Beast Wars - The Ascending trade paperback

[Dominic]

Sorry. I have not been around much lately. I have been neglecting both this and my blog of late. (Real life concerns, as well as being in a rut and all.)

The fact that Hasbro bounced Bob and Larry from BW in favor of Skir on BMac does more to show that BMac and BW were two different shows than anything else.

Really, Dom? Gargoyles? I always thought that was remarkably above par, and brought in some fantastic historical elements that inspired, in me at least, an early appreciation for them.

- o86, who seriously did first discover Shakespeare's Puck via Gargoyles, and loved Street Sharks like others loved TMNT.

Gah, I hated "Mid-Summer Night's Dream". Freaking horrible it was. Franky, the Bard himself is over-rated.

"Gargoryles" had sloppy writing errors that most cartoons got out of their systems in the 80. But, Disney never had the institutional ability to deal with them.


Dom
-rather liked Pokemon.

[BWprowl]

Dom
-rather liked Pokemon.

The first couple seasons are actually pretty entertaining. I had the opportunity to watch some of the newer episodes recently and it's...wow. The animation actually got *worse* in ten years, and the plot continuing for that long drags ideas down and pushes filler to the point of absurdity (One Piece can get away with chugging along for ten years because there's actually a *plan* there). But yeah, really it was just the worlds worse animation that killed it for me. Y'know that badass stock footage Ash used to have of twisting his cap backwards then throwing a Pokeball? Yeah, that's been replaced with a single sliding frame of him tossing one out.

[Dominic]

I managed to catch a fair amount of Pokemon in '98 and '99. I just sort of drifted away after that though.

It was never a huge thing for me. I liked the game, and picked up a few of the comics and toys. But, it was always pretty much secondary. (Fostering an abandoned fighting dog has since taken the allure from the game.)

Given the turn-over common to similar Japanese franchises, I am suprised that Ash is still around in the current cartoon.

Dom
-because no thread may stay on topic for too long.

[Sparky Prime]

I'd disagree here completely. New setting, totally different story direction and art style. Barely half the cast returned from 'Beast Wars'. New *theme song*. Hell, Megatron even tells Primal in the second episode that the Beast Wars "are over", pretty much firmly establishing to me that Beast Machines Is Not Beast Wars. It picks up characters and elements from its predecessor, but this is definitely a case of one story concluding and another starting up. That some people have proven that it's possible to enjoy Beast Machines without having watched Beast Wars backs this point up.

Many of your points here are somewhat erroneous. New setting, granted, it was a significant change from prehistoric Earth to present day Cybertron but this still hardly means much as the setting for some shows change with every episode ("Criminal Minds" for example has the team travel wherever to each new case). New art style, the show was still being done by Mainframe, but they had upgraded their technology significantly since Beast Wars began several years prior to that, so the changes to the show was the perfect time to implement those upgrades. There were 8 returning characters throughout the show which is still a significant amount from Beast Wars. Not to mention all of those characters were even shown in forms they had in Beast Wars at some point. New theme song, some shows do change their theme songs, "Monk" comes to mind as one example. Story direction, in some ways yes it did change, but in essence, it was still Optimus Primal and his Maximals fighting against Megatron and his megalomania.

The Beast Wars may have been over but the show clearly was not given it did continue as Beast Machines. And I really don't see that it matters if people enjoyed the BM with out seeing Beast Wars. I enjoy "Bones" even though I haven't seen the first season.

And you seem to be confusing my point given I am saying Beast Wars was concluded. I was disagreeing with Dom's (and O6) comments that Beast Wars was canceled, which it was not.

-rather liked Pokemon.

Although I still enjoy the games, I found it hard to keep interest in the anime because same plot: "Ash and co. meets Pokemon of the day, Team Rocket tries to seal it and Pikachu, Ash and co. get them back, the end" is way overused in that series.

[Onslaught Six]

"Not renewed" implies the network didn't pick up the show for another season and that isn't what happened at all. Like I said, Beast Wars being concluded is a more appropriate term, yet the story was still continued as Beast Machines.

Uh, no, actually--what happened to BW is pretty much exactly what 'just' happened to Animated. Season 3 was nearing the end of production, and Hasbro said, "Alright, that's it, show's over, make those last few episodes count for something." And then it did, and that was that. Sure, BM picks up where BW left off--but that's only because Hasbro decided that it was time for Beast Wars to end and Beast Machines to begin.

Like always, you and I end up arguing pointless semantics and the argument is really stupid.

[Sparky Prime]

Uh, no, actually--what happened to BW is pretty much exactly what 'just' happened to Animated. Season 3 was nearing the end of production, and Hasbro said, "Alright, that's it, show's over, make those last few episodes count for something." And then it did, and that was that. Sure, BM picks up where BW left off--but that's only because Hasbro decided that it was time for Beast Wars to end and Beast Machines to begin.

That isn't what happened *at all* to Beast Wars. Beast Wars was wrapped up so they could transition the story directly into Beast Machines. Also it is evident that there was advance planning given that when Beast Wars ended in May 1999 there would no delay starting the new season with Beast Machines that following September. Animated ended with absolutely nothing planned to follow it up, let alone something for the story to be transitioned into.

[Onslaught Six]

You're missing the point--if Hasbro had decided to, say, import BWII at that juncture, then the BW story would have ended, just like Animated.

The only reason Animated didn't get another season is because of ROTF.

[Sparky Prime]

You're missing the point--if Hasbro had decided to, say, import BWII at that juncture, then the BW story would have ended, just like Animated.

The only reason Animated didn't get another season is because of ROTF.

No, you're missing the point that they actually planned for Beast Wars to be transitioned into Beast Machines, and not to just end it altogether like Animated was.

And as I recall, they were originally thinking of putting Animated on hiatus for a while when ROTF came out, but ultimately decided to just end Animated altogether. Hopefully what ever they plan on doing for the next show will have a better design style than Animated at least.

[Mako Crab]

Dead air is proven to cost listeners. If I am listening to a station that is quiet too long, I will change it (if only on the assumption that the signal is gone). And, if I am skimming, and I cannot hear a station because it is dead air, then I will skip it. (This is true for most people.)

I wasn't talking about dead-air. I'm talking about those first few seconds of a song as it starts to play. It's just musical chords. There's no lyrics yet. Not dead-air. Music. But sometimes the DJ just won't shut up! And sometimes I like the intro riffs and don't want to hear some idiot talking over them!

What are you exactly comparing BW to, here?

I know this wasn't directed at me, but I remember that the series finale to both BW and DS9 aired relatively close to one another, and I distinctly remember thinking that BW had the better finale.

[BWprowl]

I wasn't talking about dead-air. I'm talking about those first few seconds of a song as it starts to play. It's just musical chords. There's no lyrics yet. Not dead-air. Music. But sometimes the DJ just won't shut up! And sometimes I like the intro riffs and don't want to hear some idiot talking over them!

And this is why I hardly listen to the radio these days. Well, that and the senseless cutting-up and censorship of songs now. I heard "What it's like" on the radio at work the other day, and among other things, they censored the words 'smoked' and 'Colt-45'. What? They cut out smoking and guns...this must've been the 4kids radio station!