| 1 | * During Jack's call with June in "Darkness Rising Pt 1" Jack says he's not going to the dance that night. The next day, he, Raf and Miko have just gotten out of school when they go to base, and the next morning, Jack complains that it's Saturday when Arcee wakes him up. The dance was on Thursday. What school has a Thursday dance? |
| 2 | ** Some schools avoid Friday events to increase the likelihood that students will show up. If it was a Friday, students may have their own plans and be unable to attend. |
| 3 | * In "Darkness Rising part 1" Optimus sent both Bumblebee and Arcee to pick up Jack and Raf. This was before sorting out the need for them to have guardians so why didn't Optimus just send Bumblebee? |
| 4 | ** The autobots are alone on a hostile planet. The soldiers they have can be counted on one hand, and at this point they have yet to have the backing of the US government. Not to mention the last time an autobot went alone on a potential combat mission, he died (Cliffjumper) Of course they send more than one, at a time like this every soldier is valuable enough to merit backup. |
| 5 | ** That makes sense, but Bumblebee (translated by Raf) said that Jack was supposed to go with Arcee. Even with Arcee and Bumblebee both going, why did they have to pick who was going with each autobot? |
| 6 | *** It was probably a tactical decision to split them up, as for why the had Arcee get Jack and Bee get Raf, well for one thing Raf could communicate with Bee (Remember they had a breif discussion when he smashed Raf's RC care), while Jack couldn't, and people had ''seen'' Jack on Arcee, so it'd be less likely to raise eyebrows. |
| 7 | * So in the 4 Part "Darkness Rising" the Nemesis was under attack by the autobots. But where was Soundwave the whole time during the attack? |
| 8 | ** Getting a sandwich so when Megatron came back he wouldn't get stepped on for disobeying orders. |
| 9 | ** Apparently Starscream sent him to Texas to commandeer some radio telescopes to replace the equipment Bulkhead damaged. |
| 10 | *** At the end of Episode 4, when Megatron is chewing out Starscream for his errors, you can catch a glimpse of Soundwave standing off to the side when Megatron backhands Starscream across the bridge; which would mean he was aboard at the time. One thing I've noticed is that Soundwave doesn't really fight at all, at least against other Transformers. |
| 11 | *** The point of him not really fighting is Jossed as of episode 26. He curbstomps Airachnid. |
| 12 | *** Well, he ''can'' fight amazingly well; presumably, it's just not his thing unless someone's making obvious moves against Megatron. |
| 13 | *** The timing doesn't work, as the satellite was damaged ''during'' the attack. The most logical explanation was that he just never encountered them. |
| 14 | * First episode of the series. When riding with Bumblebee to the Autobot base, why is Raf sitting in the backseat? |
| 15 | ** Back in the 90's there was a rash of children being killed in car accidents not by the impact, but by the airbags. As a result, conventional wisdom for a long time was that children under a certain age should sit in the back. Some cities and even a couple states passed laws to that effect. Perhaps that's the case in the town the series takes place (I can't remember the name off the top of my head) and Raf is simply obeying the law? OR, another likely explanation is that he did it so that he wouldn't draw attention to the fact there's no driver. You're probably more likely to notice a car has a passenger and no driver, then you would that a car is completely empty. |
| 16 | ** Could just be instinct, Raf is a kid, he probably was just used to sitting in the back seats. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | * Jack's mom [[FailedASpotCheck somehow managed not to notice Arcee]] before she transformed back into bike mode, despite the fact that she only did so ''after'' the car was already pulling into the driveway, and the garage door was already open. How do you miss something like that? |
| 19 | ** Driving while on a Cell Phone? |
| 20 | ** Would you expect to see a giant {{FemBot}} in your garage? People are amazingly oblivious when observing something you don't expect - the brain tends to "fill in" with the expected image. Remember the test that was conducted where people watched a video of a basketball game and ''nobody'' saw the guy in the gorilla suit when he walked onto the court, pounded his chest, and walked off? |
| 21 | *** [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I remember that video having a dancing bear rather than a gorilla.]] |
| 22 | |
| 23 | * WHY OH WHY, did the Autobots arrive so late to help Cliffjumper? The groundbridge is supposed to make traveling easier right? Why did they arrive so late? |
| 24 | ** They were scattered across time zones, and would have had to regroup before they could go and help him. |
