I remember being present during the pre-release hype for Combiner Wars, seeing the great-looking screenshots of cartoon only for expectations to fall once seen in motion and things felt off. By the end of it, I was in agreement with everyone else that it was the new worst in the franchise, and then they announced two sequels... I only really stuck around so I could and make fun of it online.
So what is wrong with the series? Well if you asked anyone else, they would talk about the choppy animation that mars the admittedly great art direction, the subpar voice acting, and no one except Megatron being likable. My personal beef is more basic: worldbuilding. This trilogy has no worldbuilding!
From the prelude videos that came out before the first episode of Combiner Wars, we learn that a big war ended long ago, and the titular Combiner War is ravaging Cybertronian territory. Ignoring how we only get to see one combiner vs. combiner fight that certainly isn't enough to constitute a war, things really muddy up. Apparently, the cast took down Unicron offscreen with us being told the tools used, but not how any of that happened. The show makes it sound like combiners are another species of Transformer, and how exactly they're created seems to change depending on the scene.
It's clear the series is going for the approach of "people watching this will be dedicated fans who will know these concepts already." But here's the thing: Transformers is not that kind of franchise. We have tons of different universes with their own rules that get remade constantly. Even with designs alone, compare Megatron between G1, RiD2001, and all the Unicron Trilogy shows and try to tell me he looks like the same character. Those shows establish through worldbuilding those designs unrecognizable from each other are that universe's Megatron. This show's worldbuilding feels as if they presented yet another unrecognizable Megatron design and without saying his name or having him speak, expects the audience to know who he is. I mean ok, bad example because Megatron here reuses his G1 design to make him instantly recognizable, but the point probably still gets across. And despite being the only good character, even he's not immune to unexplained offscreen events: He was apparently Galvatron at one point. How did he turn back? Was it like Return of Convoy where Galvatron died and got reborn as Megatron again? Was it like the Unicron Trilogy where Megatron just keeps changing back and forth between names as it suits him? The show never tells us, and we can't reference past material for an answer because as I just showed, different universes have their own rules! What are this universe's rules?
This trilogy is an exercise in failing to get the audience to understand what is going on. The most damning sin of the series in my eyes, is we can't even understand the plot on a basic level.
WebAnimation A Failure in Basic Worldbuilding
I remember being present during the pre-release hype for Combiner Wars, seeing the great-looking screenshots of cartoon only for expectations to fall once seen in motion and things felt off. By the end of it, I was in agreement with everyone else that it was the new worst in the franchise, and then they announced two sequels... I only really stuck around so I could and make fun of it online.
So what is wrong with the series? Well if you asked anyone else, they would talk about the choppy animation that mars the admittedly great art direction, the subpar voice acting, and no one except Megatron being likable. My personal beef is more basic: worldbuilding. This trilogy has no worldbuilding!
From the prelude videos that came out before the first episode of Combiner Wars, we learn that a big war ended long ago, and the titular Combiner War is ravaging Cybertronian territory. Ignoring how we only get to see one combiner vs. combiner fight that certainly isn't enough to constitute a war, things really muddy up. Apparently, the cast took down Unicron offscreen with us being told the tools used, but not how any of that happened. The show makes it sound like combiners are another species of Transformer, and how exactly they're created seems to change depending on the scene.
It's clear the series is going for the approach of "people watching this will be dedicated fans who will know these concepts already." But here's the thing: Transformers is not that kind of franchise. We have tons of different universes with their own rules that get remade constantly. Even with designs alone, compare Megatron between G1, RiD2001, and all the Unicron Trilogy shows and try to tell me he looks like the same character. Those shows establish through worldbuilding those designs unrecognizable from each other are that universe's Megatron. This show's worldbuilding feels as if they presented yet another unrecognizable Megatron design and without saying his name or having him speak, expects the audience to know who he is. I mean ok, bad example because Megatron here reuses his G1 design to make him instantly recognizable, but the point probably still gets across. And despite being the only good character, even he's not immune to unexplained offscreen events: He was apparently Galvatron at one point. How did he turn back? Was it like Return of Convoy where Galvatron died and got reborn as Megatron again? Was it like the Unicron Trilogy where Megatron just keeps changing back and forth between names as it suits him? The show never tells us, and we can't reference past material for an answer because as I just showed, different universes have their own rules! What are this universe's rules?
This trilogy is an exercise in failing to get the audience to understand what is going on. The most damning sin of the series in my eyes, is we can't even understand the plot on a basic level.