HOME | DD

Description
Made with DeviantArt muro

I've been into Transformers for as long as I can remember, and while I agree with a lot of opinions, there are some that I disagree with, the main opinions I dissent with being that the live-action films are terrible, that Simon Furman is the greatest Transformers comic writer, and that the human characters of the franchise are lousy. Obviously, this picture is about my disagreement with the last one.

As of this date, I've watched the following installments of the Transformers franchise: Every episode of the Generation One cartoon, The Transformers: The Movie, Scramble City, every episode of the Headmasters anime, every episode of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, every episode of Car Robots/Robots in Disguise in both Japanese and English, all four live-action films, every episode of Transformers Animated, every episode of Transformers Prime, the Predacons Rising movie, several episodes of Rescue Bots, and every episode of the 2015 Robots in Disguise series that has currently aired.

The only comics I've read are the ones in the six-issue miniseries The Arrival, which tied into Animated, though I have read a lot about the Marvel G1 comics and the IDW Publishing continuity.

I have yet to see Super God Masterforce, Victory, Zero, and the rest of Rescue Bots as well as the rest of the Unicron Trilogy. As for video games, I own the Autobots version of the Revenge of the Fallen DS game, the Animated DS game, and the PlayStation 4 version of Transformers: Devastation, the last one being the only game I've managed to complete.

Anyway, I draw this picture in honor of my favorite human characters from Generation One, Transformers Animated, and the Aligned Continuity, mainly since those three are my favorite continuity families in the franchise.

GENERATION 1

The original Generation 1 cartoon was one of the first continuities I was exposed to even though it went off the air years before I was even born. My first exposure to it was seeing some of the movie while I was in a waiting room with my family. It wasn't until several months ago that I was finally able to watch the entirety of the original cartoon and the movie in its entirety, and I'm glad to have finally had the chance.

The first human character I express my fondness for is the Autobots' old human ally Spike Witwicky. I mainly like him because of his friendship with Bumblebee and because he happened to be voiced by Corey Burton, one of my most favorite voice actors of all time, who I also know for playing Ludwig von Drake, Dale of Chip and Dale, V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook from The Secret Saturdays, Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt, Cad Bane, and others in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, King Mumbo Jumbo in ChalkZone, Jaga in the 2011 Thundercats reboot, Brainiac in the DCAU, and many others.

Of course, Spike wasn't the only character Burton played that I liked. I was also rather fond of the Autobots Brawn and Sunstreaker, and Shockwave is one of my favorite Decepticons.

We also have Spike's girlfriend and later wife Carly and his son Daniel. I know a lot of people find Daniel annoying, but he's earned my respect simply because he had the guts to talk back to Cyclonus. My favorite bit was in "Surprise Party" when he lied to Cyclonus that the lost Autobot database was an ice cream factory and responded to the Decepticon calling him insolent by thanking him. In general, it was also pretty sweet to see the Autobots interacting with the son of their closest ally. Carly earns points because she was pretty capable at times as well.

The last G1 human I'm expressing my fondness for is Dr. Arkeville, a mad scientist who joined forces with the Decepticons only to end up stranded on Cybertron as an immobile cyborg. The main thing I like about him is that he was voiced by the late Casey Kasem and as a result sounds like Shaggy if he were an old man. It's a shame we never saw him again after the events of "Countdown to Extinction", but it's just as well, since Kasem quit the show out of disgust at the offensive national stereotypes used in "Thief in the Night".

Out of all the human characters in the original show, the only ones I disliked other than Abdul Fakkadi were Roland and Martin from the infamous "B.O.T." episode. They were complete tools!

ANIMATED

Transformers Animated got some flack because of the art style, but it remains a very popular incarnation with its own devoted fan base and many are even upset this show got unexpectedly cancelled. Thankfully, info about what happened after the events of the show and what Season 4 could've been like is given in The Complete AllSpark Almanac.

Our first human characters discussed here are Professor Isaac Sumdac and his half-Cybertronian daughter Sari.

I like Isaac because he tries to be a good dad to his daughter, his Ditzy Genius tendencies are good for a few laughs, and he was played by Tom Kenny, who also played Starscream in this series. I also know Kenny for playing the titular character of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Ice King in Adventure Time, and Plastic Man in an unaired pilot, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and a few DC Nation shorts. Professor Sumdac isn't even the first time Tom Kenny played an Indian, because he also voiced Asok in the Dilbert animated series.

I'm fond of Sari because she's a really adorable child, proves useful to the team, and is also played by another voice actress I am very fond of. She was played by Tara Strong, who I also know for playing Bubbles in the original Powerpuff Girls, Raven in the Teen Titans animated series, Kylie Griffin in Extreme Ghostbusters, Ben Tennyson in the original Ben 10 (and reprising her role as young Ben in Ultimate Alien and Omniverse), Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Truffles from Chowder.