| 25 | ** It had been three years between any Decepticon sightings. None of the Autobots expected to bump into the ''Nemesis'' on a simple patrol mission and Cliffjumper dove into the battle without waiting for backup. As such, he got killed while the others were caught with their aftplates down. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | * Why aren't there more Autobots on Earth? And where's the Ark? |
| 28 | ** Dude, all we've got so far is the FiveEpisodePilot and new episodes don't start til February. Give it some time to answer the questions. |
| 29 | ** There's no [[MerchandiseDriven Toyline]] out yet, so it's better to keep the cast small so they wont be [[ExecutiveMeddling forced to kill anyone off to make room]]. As for the Ark, they probably don't want anything thinking about [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Noah's.]] |
| 30 | *** Honestly, I think the lack of the Autobot Ark is more because this is a reboot of the franchise, and it's not necessary; [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Animated]] got by. Besides, given how closely this resembles the movie franchise in some respects, chances are the 'bots in Prime came to Earth the same way. |
| 31 | ** [[WordOfGod The producers have gone on record as saying that they'll keep the cast size relatively small to keep costs down.]]Â |
| 32 | ** VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron and its [[VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron sequel]] are prequels in the Prime universe. If Fall of Cybertron is any indication, we'll find out what happened to the Ark there. |
| 33 | ** There is a good chance the Ark was destroyed or heavily damaged and components were scavaged to make adjustments to the abandoned missile silo, probably to build the ground bridge too. |
| 34 | ** As T.M.I. and Stronger, Faster, indicated, Team Prime can barely scrounge enough Energon for the 5. You think they'd be able to sustain a larger population? They'd need an Energon harvest operation on the same scale as the Decepticons and Team Prime seems largely out of contact with the rest of the Autobot population. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | * What kept Megatron from blasting Optimus in the face when the latter was climbing up on the mountainside, and for that matter, why didn't he help his zombie army by shooting at Ratchet or Prime during the fight? He was literally on higher ground, yet instead of finishing off his enemies when he had a clear shot at them, he simply flew off. Also, a minor question, not related to this, but how did Ratchet scale the cliff so fast with only one arm? |
| 37 | ** Didn't you see their second fight? Megatron ''reeeeeeeeeeeally'' likes Optimus this time around. There's not much fun shooting him in the face while he's climbing up a mountain, after all. |
| 38 | *** How about simply stepping on his face, then? Clearly, he had the upper hand, and as revealed by the command he gave his zombies, he really did want to finish him off. Unless he knew that Prime would beat the undead army from the start and watched the fight for simple entertainment, but that would mean he anticipated his legion's weakness. Doesn't seem to make sense. But then, Starscream ''did'' say he was not as sane as he used to be. |
| 39 | ** Megatron has quite a sadistic enjoyment in the suffering of his enemies in this series, and recognizes concentrated awesome when he sees it. Optimus fought off the zombie horde and still had strength for more, Megatron wanted to push Optimus even further ''and'' see how he deals with his new army. |
| 40 | ** Simplest answer? Megatron's big, fat, ego. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | * While it cements his position as a BadassNormal, Agent Fowler engaging in a furious aerial combat in a military jet without wearing any protective gear, not even a single helmet, just a safety belt, as if he was driving a car, pulled me way further out of the experience than any of Raf's miraculous abilities. ... Unless he received superhuman capabilities through Starscream's Energon torture, and he really doesn't need any protection. |
| 43 | ** Him surviving the jet crash (never mind the jet itself DNGS making it through as well with no damage) seems even more implausible. They could model that rusty old truck, but not some flying suit and a helmet? Or why no eject-seat? What is this secret military plane made out of? |
| 44 | ** This has been adressed in the ninth episode of season 2: Rachet has built a pressure-stabilizer into Fowler's cockpit, presumably, that's not the only modification rachet has made to the plane. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | * Miko's voice. If the actress was going for a Japanese accent, they dropped the ball because she sounds more like a female [[Film/TheRoom2003 Tommy Wiseau.]] |
| 47 | ** She wasn't; according to people who've heard her normal voice in interviews, that's apparently her natural accent. It seems more likely that they were going for a generic "Asian" accent, which she does technically deliver, being Indonesian. |
| 48 | *** Does... does this mean we've finally identified Tommy Wiseau's accent as being Indonesian? |
