Transformers: Prime: Post-10 Year Retrospective

Transformers: Prime was one of my favorite animated series growing up. And it cemented my lifelong obsession with the Transformers franchise. While not perfect, there is a lot I still admire about it to this day. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of its movie-length finale, Predacons Rising, here is my retrospective of the series and how it has impacted me.

All images and footage used in this video are for the purposes of commentary and education in compliance with Fair Use under US Copyright law.

[Lupus]

What?? There's people who hate this show??!! I thought it was common for everyone to see this series as a masterpiece

[bigboi_tony]

People hate Prime? I thought that this was widely regarded as the best tf show ever.

[tjanikrelshaw]

The reason why sentinel prime’s arm is switched to Maximo prime’s arm is linked to how Sentinel isn’t technically a prime.

[SamuelField-nphk]

While I agree that a lot of storylines weren’t able to reach their proper conclusion (dreadwing, MECH, breakdown, airachnid) I feel like most other criticisms against the show are relatively minor. Honestly the thing that frustrates me most about the show is that it never gets talked about outside of the transformers fandom. Seriously how does a show win 9 Emmys, an Annie, and other numerous accolades and then is just forgotten about. It infuriates me to no end. Despite its flaws, it’s still amazing overall and is definitely up there shows like Star Wars: the clone wars, atla and samurai jack.

[Fllnldr]

Honestly one of my favorite things done was making the earths core unicron cause it gave a reason for why out of all the planets in the universe the cybertronians were attracted to earth of all places.

[xist]

What I liked about the show is that every character looks like they have a unique fighting style. Bumblebee looks like a kickboxer, Predaking looks like he just destroys anything in his way and megatron looks like a gladiator and puts strategy into his fighting

[TheNostalgiaMerchant]

14:09 A word that I remember learning from Transformers Prime's wide range of vocabulary was "pontificating", when Starscream was referring to Optimus' "preaching".

[Lonely-paracosmos]

"Was an autistic preteen when it came put" *shows Raf*
Same

[allsparkwarrier]

Poor Ratchet getting his tools broken broken at the worst possible moment.That gag never ceased to get a chuckle out of me 😂
I seriously can't believe that it's been 14 years since the show began, I just absolutely love it and have watched it religiously ever since

[demolishingtank]

14:10, bro me too, this show taught me more words than 12yrs schools

[ryzen]

This show was good. Peter Cullen and frank welker really upped their performance.

[chrisellis]

Then they do the bumblebee show that leaves so many plot holes, changes the tone, and totally makes the earth defenseless against decepticon attacks even though ratchet spent 10 hrs preparing them

[SatorisYT]

Bulkhead and the Shredder from TMNT 2012 sharing the same voice actor is something that I've never thought about, but now that You pointed it out, it feels like something clicked inside my brain and now I'm weirdly hyped about it for some reason I can't explain lol.

[leshiy_nd]

I really dig how slick Soundwave have become. And then I giggled upon seeing his thick version in the flashbacks. As you proposed an idea for a prequel I instantly thought: "Yes, that would be nice. I NEED TO SEE MOVING WIDEWAVE!"

[TheMahaChannel]

My favorite characters are Dreadwing, Predaking and Knockout. Dreadwing because he had the potential to become an Autobot and even Optimus saw that in him. Predaking because he was just a force to be reckoned, he had the strength to defeat Optimus, the only other character to do that was Megatron. Knockout because of his design and funny one liners.

[CNA_Productions-SM]

I can never forget the impact this show had on. It taught me a lot about how people behave and interact, showed a good sense of humour and had really good characters and action. Really inspirational show for me

[tatersalad]

The constant scavenger hunts also prevented a massive battle every single episode. If Arcee and Bumblebee are getting wrecked by Knockout and Breakdown, where's Optimus? Oh, he's in Venezuela getting pinned down by Starscream and Soundwave

[PixelaGames]

Man, I wish I grew up with this show. I wish I grew up with transformers. But sadly…I didn’t. I just recently got into transformers a couple of months ago, and transformers prime is the first one I watched. And I…Love this show, it is so freaking good, really…ahead of its time in my opinion. The animation, the character designs, the music, the world building, it’s all…So freaking good! And as for my favorite character…Optimus Prime, easily…hands down my favorite. Heck I’m gonna make a video about him and why he’s my favorite…also why I find him to be…Strangely relatable. Anyway, great video…and an absolutely wonderful show

[kurtcobainsmicrophone]

Robots in Disguise should’ve been Smokescreen’s spotlight show following up on the Matrix scene, I would’ve loved to see him follow up on Optimus’s final speech and become a leader without the Matrix. Bee getting his voice back and becoming the leader was a mistake

[ShockwaveFPSStudios]

Transformers Prime was definitely one of THE shows I’ve watched as a kid. Even more then watching G1 episodes on Netflix or Rescue Bots or even one of the movies.

Prime took the best parts from both G1 and the Bayverse, and combined them into what I think, was the best of both worlds. It had badass fight scenes, gritty atmosphere, and a serious & compelling story that the Bayverse had, while also giving the Autobots unique personalities & characteristics that stands out from each other, as well as giving each of the major characters go through arcs that evolves their development that G1 had.

It’s really baffling how Transformers Prime’s now getting a ton of fan backlash, while the Bayverse are actually getting more praise. It’s a messed up world we’re living in.

Now granted, I do think the show has its problems, such as how some of the characters get killed off unnecessarily because of celebrities being unavailable, or how Bumblebee doesn’t talk until the very end of the show, however, the same could be said to all of the Transformers shows. I mean look at G1, sure it started this whole franchise but it’s still a bit campy & over the top. Even Beast Wars, and Transformers Animated had its issues (Like all the CGI in BW looks very ugly & nightmarish, or how some of the characters like Elita-1 & BlackArachinia are somehow one in the same in TFA, when they shouldn’t have been the same character.), so I really don’t think we should only criticize TFP when we should criticize all the Transformers shows, even if we think they’re good.

For a long time, I considered Transformers Prime to be one of the last great Transforrmers cartoons, as everything after RID15 became more G1 based, or at least inspired by G1. The War For Cybertron was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, and Cyberverse didn’t make me feel interested into the show because of how bland it is. Sure, I love the Bumblebee movie but that was an exception in my part. But, after a few episodes/several clips of Earthspark, as well as seeing Rise of the Beasts, I’d say Transformers is back to its glory… and now that it’s been 14 years since Transformers Prime first aired, I can’t help but applaud the show despite its flaws. I think TFP’s a flawed series, but I still rank it up there with some of the best Transformers has ever come up.