Next in our focus is Captain Carmine Fanzone. He's a pretty amusing character and he was played by Jeff Glenn Bennett, who I also know for voicing Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Dad on Dexter's Laboratory, Peter Puppy and the narrator in the Earthworm Jim animated series, Brooklyn in Gargoyles, Lord Camembert in the original Biker Mice from Mars, and Sir Richard Brand-Something in the 2006 Biker Mice show. In Animated, Mr. Bennett also voices Prowl and the human villain the Angry Archer, the latter using his delightful impersonation of Monty Python's John Cleese.

Last, but not least, we have the Witwicky family, based on the characters from the original cartoon. They were generally limited to silent cameos, but Spike and Carly do get speaking roles in "Garbage In, Garbage Out" and Daniel got to talk in the short "Career Day". Carly and Daniel were both played by Tara Strong, while Corey Burton reprised his role as Spike as well as Shockwave in addition to playing the show's versions of Megatron, Ratchet, and Ironhide and a few bit parts. I've read some sources claiming that he also did the grunts for Cyclonus and Brawn in "TransWarped", but I haven't found any solid confirmation of that.

In addition to Spike, Carly, and Daniel, there was also a new baby girl named Nancy, who didn't appear until the third season two-parter "Human Error". Too bad, too, because the third season chose to give less focus on the human characters and the Witwicky family never appeared again after that. I would've liked to see Spike spend time with his new daughter and get at least one more speaking role.

Spike's dad Sparkplug also made some cameos in three episodes, but it isn't clear if they're related in this continuity and his voice actor was never consistent, going from Jeff Bennett to David Kaye to John Mariano.

ALIGNED

The Aligned Continuity is the most recent incarnation of the Transformers franchise, the main basis of its continuity being the video games War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron.

The first series in this continuity family was Transformers Prime, which was very innovative. One thing many praise for the show is the fact that Peter Cullen and Frank Welker both reprise their respective roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Steven Blum also did a decent Starscream.

Here, the main human allies were three kids named Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Rafael "Raf" Esquivel. Miko has a divisive reception, fans either like her for bringing the show some of its humorous moments or they despise her for being completely reckless and not giving any consideration to how dangerous some of her decisions are. I pretty much see both interpretations when it comes to her.

I was also pretty fond of Agent William Fowler, who was played by Ernie Hudson, best known for playing Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters movies. He's also no stranger to voice acting, since he played Cyborg in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

About a couple years after Prime premiered, there was another show called Rescue Bots, which was aimed at younger audiences, but still has a lot of older fans, too. I'm not surprised, since Rescue Bots is basically Transformers meets My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I make the comparison because both shows have a similar art style and both generally follow "slice of life" plots with seldom encounters with actual villains.

Yet again, Rescue Bots features quite a lot of voice actors I'm fond of. For starters, the Burns family patriarch Charlie Burns is played by Maurice LaMarche, who I also know for playing Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Dizzy Devil from Tiny Toon Adventures, Jeremy Hawke and others from The Critic, Dr. Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and Father from Codename: Kids Next Door. LaMarche is also a Transformers veteran, having voiced Six-Gun in the infamous "Thief in the Night" episode of G1.

Kade Burns, the obnoxious firefighter, is played by Jason Marsden. I also know him for playing Garrett Miller on Extreme Ghostbusters, Goofy's son Max in the Goofy Movies and House of Mouse, and Eddie Munster in The Munsters Today (that last one was in fact one of his earliest roles).

And that's not even acknowledging Tim Curry and Greg Ellis as Dr. Thaddeus Morocco, Jim Cummings as Quint Quarry, Kath Soucie as Anna Baranova and her and Doc Greene's daughter CiCi Greene, and LeVar Burton as Doc Ezra Greene.

I like Cody, Kade, Charlie, Graham, Dani, Frankie, Anna, and Ezra because they're pretty likeable people and it's nice to see them get along with Heatwave, Chase, Boulder, Blades, and the others. CiCi, being just a toddler, I simply like because she's so cute.

Our final discussion of human characters I like are Russel Clay and his dad Denny, who are the human allies to Bumblebee and his team in the 2015 Robots in Disguise show, which is a continuation of Prime. I didn't think much of them at first, but they quickly grew on me. As usual, they have all the traits human Autobot allies should have: Likeability, comic relief, and being able to help the Autobots out in exchange for the times the Autobots save their behinds.

My favorite Decepticon from this show is Clampdown thanks to being played by Jim Cummings and being such an amusing coward. I'm also impressed by Eric Bauza's portrayal of Drift and am happy for him, since it was said that Eric was a fan of the character and wanted to play him since Animated.

I think that's all I have to say.

