I've seen the animated episodes that have aired so far and i think it is the best written show voiced in English (can't speak for the japanese dubbing, i havent seen it) to come out since BM. i have been enjoying watching it and am loving it's part serious nature.

 

Thing is though i've been rewatching Beast Wars and just saw Code of Hero.

 

Now my point is this, Beast wars was written in such a way that you generally identified with the characters to such an extent that you genuinely caed about them in a way that should not be possible for a saturday morning cartoon. Dinobot's final appearence was his own tribute, he went through a lot of sparksearching after finding out that according to the disc he was destined to die in the not to distant future leading him to question his own motives and even his own allegience before deciding that in the end, his life would unimportant if he did not fight to protect what should be and what is right.

 

seeing this episode affected me personally and helped me arrive at my own moral views on how life should be led.

 

I seriously don't think that i'll ever witness children's fiction written like that let alone in a transformers series.

 

I think animated could get close (if it would abandon going for the cheap laughs all the time).

 

Bulkhead, Prowl and Ratchet in paticular give me the impression that they still have a lot to learn about the way they see themselves.

 

Some might say "It's just a kids show let it go" but i see no reason for characters like Sari and the new Bumblebee to have no role other than to be annoying characters who the kids will relate to. I hope that during the series they will learn and realise that there are times when putting themselves before everything else will only lead to trouble.

 

Anyway, how do you guys think that the characters from animated could develop to better protray ideas rather than jus saying them.

I think the Animated episodes are already as well written as the comparable early episodes of BW, if not better. Every series takes time to find its footing in the early stages, and I think Animated will get as good as Beast Wars was at its peak, and it will get there faster than BW did. They've clearly set up much more story than BW did in its infancy and, unlike some unfulfilled BW episodes like the Vok, I think they've got a planned payoff that we'll actually see in the series - which is not a knock against BW. I just think the writers of Animated had more preparation time in terms of knowing how many seasons will be produced, etc.

 

All that having been said, I don't think we'll ever see an episode similar in theme/content to "Code of Hero", because that doesn't really seem to be Animated's playing field. I do think we will episodes that are as well written - but I tend to be of the opinion that some of Dinobot's poetical waxing is a tad overrated by the fandom. I still really like COH, though.

 

As for the cheap laughs, I seem to recall an episode centered around Rhinox passing gas...

Now my point is this, Beast wars was written in such a way that you generally identified with the characters to such an extent that you genuinely caed about them in a way that should not be possible for a saturday morning cartoon. Dinobot's final appearence was his own tribute, he went through a lot of sparksearching after finding out that according to the disc he was destined to die in the not to distant future leading him to question his own motives and even his own allegience before deciding that in the end, his life would unimportant if he did not fight to protect what should be and what is right.

Dinobot never found that he was destined to die. The whole point of his Golden Disc subplot was that he was trying to find out if destiny existed in the first place, and had decided that if the future could not be changed he'd kill himself rather than live out a fate he had no control over. When he finally saw Megatron using the disc and changing the future he realized that this was not the case and that he was still master of his own destiny, however at that time he was also the only one close enough to stop Megatron from wiping out the proto-humans so he had to sacrifice himself anyway.

 

As for Animated, so far it is better than the early episodes of Beast Wars, however that's no guarantee that we'll see the equivalent of BW season 2 from Animated. Many shows spend their entire runs cranking out episodes in Animated's general quality range, so it's too early to tell if this new show will move on to bigger and better things any time soon.

I never liked early Beast Wars, so I stopped watching it after half a season or so. So I would argue that Animated is better. Animated is the only series I've really been "in to" since Armada, and G1 before that.

to answer the question of "will this show ever be as good as BW"?

HELL, TO THE NO! but if I were the creators i'd worrie more about the animation.

Honestly, I doubt it.

 

To be fair, the show thus far is head and shoulders over Beast Wars at a comparable point (... early BW was pretty bad, and I'm not just talking the animation... god, I hated Cheetor. So much), but I feel like TFA is more constrained by the limitations of being marketed towards a younger audience. Given the animation style, which puts off a great deal of older viewers, it doesn't seem like the writers will strive for something as good as BW

I am an older viewer, and a professional working in an art-based job. I find TF:A's animation to be refreshing, and interesting. Besides G1 (for it's time), most every other series has looked silly to me. Either very generic anime, or very generic 3D. Sure, BW pushed 3D animation for its time, but it still looked so stupid to me as a kid, that's when I completely gave up on Transformers for a number of years.

 

Transformers: Animated, while not being completely original, is still stylized in a way which is aesthetically pleasing to anyone with an eye for art, compared to other series with this brand. This is a dead horse issue though, we argued about the art style way before the series even came out.

 

I don't think what the art looks like effects the original question of this thread at all. It is specifically called "will animated's writing ever be as good as bw?" Animation, whether it is your thing or not, has nothing to do with the writing.

ok, let's talk writing. I honestly don't think a toon's writing will ever make or break the show. I have the entire G1 on dvd & watch them from time to time.

when I do I'm forced to admit that altho the premis is sound (you know the whole constant search for energy thing), the plots were extreamly redundant. every eps it was the same damn thing. when I think about it G1 realy ony had a few good well writen eps like: the pilot, insecticons, construticons, creation of the airalbots & stunticons, the female autobots, the creation of the space bridge, & oh yeah, when Megs brought Cybertron into Earth's orbit. IMO Starscream & Dr. Archoville were the real stars of that tril-eps.

but mostly all the rest of the eps are just the "same script differant cast". So even tho G1's writing was by no means out of the ordinary, it still some how became this "Mecca" that brings us all to forums like this one to rant on & on about toon's that are well past their prime & compair them to the new young "wipper snapper" toons of today.

so argue all you want about the writing. hell even send in a few scripts if you dane to do so. but unless your animation is on point all the writing in the world won't save this doomed lil toon.

that's why I said what I said in the animated tread. todays animation just doesn't have the "staying power" of the toons of "yester-year".

unless your animation is on point all the writing in the world won't save this doomed lil toon.

that's why I said what I said in the animated tread.

You're back from your suspention vacation I see. Grrrreeeeaaat.

'Doomed lil toon'? I don't think so. Animated could turn out to be one of the most popular TF series' yet.

So I think that's why you constantly try to bash it.

unless your animation is on point all the writing in the world won't save this doomed lil toon.

that's why I said what I said in the animated tread.

You're back from your suspention vacation I see. Grrrreeeeaaat.

'Doomed lil toon'? I don't think so. Animated could turn out to be one of the most popular TF series' yet.

So I think that's why you constantly try to bash it.

 

I actually agree. It's success will be based on how many little kids get up on Saturday morning to watch it. Right now it's a lot, as you can see from a recent news story on this site. Probably because this show takes a lot of cues from the movie, which roped in a lot of new fans to the brand. Most especially Bumblebee fans, a character they have put in the foreground of the new series.