damaged if not destroyed; discarding them may have simply been a point of expediency.
*** In ''Dark of the Moon', Optimus has detachable wings, but it's unclear if he recovered Jetfire's parts, repaired them, and kept them for future use, or if it's a completely new harness that's part of his trailer.
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** ''ROTF'' wasn't even ''nominated'' for visual effects at the Oscars, possibly as a result of the film's negative buzz.
** ''[[Dark of the Moon]]'' also lost Visual Effects to a lesser effects-wide production, ''[[Hugo]]''.
* [[Deconstruction Fic]]: Fans writing from a perspective of "the Decepticons were right". The most recent Transformers Animated starts to lean this way itself, as the high command seems a bit morally suspect and the Decepticons are basically rebellious freedom fighters whose leader happens to be Megatron. Then again, we see the kind of people who follow Megatron.
* [[Badass Decay]]: Megatron in ''ROTF'' and ''DOTM''. He has his moments in both, but the second movie portrays him as less of a threat and by the third movie Megatron's a shadow of his former self. This is pointed out in-universe and [[Justified Trope|justified]] due to the fact he's still severely wounded from the final battle of ''ROTF'', and it's worth noting that {{spoiler|he does a real number on Sentinel Prime ''while still injured'' just before his death.}}.
** [[Draco in Leather Pants]]: This may have been a deliberate attempt to give Megatron more depth and make him into a [[Jerkass Woobie]] of sorts.
** Starscream too in ''ROTF'', only to [[Took a Level In Badass|pull himself together]] for the following movie.
* [[Complaining About People Not Liking the Show]]: [[Sarcasm Mode|Apparently,]] if you hate these movies, your either a [[Straw Fan|whiny fanboy]] who [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|can't accept any kind of change]] [[Nostalgia Filter|to the original show,]] or a [[Straw Critic|prudish snob]] who [[It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars|wouldn't know entertainment if it slapped him in the face.]]
* [[Complete Monster]]: The Fallen. He didn't ''have'' to destroy a populated solar system, the other Primes didn't want to and had a law against it. At least from the perspective of the movie, he didn't need to do so and could've just continued using uninhabited solar systems along with the other Primes. He chose to destroy Earth's system because he wanted to, the prequel comics comfirm that this was the case. The best motive the guy could actually have is spite for the other Primes for making a rule, the worst is just being [[Axe Crazy]] and wanting to commit genocide for no reason, which isn't a stretch as he's literally the original Decepticon and inspired all the others. Not to mention that he started the civil war that destroyed Cybertron and cost billions of lives and feels no remorse about it.
** If [[Word of God]] is to be believed, Shockwave will certainly be this. See [[Moral Event Horizon]] below.
** DOTM: {{spoiler|It's hard to [[Playing Against Type|imagine Patrick Dempsey playing]] as a [[Complete Monster]]... until you see him as Dylan Gould. Initially portraying himself as a slimy, yet successful race-car driver turned insuranceman, he reveals to Sam that he is an agent for the Decepticons. He also forces Sam (both via Prisoners Dilemma and by forcibly placing a transformer watch on Sam that mentally and physically forces Sam to do what is commanded of him, a process that was implied to be quite painful when done.) to ask the Autobots about their plans for Dylan Gould, and then decides to kill the Autobots anyways during their launch despite the fact that they apparently had no other plans to revolt. Dylan then helps them take Chicago hostage and install pillars that would allow them to rebuild Cybertron and use people as slave labor. You heard that right: he's willing to betray '''HIS OWN SPECIES''' just to walk free when the Decepticons take over. On top of that, when he sees some Decepticons hold some of the Autobots (including Bumblebee) prisoner, he orders them to take no prisoners, effectively ordering the Decepticons to kill anyone on Optimus Prime's side. His reaction when Carly asks him if the Decepticon's told him about their genocidal assault firmly places him in this. Despite millions dying around him ''because of him'', his response is all that matters is that he's safe. His father pretty much qualifies, seeing how he's the one who actually chose to align himself with the Decepticons in the first place (the only reason why Dylan Gould even ended up working for the Decepticons is because he inherited it from his father)}}
** Laserbeak. The lengths he goes to in order to kill his target and the sadistic glee he takes in doing it is just horrible, even for Decepticons. The worst part is {{spoiler|when he "befriends" a little girl to get into her house, then proceeds to ruthlessly slaughter ''the entire family in one go!''