A stronger focus on stories and characters has been touched upon, now let's expand on that somewhat and look at how not all Autobots have hearts of justice, and not all Decepticons are full of terror and destruction. Jetfire may well be the on-screen exception here, but the less said about Revenge Of The Fallen the better. Various TV shows have hinted at how Autobots and Decepticons can cross allegiances - think of the not-so-stellar Armada, which actually had a glorious end-run as the Transformers battled against Unicron. Starscream becomes disillusioned with the Decepticon cause and joins the Autobots, giving viewers a splendidly unclear view of the effects of what war can have on the soldiers who fight them, and how some soldiers aren't always sure what path to choose. The factor of allegiance rose up again in Energon, when Megatron painfully forces Inferno to join the dark side. What began as a tantalizing story-arc fell apart almost immediately (like most of Energon), but both shows illustrated that those who produce good Transformers fiction know that when you're dealing with stories of war, telling such stories gives way to deepening the character's your working with, and thus also deepening the level of interest the audience takes in them.
Senior editor for the superhero/comic book hub A Place To Hang Your Cape. BA in Creative Writing and Film Studies from Hull Uni. Currently getting lost in the big wide world of freelance writing. And some other stuff.