Transformers (c) Hasbro

Description
Made with DeviantArt muro

I've been into Transformers for as long as I can remember, and while I agree with a lot of opinions, there are some that I disagree with, the main opinions I dissent with being that the live-action films are terrible, that Simon Furman is the greatest Transformers comic writer, and that the human characters of the franchise are lousy. Obviously, this picture is about my disagreement with the last one.

As of this date, I've watched the following installments of the Transformers franchise: Every episode of the Generation One cartoon, The Transformers: The Movie, Scramble City, every episode of the Headmasters anime, every episode of Beast Wars and Beast Machines, every episode of Car Robots/Robots in Disguise in both Japanese and English, all four live-action films, every episode of Transformers Animated, every episode of Transformers Prime, the Predacons Rising movie, several episodes of Rescue Bots, and every episode of the 2015 Robots in Disguise series that has currently aired.

The only comics I've read are the ones in the six-issue miniseries The Arrival, which tied into Animated, though I have read a lot about the Marvel G1 comics and the IDW Publishing continuity.

I have yet to see Super God Masterforce, Victory, Zero, and the rest of Rescue Bots as well as the rest of the Unicron Trilogy. As for video games, I own the Autobots version of the Revenge of the Fallen DS game, the Animated DS game, and the PlayStation 4 version of Transformers: Devastation, the last one being the only game I've managed to complete.

Anyway, I draw this picture in honor of my favorite human characters from Generation One, Transformers Animated, and the Aligned Continuity, mainly since those three are my favorite continuity families in the franchise.

GENERATION 1

The original Generation 1 cartoon was one of the first continuities I was exposed to even though it went off the air years before I was even born. My first exposure to it was seeing some of the movie while I was in a waiting room with my family. It wasn't until several months ago that I was finally able to watch the entirety of the original cartoon and the movie in its entirety, and I'm glad to have finally had the chance.

The first human character I express my fondness for is the Autobots' old human ally Spike Witwicky. I mainly like him because of his friendship with Bumblebee and because he happened to be voiced by Corey Burton, one of my most favorite voice actors of all time, who I also know for playing Ludwig von Drake, Dale of Chip and Dale, V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook from The Secret Saturdays, Count Dooku, Ziro the Hutt, Cad Bane, and others in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, King Mumbo Jumbo in ChalkZone, Jaga in the 2011 Thundercats reboot, Brainiac in the DCAU, and many others.

Of course, Spike wasn't the only character Burton played that I liked. I was also rather fond of the Autobots Brawn and Sunstreaker, and Shockwave is one of my favorite Decepticons.

We also have Spike's girlfriend and later wife Carly and his son Daniel. I know a lot of people find Daniel annoying, but he's earned my respect simply because he had the guts to talk back to Cyclonus. My favorite bit was in "Surprise Party" when he lied to Cyclonus that the lost Autobot database was an ice cream factory and responded to the Decepticon calling him insolent by thanking him. In general, it was also pretty sweet to see the Autobots interacting with the son of their closest ally. Carly earns points because she was pretty capable at times as well.

The last G1 human I'm expressing my fondness for is Dr. Arkeville, a mad scientist who joined forces with the Decepticons only to end up stranded on Cybertron as an immobile cyborg. The main thing I like about him is that he was voiced by the late Casey Kasem and as a result sounds like Shaggy if he were an old man. It's a shame we never saw him again after the events of "Countdown to Extinction", but it's just as well, since Kasem quit the show out of disgust at the offensive national stereotypes used in "Thief in the Night".

Out of all the human characters in the original show, the only ones I disliked other than Abdul Fakkadi were Roland and Martin from the infamous "B.O.T." episode. They were complete tools!

ANIMATED

Transformers Animated got some flack because of the art style, but it remains a very popular incarnation with its own devoted fan base and many are even upset this show got unexpectedly cancelled. Thankfully, info about what happened after the events of the show and what Season 4 could've been like is given in The Complete AllSpark Almanac.

Our first human characters discussed here are Professor Isaac Sumdac and his half-Cybertronian daughter Sari.

I like Isaac because he tries to be a good dad to his daughter, his Ditzy Genius tendencies are good for a few laughs, and he was played by Tom Kenny, who also played Starscream in this series. I also know Kenny for playing the titular character of SpongeBob SquarePants, the Ice King in Adventure Time, and Plastic Man in an unaired pilot, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and a few DC Nation shorts. Professor Sumdac isn't even the first time Tom Kenny played an Indian, because he also voiced Asok in the Dilbert animated series.

I'm fond of Sari because she's a really adorable child, proves useful to the team, and is also played by another voice actress I am very fond of. She was played by Tara Strong, who I also know for playing Bubbles in the original Powerpuff Girls, Raven in the Teen Titans animated series, Kylie Griffin in Extreme Ghostbusters, Ben Tennyson in the original Ben 10 (and reprising her role as young Ben in Ultimate Alien and Omniverse), Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and Truffles from Chowder.