}}
** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Depending on how you interpret his]] [[A God Am I]] speech, {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}} could qualify. {{spoiler|He appears to be a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], but his rant about how he was considered a God on his homeworld seems to hint that he has far more selfish reasons for what he does. On top of that, he murders fellow Autobots (and tries to kill them all) and launches a horrific attack on Chicago killing millions of innocent human lives, and then intends to enslave humanity, never showing any remorse about all this. It's also arguable that when he refuses to let Megatron command Cybertron, he's just seeking to have no competition instead of keeping his good intentions. He shows remorse when he is at Optimus's mercy just before Optimus kills him, but even then, he's already lied and manipulated everyone so much it's likely he was just saying what he had to in an attempt to save his own sorry hide. If you take his God complex this way, he did all this just to remain in power, putting him firmly in this territory.}}
** Soundwave could be considered this as well. At the climax of DOTM, he holds a few of of Autobots hostage--evil robot execution-style--and fully intends to kill the everlasting shit out of them(which he and Barricade actually do to {{spoiler|Que}} in a rather brutal fashion), with a gleeful [[Inspector Gadget|Dr. Claw]] laugh thrown in.
** Let's not forget [[Big Bad|Megatron himself]] in the first film. Sure he wants to restore Cybertron to its former glory, but is willing to kill anything and everything in his way in order to accomplish his goal. He rips Jazz in half [[For the Evulz]], flicks a human in the air similar to an insect (likely causing death/injury) [[For the Evulz]], tries to drop Sam off a building after he refuses to give Megs the Allspark despite his {{spoiler|apparently}} posing no threat, and has an air of hammy enthusiasm about him during the entire final battle while he causes general chaos and destruction. [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] my ass.
** Even though he's [[All There in the Manual|only in the comics]], [[Mad Doctor|Flatline]] proves himself to be just as vile as the rest of these Monsters by virtue of being [[Those Wacky Nazis|Josef Mengele]] as a Decepticon. And before he started his career of performing horrible experiments on Autobot POWs, [[Fridge Horror|he tended to hatchlings]]. It's not hard to imagine some of his first "test subjects" were essentially '''[[Would Hurt a Child|baby Transformers]]'''.
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** Hey he was [[Crazy Awesome]] in ROTF too!
* [[Critical Backlash]] / [[Critical Dissonance]]: All three movies, but especially the two sequels. Other than [[Fan Dumb|GEEWUNNERS]], fans in general received ''ROTF'' more warmly than critics, as indicated by audience polls and [[IMDb]] rating versus its Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic score. ''DOTM'', meanwhile, received mixed reviews from critics but very positive word-of-mouth from audiences.
** DOTM has had critics complaining about an incoherent plot, wooden characters, and RHW being a worse actress than Megan Fox. It's also the 5th highest grossing film OF ALL TIME, just behind mega money makers like [[Harry Potter (film)|the last Harry Potter movie]], ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|Return of the King]]'', ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', and ''[[Titanic]]''.
** Sure the movies are criticised for being shallow, mindless entertainment, but these movies ''are not meant'' to be enjoyed on an intellectual level, and are merely meant to be fun action flicks with lots of fireworks.
* [[Dull Surprise]]: It ''is'' Transformers, after all.
