Transformatoren: EarthSpark

Earthspark uses the new characters as a metaphor for mixed-race children growing up in land away from their parents' traditions and culture. To grow as their own person but not forget their roots. It has heart albeit the writing is sometimes boring and unfunny.

Character cameos were fun and appreciated. A lot of callbacks from different continuities in the franchise like the Swindle and Hardtop from Unicron Trilogy and Megatron and Tarantulas reminiscent of IDW. The obvious G1 comic appearances.

The old fans are sour cuz it's not the nonsensical saturday morning cartoon they grew up with where the "big bad" Megatron lost every episode. Megatron is a good guy now and one of the robots use they/them pronouns. Harmless stuff that's fleshed out in the show but it isn't what their rose tinted childhood lenses remember.

I really enjoy the human characters. Mo is sweet and willing to help Thrash with whatever he needs and Robbie has deep ties to his home and is learning to like where he is. This iteration of Bumblebee is probably my favourite, he's a good character for an older audience to relate to. I love Megatron and Dots relationship, with their inside jokes. I'm glad that Megatron is an Autobot now, gives a fresh view on his character and it's refreshing to see new antagonists. Mandroid takes some great inspiration from a similar antoganist from Transformers Prime. I appreciate the representation as well, it's refreshing to see characters just like me and those around shown in a transformers show. I don't have much of a leg to stand on with the Philipino or Black rep but the queer rep is amazing. I hope to see much more.

From the clunkily shoe-horned in family politics to the bad character design, this version of Transformers is almost as bad as it could possibly get.

The human children are given pride of place, likely to appeal to fans of Ben 10 and similar shows. For the record, Ben 10 is much better than Transformers EarthSpark. Anyway, the focus is very much away from the transformers (a lot of the time anyway) so that the children can take centre stage.

The 80s show is still the best version of Transformers, by a long way. EarthSpark has far too much talking, to the point where one of my kids asked me if we were still watching Transformers. Yes, I said, though I could barely believe it myself.

TF Earthspark is the most mediocre Transformers series produced in years, and perfectly encapsulates how creatively bankrupt both Hasbro and Nickelodeon are.

The series is a cliché "kid hates the new town they move to" slice-of-life show with a Transformers texture pack applied. The series tries to have epic, nuanced lore mixed with Teletubbies-tier ploit conflicts.

The Decepticons aren't even the main villains. Instead, we get a human scientist who hates Transformers as the main villain. (Wow, how original!)

In closing, TF Earthspark is a bland robot cartoon for toddlers. You're better off watching the Machinima Trilogy.

I've been a Transformers fan since childhood, and since then I myself have transformed (ha ha) into a boring office worker working a 9-5 (send help).

In all those years I've seen everything from comics, games, movies. And yeah...the fanbase is "hard to please" (putting it lightly). I won't pretend that I'm not one of the pickier ones.

But Transformers Earthspark is almost everything I've always wanted as a fan.

To be fair, I'll start with the 'Cons:

It's true that not all the jokes land, not all the characters are equally interesting right now (looking at two of the main characters Robby and Thrash and the villain, Dr. Mandroid). Not all the diversity is gracefully woven into the narrative, and not all the coolest story-telling opportunities are taken (it's only been 10 episodes though so I'll chill out. Still, hire me, Hasbro please PLEASE.)

Also Mo has the jankiest anime eyes I've ever seen.

BUT on the flip side It's taking the Transformers story in an entirely new direction that hooks you along. The fight scenes are awesome (i.e. Think of a shuriken coming at you but that shuriken is a 52 ton Osprey helicopter, yeah that's what's happening in this show), the structure and writing of each episode sans the pilot and some parts of the finale are pretty tight, and it's FUNNY as hell even when it's being weird.

I, a (mostly) grown person, have literally laughed out loud over the dumbest things. The show is just plain fun.

Sure, there are those who dislike the "wokeness" of Earthspark, whatever that's fine, but I gotta say it: 1) it's a new generation. You don't know how much it means to some people. And 2) each episode STILL goes out of its way to teach kids timeless values like "hey, stop being a gamer for a sec and spend time with your family" or "know your roots" and "not all rules are put in place to restrict you just for the sake of restricting you" which I found endearing.

Overall: the show's got heart.

It's got the opposite schtick of Bayverse where everyone hates each other for no reason: here there's an abundance of love. It's got positivity, deep bonds, robots, and I feel like a tiny kid again when I watch it. To me, THAT'S Transformers.

This show is different. It isn't perfect or meant for everyone, but I enjoyed it a LOT!