The Energon Pub

Excelent news, I'm really glad that Dinobot was nominated! I love this character. Now I'm a bit confused as I wanted Soundwave, but I'm divided between him and Dinobot. So, since Soundwave will probably get most votes I think I'm going to give mine to Dinobot instead. I'll be happy if either of them wins, but I must say that all nominated Transformers are excelent choices.

Finally! someone worthy of the honor! Out of these five, Dinobot was and is the most developed, accomplished, and deepest character. He wasn't anyone's tool or put in to look cool, he was his own person with his own ambitions and beliefs.

While all five are considered memorable charatcers, the others are usually remebered for at least one of four things:

• Their voices
• Their altmodes
• Their toys
• Their gimmicks

Dinobot, on ther other hand, was much more than just a raptor with a cool voice. He was deep, torn between his own morality and his own ambitions. There were times where it was hard to tell whether he was good or bad, a hero or an anti-hero. He sometimes seemed like he wanted to slaughter anyone and anything around him. It seemed like he hated his comrades no matter whose side he was on.

But, underneath this cold, brutish attitude lay one thing that is rare to find in a good villain: a sense of honor. In spite of his generally negative appearance, his loyalty never wavered to those he was sided with. With the exception of the episode "Maximal, No More", but that was also part of his development and he learned from his mistake afterwards, accepting his errors and coping with them. Even if he didn't always see eye-to-eye with his allies, he remained firm in his word as their comrade. And to the very end, in his final, crownign momnet, he gave the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of humanity's future.

He lived as a warrior, a true soldier, a brother to his comrades. And died a hero, a savior, a legend to all. May his spark live on in the Matrix, the Allspark, the Well of All Sparks... the Greatest of Cybertron.

'Til All Are One!

UltraPrimal wrote:Dinobot! Vote Dinobot! Vote Beast Wars! Beast Wars saved the Transformers franchise just like how Dinobot saved humanity(Code of Hero), not to mention all the GeeWun fossils on board the Ark(Nemesis Part 2).



Optimus Primal: "Well fought, my friend. You saved the valley. You saved the lives of those who live here... and of those who are still to come."
Dinobot: "Then... there is nothing to regret."
Rattrap: "Like I said, you're just a blasted, slag-spouting saurian, but... it's nice to know where you stand."
Dinobot:"Upwind of you, for preference, vermin. ...Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."


Optimus:"He lived a warrior... and died a hero. Let his spark join the Matrix, the greatest of Cybertron."


Optimus:"'In the Spark of an enemy, there will be salvation; and in the darkest hour, there will be a light.'"
Rattrap:"Yeah, from a very unexpected source – Ol' Chopperface's clone. Who'da thunk it?"
Optimus:"And let us never forget those other brave bots, whose sacrifice safeguarded past, present and future."

I won't lie. I'm a little surprised by this pick. Best Wars is probaably the mot universally popular series beyond G1 but if you're going BW I thought there were a few characters that people liked more, such as Rattrap, Blackarachnia and Waspinator. Still, I like the change of pace there and Dinobot is certainly a more complex and developed character than any of the other four.

Chaoslock wrote:I hate that episode... Too awesome and too sad (and part of the avalanche of killing the awesomest characters in BW - Tigerhawk, Tigatron, Airrazor, Lazorbeak, Scorponok, Tarantulas, Ravage, Inferno, Quickstrike, Depth Charge, and Rampage...)

Actually, even though a lot of great characters die, I feel that was one of the best written episodes of all-time in any series. They really brought the series to an emotional end with some great story telling and really tied up a lot of loose ends in the process. It was an awesome final chapter, if you will.

That is, it would have been had Beast Machines not come along and basically took a whiz in the face of the entire Beast Wars series and all of it fans.

Boo.

•Their voices
The winner here is obviously Soundwave, none of the others had voices that became so symbolic. Not saying that the other nominees didn't have terrific voices since Shockwave (Corey Burton), Jazz (Scatman Crothers), Grimlock (Gregg Berger) all were pretty memorable.
I can't speak for Dinobot since I'm not all that familiar with Beast Wars.

•Their altmodes
I think Grimlock takes this one, I mean seriously a T-Rex is pretty hard to top in coolness. Although a real size lasergun and a tape recorder are joys to transform back and forth. Jazz is a little too usual, and while Velociraptors are awesome they can't top a T-Rex.

•Their toys
Since I only own Soundwave and Shockwave (G1) I have to say Shockwave. First of, he's huge compared to most G1 figures. He's also well articulated and extremely show accurate. Soundwave (whose head still bugs me) is awesome as well, his transformation is just so fun.

•Their gimmicks
Soundwave is pretty generic, your typical loyal soldier (although I heard he does anything he can to make his position with Megs better in the comics).

Shockwave on the other hand is made of awesomness in both medias (show and comics). Seriously, poor guy took care of a whole PLANET.
His comic form is also highly impressive, his dedication to logic just strikes me as very interesting, not to mention that he's just as powerful as Megs himself, if not even stronger.

Jazz is awesome. Not much else to say, seriously his personality is all about being as awesome as someone can be in the most awesome way possible.

Grimlock is likable because he's stupid (in a very effective way, gotta love Grimlock). I don't know his comic personality extremely well though).

Dinobot I have no idea of his personality.

So in short it's a tie for me between the waves, Shockwave and Soundwave. I just love those guys so much. =)

In all honesty, Dinobot seems to be not only the best choice, but the only logical choice.