Next in our focus is Captain Carmine Fanzone. He's a pretty amusing character and he was played by Jeff Glenn Bennett, who I also know for voicing Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Dad on Dexter's Laboratory, Peter Puppy and the narrator in the Earthworm Jim animated series, Brooklyn in Gargoyles, Lord Camembert in the original Biker Mice from Mars, and Sir Richard Brand-Something in the 2006 Biker Mice show. In Animated, Mr. Bennett also voices Prowl and the human villain the Angry Archer, the latter using his delightful impersonation of Monty Python's John Cleese.

Last, but not least, we have the Witwicky family, based on the characters from the original cartoon. They were generally limited to silent cameos, but Spike and Carly do get speaking roles in "Garbage In, Garbage Out" and Daniel got to talk in the short "Career Day". Carly and Daniel were both played by Tara Strong, while Corey Burton reprised his role as Spike as well as Shockwave in addition to playing the show's versions of Megatron, Ratchet, and Ironhide and a few bit parts. I've read some sources claiming that he also did the grunts for Cyclonus and Brawn in "TransWarped", but I haven't found any solid confirmation of that.

In addition to Spike, Carly, and Daniel, there was also a new baby girl named Nancy, who didn't appear until the third season two-parter "Human Error". Too bad, too, because the third season chose to give less focus on the human characters and the Witwicky family never appeared again after that. I would've liked to see Spike spend time with his new daughter and get at least one more speaking role.

Spike's dad Sparkplug also made some cameos in three episodes, but it isn't clear if they're related in this continuity and his voice actor was never consistent, going from Jeff Bennett to David Kaye to John Mariano.

ALIGNED

The Aligned Continuity is the most recent incarnation of the Transformers franchise, the main basis of its continuity being the video games War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron.

The first series in this continuity family was Transformers Prime, which was very innovative. One thing many praise for the show is the fact that Peter Cullen and Frank Welker both reprise their respective roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron. Steven Blum also did a decent Starscream.

Here, the main human allies were three kids named Jack Darby, Miko Nakadai, and Rafael "Raf" Esquivel. Miko has a divisive reception, fans either like her for bringing the show some of its humorous moments or they despise her for being completely reckless and not giving any consideration to how dangerous some of her decisions are. I pretty much see both interpretations when it comes to her.

I was also pretty fond of Agent William Fowler, who was played by Ernie Hudson, best known for playing Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters movies. He's also no stranger to voice acting, since he played Cyborg in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.

About a couple years after Prime premiered, there was another show called Rescue Bots, which was aimed at younger audiences, but still has a lot of older fans, too. I'm not surprised, since Rescue Bots is basically Transformers meets My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I make the comparison because both shows have a similar art style and both generally follow "slice of life" plots with seldom encounters with actual villains.

Yet again, Rescue Bots features quite a lot of voice actors I'm fond of. For starters, the Burns family patriarch Charlie Burns is played by Maurice LaMarche, who I also know for playing Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Dizzy Devil from Tiny Toon Adventures, Jeremy Hawke and others from The Critic, Dr. Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and Father from Codename: Kids Next Door. LaMarche is also a Transformers veteran, having voiced Six-Gun in the infamous "Thief in the Night" episode of G1.

Kade Burns, the obnoxious firefighter, is played by Jason Marsden. I also know him for playing Garrett Miller on Extreme Ghostbusters, Goofy's son Max in the Goofy Movies and House of Mouse, and Eddie Munster in The Munsters Today (that last one was in fact one of his earliest roles).

And that's not even acknowledging Tim Curry and Greg Ellis as Dr. Thaddeus Morocco, Jim Cummings as Quint Quarry, Kath Soucie as Anna Baranova and her and Doc Greene's daughter CiCi Greene, and LeVar Burton as Doc Ezra Greene.

I like Cody, Kade, Charlie, Graham, Dani, Frankie, Anna, and Ezra because they're pretty likeable people and it's nice to see them get along with Heatwave, Chase, Boulder, Blades, and the others. CiCi, being just a toddler, I simply like because she's so cute.

Our final discussion of human characters I like are Russel Clay and his dad Denny, who are the human allies to Bumblebee and his team in the 2015 Robots in Disguise show, which is a continuation of Prime. I didn't think much of them at first, but they quickly grew on me. As usual, they have all the traits human Autobot allies should have: Likeability, comic relief, and being able to help the Autobots out in exchange for the times the Autobots save their behinds.

My favorite Decepticon from this show is Clampdown thanks to being played by Jim Cummings and being such an amusing coward. I'm also impressed by Eric Bauza's portrayal of Drift and am happy for him, since it was said that Eric was a fan of the character and wanted to play him since Animated.

I think that's all I have to say.

Transformers (c) Hasbro