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**** Those who support the movie are not immune to this, telling those with legitimate complaints (Such as the type of humor, the useless human characters, and some others) that they should just ignore them and enjoy the movie anyway. They also tend to proclaim that everyone who hates the movie just hates it for not being Gen 1, which is not true<ref>it's not uncommon to see people rip on the movies and to then find out that they're fans of decidedly non-GEEWUN ''Transformers'' franchises such as ''[[Transformers Animated|Animated]]'' and ''[[Transformers Prime|Prime]]''</ref>.
***** Those who ''dis''like the movies, meanwhile, often exaggerate such things into a systematic persecution of dissenting opinions. And thus the cycle continues.
** The second movie had a number of complaints about all the plot holes that viewers found in them... except they didn't exist. There ''were'' some plot holes in the film, but not many of the ones that were often complained about. There were complaints about the heroes not using the All-Spark to repair {{spoiler|Optimus}} while the Decepticons used it to repair Megatron... except that Megatron's injuries were no-where near as bad, and the fans seemingly didn't notice they bit where the Decepticons ''killed'' one of their own for their parts to help Megatron get repaired. And a lot of people were confused by the Constructicons, as they combine to form Devastator but are fighting other Autobots as individuals at the same time. There are two sets of Constructicons, and some of them just look identical because they copied the same vehicles (behind the scenes, it was just easier because the computers they were using were having trouble keeping up with too mant different robots).
*** According to many, the plot holes were indeed there. The [[Fan Dumb]] aspect here comes from those who refuse to acknowledge that most of ''ROTF'' was written during a massive writers' strike, and blame the whole thing on Bay. As of 2012, the strike has been all but forgotten, and Bay (and sometimes [[Shia LaBeouf]]) receives 99% of the blame for what's wrong with the movies.
** Fans who strongly support the movies tend to vent their spite towards - no, not ''[[Transformers Generation 1|G1]]'' - ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Each of the three ''Transformers'' movies has had to compete with a ''Potter'' film, with the ''Potter'' movie getting better box-office returns (at least outside the US, except in ''DOTM'''s case) and ''much'' better reviews than the ''Transformers'' movie. Needless to say, this results in a fair bit of backlash from people who prefer giant robot battles over characters and plot, who seem to pointlessly accuse criticism and negative hype towards the ''Transformers'' movies as being ''[[Harry Potter]]''-related.<ref>For example, when ''ROTF'' was nominated for numerous Razzies, one person on a message board accused the Razzie organizers of being ''Potter'' fans.</ref>
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** In the first movie, Bumblebee projecting an Autobot signal into the clouds = the [[Batman|Bot-signal]].
* [[First Installment Wins]]: The first film of this series has received far better critical praise than either sequel did, which were respectively panned and got a tepid response.
** Subverted in the audience polls and at the box office, where its something like First <= Second <= Third.
* [[Fetish Retardant]]: {{spoiler|[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:RotF_Alice_Eeeeew.jpg Alice's]}} reveal. Some people might be into it, but terrifying.
* [[Harsher in Hindsight]]: The whole Sam & Mikaela "Tell me you love me" subplot in ROTF, considering that Megan Fox didn't return for the third film, her absence explained by her having dumped Sam.
* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: Try watching Megan Fox in ''[[Jennifer's Body]]'' {{spoiler|while keeping in mind Alice's real nature.}}
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* [[Internet Backdraft]]: There are still many fans who scream [[Ruined FOREVER]].
** Even more so after ''Revenge of the Fallen'', now with more Michael Bay hate.
* [[It's Not Supposed to Win Oscars]]: [[Fan Dumb|Oh dear God...]]
* [[Just Here for Godzilla]]: Many people who went to the movie watched it solely to see giant robots beat the crap out of each other... and for Megan Fox.
** In fact, this trope is one of the main reasons the second film in particular attracts so much hatred- people who are [[Just Here for Godzilla|Just Here For Giant Transforming Robots]] get stuck [[Developing Doomed Characters]] instead. How hard can it be to make a film called ''Transformers'' actually ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|focus on the Transformers?]]''