I mean, sure, all five are memorable characters, but the other four are mostly remembered for the wrong reasons and can seem a bit overrated. They each are usually remembered for at least one of four things:
1. Their voices
2. Their altmodes
3. Their toys
4. Their gimmicks

This Hall of Fame is not intended to honor particularly any of those four factors. It's to honor the character itself.

Soundwave falls into the category of all four. He's mostly remembered as the guy with the deep voice, the articulated toy, the tape player bot, or the guy with cassette tapes inside him. But, what about his personality? Well, he was a loyal follower of Megatron and... that's it. He was basically Megatron's Yes Man and an outright tool for his master's evil plans. Soundwave never did anything on his own, never acted on his own, never took his own stand in the Decepticons, never stated his own opinions and objectives. He was always, "As you command, Megatron" without question. But in all fairness, he did once say "No" to Galvatron, but that was the terrible "Carnage in C-Minor" episode where Soundwave was the (unnecessary) translator of those musical aliens. And as far as character development goes, he remained fully static all throughout the G1 cartoon. He never went through any trials or challenges that dealt with him having to cope with and overcome his personal flaws or anything deep like that. He was a lackey with a music gimmick in the beginning, and stayed the same till the end.

Grimlock was a little better of a choice, but not by much. Sure he had a little more personality, what with him being dumb and brutish and having some development episodes of his own, but he's still basically recalled as the shiny T-Rex with the dim-witted dialogue. His shining moments were far and few, and most of them were just to show him as "the bot who's toy all kids should buy", instead of fleshing out his character further. There were several missed opportunities that could have gone further with this guy. There were times where the Dinobots seemed like they would form their own splintered group away from the rest of the Autobots, only for them to kiss and make up by the episode's conclusion. Had this idea been taken a step further, it could have led to some very interesting arcs involving not just two factions at war, but three. Another opportunity was when Grimlock became smart. Now I get the nobility in sacrificing his super-intellect to grant it to Computron, but they could have had something interesting to twist the plot of the series better with Grimlock remaining a super genius for more than one episode. Sadly, this did not come about.

Jazz was another generic "famous name guy" choice. Sure, he had some personality, being the "cool guy" of the Autobots. But like Soundwave, that's it. We know nothing about him personally other than his likeness of Earth music and slang. He may have had a hip voice and a sweet altmode, but the voice and ride do not solely make the character. He was mostly used as another soldier who shot at the enemy, and had no development episodes of his own either. If anything, Jazz can referred to as something similar to "robot eye candy". Not in the sense of a sexual appeal, but in the sense of an "I'm awesome!" appeal. He was the cool guy. Why was he the cool guy? Dunno, he just was. We don't even know why he supposed to be cool. We don't even know why he is who he is. What's his story? What is it that makes him have the "cool guy" shtick? He's basically the "unknown soldier who spoke in slang".

Shockwave is another category four. Deep, charismatic voice. Space gun altmode. Highly accurate and fun toy. Gun mode & electronic gimmicks. But what about he himself? He was mostly portrayed as the Decepticons's house sitter. He stayed on Cybertron to watch things, but there was hardly anything for him to watch, what with the planet being almost uninhabitable. And he did this for four million years! Like Soundwave, he was also loyal to Megatron, and did little else in regards to being his own character. Though, on occasion, he would have to act on his own to protect the Decepticons's Cybertron HQ, but this was still out of loyalty to Megatron. I will admit that there's nothing wrong with loyalty, but it's not a good thing when you've got little else going for ya. And like both Soundwave and Jazz, he was also lacking in the character development department.

I'm even willing to say that I'd still choose Dinobot over these other four even if "Code of Hero" never existed. He's simply more than just a sword-wielding, toy dino with a nasty attitude-esque voice. He's his own fully-fleshed out and characterized person. Or at least, he was, until he met tragic, but heroic end.

Dinobot and Shockwave are a real tough call to choose between.

I'm not saying that Jazz, Grimlock, and Soundwave are good too, but everyone and their pet flesh-creature are going to vote on them. I'd rather see Shockwave or Dinobot. No G1 Scorponok though, that would have amazing.

Shockwave was just unique in appearance, a well-accomplished character, and and even better gun. He was like Spock, crossed with Megatron, and was truly evil. Not one of those, "eventually have to side with the good-guys" kind of character, or a slapstick villain like Quickstrike or Waspinator. They were fun villains, but when Shockwave was around, you just knew he was calculating up some evil, and had the power to back his plans up.

Dinobot gets huge originality points, and it would be amazing to see him representing Beast Wars alongside the G1 crew. Not to mention, I know several Transformer fans that shed more then one tear when he died fighting the Preds. The Honor that he had, set him aside from most villains, and instead of making him weaker, like you'd think, it just made him fight with more conviction, pride, and brutal force. This would be an amazing tribute to him.

I'm still torn on these 2.

Out of the list of nominees, there is only one choice...Dinobot. Not because Beast Wars introduced me to transformers in general, but because he is an amazing character. Also, t-rex do not beat raptors I really hope he gets the spot.

What crap!

It should have been Shao Shao Li!



At least she'll never kiss and tell!

.......
Ignoring the above....so wait, only one of these guys move on? I wanted all of them to win....

zenosaurus_x wrote:.......
Ignoring the above....so wait, only one of these guys move on? I wanted all of them to win....

What has been seen can not be un-seen!


Vote Soundblaster.

You are one evil dude CounterPunch...

Sorry, Soundblaster is not on the list. Vote goes to Dinobot by default.

Crap CP, I started choking because of that.

Again you have proven you are both evil and awesome. kudos to you good sir.