Qwan wrote:SureShot18 wrote:When I saw the news article I thought "A perfect combination for dislike and hate if I've every seen one". It appears I was correct.
I for one haven't seen The Last Knight or any of RiD and I don't plan on watching Machinima's TR show. I can't see that pattern stopping with this cartoon either.
Indeed, the premise seems a little... displeasing. Laser Guided Amnesia on the protagonist
plus yet another main-character appearance from a character that hasn't done the best job building goodwill among fans... admittedly, aside from the characters involved and the whole 'amnesia' thing, there's nothing actually
wrong with the premise and this show might end up being alright. Who can tell for certain at this point (nobody, that's who).
However. If you're going to do a show where the main protagonist has amnesia and is trying to recover their old memory, why not make it more interesting? I know the real answer, because if the main character is Bumblebee then it'll be more popular or whatever, but picture for a second: An amnesiac hero (and I guess Windblade) going around saving people and helping the Earth. But the hero isn't Bumblebee, it's
Starscream. Sent to the Earth to destroy it, he ended up losing his memory banks on landing and was found by Windblade, who informed him that he was a hero who was sent to protect the Earth. As he gains more of his memories back, he starts to realize that maybe before he came to Earth he wasn't a hero, but was instead one of the villains. How would he deal with that? The "new" Starscream is a good 'bot dedicated to helping people, but he finds out he wasn't always that way and was tricked by Windblade into joining her side of the war. Think G1 Skyfire in reverse, fittingly.
Interesting character dynamics! Windblade trying to prevent Starscream from regaining his memory, without tipping him off that she's hiding something from him. Starscream slowly discovering that Windblade
is lying to him, maybe then trying to avoid tipping
her off until he has the whole story (like a chain of who-knows-that-I-know-that-you-know). The two of them eventually becoming genuine friends despite previous animosity (remembered by Windblade, unremembered by Starscream), but it being strained as Starscream's new memories start to push them apart again.
Interesting story! Maybe the Decepticons they're fighting are sent to retrieve Starscream, but as they get captured and put into stasis (I'm assuming that's what's gonna happen) they can't relay the information back to Decepticon command that Starscream has defected, so command starts to assume there's an all-out war taking down their best troops on Earth before they can free Starscream.
Dramatic irony! The audience knows exactly what Starscream used to be like, and maybe even why the Decepticons are attacking, but Starscream knows none of it. Windblade is halfway in between, putting her in an interesting position where she's still withholding vital info from Starscream but she also doesn't have the full story either.
Anyways, I think I went a little overboard but, do we see how an amnesiac protagonist could be done in a much more interesting way than "Oh Bumblebee forgot what he's doing so he has to try and remember while he beats up the bad guys"? (The MC wouldn't have to be Starscream either, but I think his character best fits the story I threw together. Almost like an inversion of Armada Scream's arc, in some ways.) Not saying the show is gonna be bad, and I know that Bee's the protag for reasons beyond good storytelling, but I just wish such overused tropes could be done with a more unique spin.
(Also, if each of Bumblebee's regained memories lead him further him toward a dark and dangerous mission, does that mean his Amnesia is sending him on a Dark Descent?
![Tongue :-P](./images/smilies/icon_09.gif)
Okay I'll get out now.)