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[CyclonusArmada]

Exactly. As good as The Gathering & Ascending were, any bot used who hadn't been in any of the BW series was given next to no character and was just wasted as cameo fodder.
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[Verno]

[CyclonusArmada]

That said I'd like to discuss the links BW has with G1, chiefly the legacy BW's future was created from.
First thing I noticed was aside from Waspinator no one else has blue eyes. A traditional distinction between Autobots (Blue) and Decepticons (Red) I found its absence rather noticable and initially I pondered as to which side "won" the last Great War.
Waspinator (Blue), Cheetor, Tarantulas, Silverbolt, Scorponok (Yellow) Black Arachnia(Black), TM Primal(Orange), Optimal Optimus and Rampage(Green): these were the only bots with different eye colours in the entire series. Everyone else was red, the traditional Decepticon colour.
Whether this was an intentional nod or not right up until The Agenda explained a bit more of the missing mythos it wasn't entirely outside the realms of possibilty to assume the Autobots were not the actual victors of the last Great War. Yet perhaps a future similar to TF Marvel's Peace created the factions that came to be?
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[Cattleprod]

The biggest strength of the Beast Wars cartoon was the tight focus on a well-developed cast, owing to the limitations of CG animation making new characters very costly.

The Gathering got off on the right foot, only having about seven characters of note on each side, but towards the end of that series they introduced more and more guys, and then the Ascending went totally off the rails with nearly every character who didn't make it on the show, along with a decent chunk of the Japanese cast.

I know comics and CG animation have different strengths, and the comic had an advantage in being able to open up the world, but it really lost sight of what people liked about the show and it suffered for it.
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Cattleprod's guide to upcoming releases.

Editing posts to fix broken quotes is like detonating I/D chips.

[CyclonusArmada]

Focused far too much on the Japanese cast as well. No where near as interesting as the BW cast.
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[Verno]

[CyclonusArmada]

Perhaps but it leads to another matter: Energy. Now one of the very few things I liked in Armada was the idea that each bot held multiple weaponry within them, unlocked by a power boost. This was literally true in Beast Wars also as was the case with Terrorsaur but it went beyond that.
For the most part the upgrade to Maximal & Predacon seemingly reduced the destructive power each bot possessed and although each bot was practically a one man army for the most part only concentrated fire was lethal. TM Megatron needed to charge up to blow Prime's head off after all, something which none had previously done. Now again this could be explained as (a) toning down the violence of the show, or (b) reducing fatalities with said limited cast.
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[Verno]

The floating island in the scope of season 1 was about character development (making Terrorsaur a Starscream-like character).

Terrorsaur was super-charged by the energon. His weapons became larger (he says the energy was absorbed directly into his super-structure) and his propulsion systems got a good amping up.

But if you step back and look at the larger picture, and with Vok involvement in mind, the floating island of extremely powerful Energon could be seen as a reward for a species the Vok tests on the surface had propagated.

The Proto-matter technology was about fuel efficiency. Smaller, yes. Less powerful, yes. But with energy funneled into a singular aspect of their design, ie, weapons or propulsion, then they I believe a Proto-matter body could go toe-to-toe with a larger G1-scale figure, but only for a short time.

I've no doubt that Proto-matter Maximals and Predacons were fighting alongside their Autobot and Decepticon brethren towards the end of the Great War. They had to be able to serve and survive on the battlefield.
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The TVC presents TransWarp: Csirac - Issue #1

[CyclonusArmada]

Certainly better armed than most Autobots/Decepticons. Primal had a shotgun in his arm, swords, jetpack and rocket lauchers on his shoulders. Megs had two rocket launchers and cannon on his arm and missile launchers on his thighs and that was just season one. Dinobot seemed the least armed of all, aside from later Quickstrike, as he only seemed to have laser eyes, a sword and his spinning, shield-type thing. Even Cheetor had two different guns initially.
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[Verno]

And even when they didn't have weapons, Mainframe gave them extra ones!

The original forms of Blackarachnia and Tarantulas both shot bullets from their spider legs. And TM Tarantulas had missile launchers on his shoulders. Armed to the teeth!
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The TVC presents TransWarp: Csirac - Issue #1

[CyclonusArmada]

Also Waspinator & Terrorsaur exhibited eye lasers from time to time.

So lets go back to the characters, namely your favourites & your disliked.

Now as is crystal clear by now I am a villain fan and BW doesn't disappoint there. Yet there are some Maximals that were worthy of my attention too.

Favourites
Rampage - Practically the perfect villain. If he existed in G1 he probably would have been a Decepticon Emperor at one stage.
Rhinox - If for nothing else than the first time I saw This Pretty much the best mix of Ratchet, Wheeljack and Ironhide in one.
Tarantulas - Honestly whats not to like? Best laugh ever.

Dislikes
Black Arachnia - Fembots don't do it for me and her every scene with Silverbolt makes me cringe.
Quickstrike - Never liked the whole Cowboy thing so a Predacon based around the concept does it for me even less.
Dinobot II - Pointless and unneccessary. Dinobot had a great resolution to his own arc and this retread really wasn't needed.
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[FDrowned]

Faves
- Inferno, FOR THE ROYALTY!!!
- Quickstrike, HEE HAR!!!
- Megatron, YEEESSSS


No Like
- Airrazor, forgettable
- Tigatron, same as above
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"Running away with a Spaceman in a box, anything could happen to you"

[CyclonusArmada]

[FDrowned]

Cheetor: So umm, Airrazor and Tigatron have been kidnapped by Aliens

Primal: Eh, who cares, if they're still out there, we're get them back. But more importantly, PARTY AT MY PLACE!!!!
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"Running away with a Spaceman in a box, anything could happen to you"

[CyclonusArmada]

Yeah the others didn't seem overly concerned they had been abducted. Yet by the same token if they had wanted to save Dinobot, Cheetor & Primal could have carried Rattrap & Rhinox respectively and all flew to his rescue in double quick time.
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