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* [[Off-Model]]: In quite possibly a rare, non-Asylum case, there's three in Revenge of the Fallen. Most noticeably whenever ILM's CG predator drone is featured looking nothing like the real-life counterpart also used. And when Ironhide's ejected gun can be seen on his arm in a later scene during the desert battle. The page explains these in more detail.
** The third movie also has one instance when Ironhide, Sideswipe and the Dreads face off without any weapons. In one shot, the Ironhide CG Model has his recently dropped guns on his back. Said guns disappear in all other shots afterwards.
* [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]]: In the first movie, Bumblebee defeats Barricade, offscreen. We see them fighting and grappling each other, and the next we see of them, Bumblebee is walking away from the fight, towards Sam and Mikaela, whilst deactivating his arm cannon. Barricade himself, is lying heavily damaged, in the same ditch where he was last seen fighting Bumblebee.
** In ROTF, during the final desert battle, Ironhide was seen under heavy attack from a group of Decepticons and the next, just barely managing to make it out of the blast-zone of "Operation: Firestorm". Meaning that not only did Ironhide manage to fight off his attackers, he also managed to do it just before he was out of time to get to the safety zone. [[Badass Grandpa]] alright. Too bad we didn't get to see it.
** Some fans see Mikaela dumping Sam after ROTF, (presumably after realising she has ''nothing'' in common with Sam aside from routinely running away from Giant Robots), as one of the only positive things she actually did.
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** Ravage's [[Super-Deformed|Robot Heroes]] toy crosses the line into straight-up [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]! [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:Robotheroesjoltravage.jpg Just look at him!]
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: The twins in the second movie can easily be interpreted as such. Whether it was knowing or not is very hotly debated, but at the absolute least a large number of people walked away feeling offended, black or otherwise, at what has been seen as racial caricatures due to facial designs and speech patterns that resemble negative stereotypes. While the official words is that they were intended to mimic "wiggers"<ref>white people acting like stereotypes of black people because they think it's cool</ref>.
** That all said, the twins process information at a much quicker rate than ''any'' other Autobots (similar to the MTV generation in real life).
** According to ''[[All There in the Manual|Tales of the Fallen #6]]'', their processors were screwed around with by Decepticon [[Complete Monster|Flatline]], essentially implying ''that they are brain damaged''. Any comedy derived with these two becomes [[Harsher in Hindsight|a bit more uncomfortable]].
** Jerry Wang. The one Asian character has numerous moments of being way too awkward, annoying and is there to help with gay jokes. Even with him being super parnoid he acts way too over the top. Naturally there is a bit of a [[Base Breark]] case with him being an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]].
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*** ''Holy crap!''
* [[The Woobie]]: Toyline-only jet Breakaway, thanks mostly to his robot mode's face (which looks sort of forlorn) and some help from at least one image board's toy board.
** Interesting when you consider the character's young, hot-shot sort of portrayal in the video game. When faced with this new development, many fans decided to [[Alternative Character Interpretation|give the darker brown variant of the action figure the canonical game persona and keep the lighter brown variant as]] [[Fan Nickname|the Sadjet]].
*** [[Jerkass Woobie]]: {{spoiler|Megatron}} in ''DOTM'' may have been designed to [[Draco in Leather Pants|invoke this effect]], being portrayed as a dying old man of sorts, with moments where he finally gets to see his dream come true as {{spoiler|Cybertron is being prepared to be rebuilt}}.
* [[
** And subverted when [[Narm|Welker voiced Megatron in the first two video games]] [[Vocal Dissonance|and animated prequel]]. At that point, all but the most hardcore [[Fan Dumb|GEEWUNNERS]] believed that he wouldn't have been a very good choice. Although Welker recently started voicing the extremely similar, still very demonic and menacing Megatron of ''[[Transformers Prime]]'' and did a damn good job of it, people don't seem to care much for [[What Could Have Been|him as movie Megs]] anymore as hype for the movie series in general has died down.
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