#they're complex topics that we're being shown head on

[requiemforthestars]

I'm a NATLA defender now, tbh. I think more people will grow to appreciate its good parts more as time goes on. I'm of course waiting to see how they wrap everything up and I'm not immune to its flaws, but I think people are so blinded by everything not being The Exact Same as the original cartoon than they're not appreciating its good parts. It's an adaptation, a companion, it's not a replacement to the original.

[sunset-synthetica]

You're right!

One of ES's major flaws is its constant struggle to establish its identity in terms of how mature it wants to be.

Most of the episodes with the Terrans that follow the standard kids' cartoon formula of new plot every episode are good! They're fun, they teach the audience about disability, family, etc.

But the overarching plot feels more mature in the way it's handled. It feels like IDW came crashing down on top of Rescue Bots. You have a pretty standard kids' cartoon vibe, and then you have shit like genocide and racism and pretty scary imagery i.e. the Maltos hanging from a wall with their heads in those weird sacs. An adult won't even blink, but when you're like 7, that messes with you.

Now, of course, it's not a matter of WHAT you choose to depict as much as HOW. And ES fails in that regard. Racism, for example, is something that children can and should learn about! It's a very complex topic, yes, but you can boil it down for a child to understand WITHOUT removing much of the nuance.

In addition to things being shown in a way not really appropriate for the target audience, it's just badly thought out in general through the use of incorrect metaphors and removal of nuance.

In ES, racism and xenophobia/anti immigration sentiments are directly compared to people being suspicious of Transformers- who, as we're shown time and time again, destroy shit left and right. That's a bad explanation and a false comparison.

ES, as a show, fails at appealing any age group, because young children are very likely to be upset by a lot of the material shown, and come away with incorrect assumptions about the world because of a show that tries to tackle pretty much every heavy topic it can. Teenagers are just going to be annoyed at all the cutesy little kids' stuff, because that's what teenagers do, and older teens/adults will go in a similar route and get bored at the childish nature of a large part of the show.