| 49 | |
| 50 | * How, exactly, was Fowler supposed to be transporting the DNGS on that plane? |
| 51 | ** In the cargo space behind him or in the belly of the plane. It doesn't scale very well, but [[MST3KMantra this is Transformers]]. Scale matters not. |
| 52 | *** Fighter jets are ''way'' bigger than most folks think they are, plus the DNGS itself was only about the size of a large crate; I'm pretty sure it fight quite comfortably in the bomb/missile bay of Fowler's jet. |
| 53 | *** Speaking of which, does Starscream in this series transform into the tiniest fighter jet ever or what? |
| 54 | *** He seems bigger in alt mode than he does in robot mode...but, again, that's Transformers scale for you-- nothing new. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | * Why did they change Wheeljack so much? Couldn't they just made him the Wrecker's Smart Guy/demolition expert who took a few too many bombs to the face? It would fit with him always talking about his bomb, and how he killed the Con of the week. |
| 57 | ** "Ruined Forever!" But more seriously, because Ratchet is TheSmartGuy, and Wheeljack wouldn't work as well as another Smart Guy. |
| 58 | *** Wheeljack is normaly a MadScientist, which would work well with grumpy deadpan Ratchet |
| 59 | *** [[MerchandiseDriven Because kids are more likely to buy his toy when it comes out if he's badass]]. |
| 60 | ** His introductory episode barely had time to show the real him interacting with the main characters, let alone the nuances of his personality. With those constraints they focused on showing him to be a bruiser like Bulkhead. Apparently WordOfGod states that, among the Wreckers, Wheeljack is a mechanic and there wasn't anything that contradicted ''or'' supported it in the episode. If that doesn't come up in any further appearances then it might be an InformedAbility. There might be a niche he can fit into as a mechanic while Ratchet is a scientist, but at this stage of the series he would be a redundant Ratchet ''and'' Bulkhead. |
| 61 | ** Knowing the [[BadassArmy Wreckers]], it's entirely believable that their mechanic would have to be a huge badass. |
| 62 | ** In his return episode in Season Two it suggests that Wheeljack has some skills in bomb disposal, also in general he seemed to be a little more intelligent and a little less raw bruiser. |
| 63 | ** And in "Triage" it's established that Wheeljack is capable (or, at least, he ''claims'' to be capable) of repairing the pretty thoroughly trashed ''Jackhammer'' by himself without any need for help or spare parts. I'm amazed BadassMechanic is a redlink... |
| 64 | |
| 65 | * How does Raf know what Bumblebee was saying in the pilot movie? It makes no sense. |
| 66 | ** It's probably spoken machine code of some sort, understandable enough that Raf gets it. He shouldn't have been immediately proficient, of course, but it is a cartoon. |
| 67 | *** This is just one of the reasons I made the Raf is Sari 2.0 WMG. |
| 68 | *** In [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Raf%27s_Notes Raf's Notes]], he says that even ''he'' doesn't know why he understands Bumblebee, I could give a more detailed explanation, but the Hubworld website apparently removed the full version of the explanation, [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes but if you look hard enough on the internet, you can find the notes]], didn't exactly justify why they didn't put this in-show. What he said in the notes apparently was along the lines of this: |
| 69 | -->"Bumblebee's my buddy. Mostly cuz I'm the only kid who understands him. Not sure why ... he makes perfect sense. He just doesn’t use words." |
| 70 | *** Interestingly, it makes everybody feel a little bit smarmier because face it, Bee's body language is very easy to read, and his beeps can be interpreted to some degree. It makes us ALL feel like we could be Bee's friend. Also, PowerOfFriendship, anybody? |
| 71 | |
| 72 | * Can Starscream transform his 'fingers' into talons and back? I've watched the ending of Speed Metal a few times and every time I feel that somehow Starscreams hand had changed. The talon suddenly looks a lot sharper and deformed not as round as the other fingers, and you can hear some kind of sound like knives clanging against each other. |
| 73 | ** Starscream has them in his concept art and in "Sick Mind" as well. |
| 74 | ** He's secretly a [[http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Cylon_Centurion#Design Cylon Centurion]]? Oh, wait, I thought this was WMG-- nevermind. |
| 75 | |
| 76 | * So, what exactly gave Fowler the idea that it was the Decepticons that were after the DNGS? Did he have any proof beforehand that it wasn't Humans, or did the larger scale of the Autobot/Decepticon conflict blind him to alternate explanations? |
| 77 | ** Fowler is just quick to blame them for his problems, and MECH obviously kept under the radar until now. |
| 78 | ** Fowler did say the DNGS could be used as a sort of ''dirty-bomb''. I'd imagine the Decepticons would prefer to steal somthing like that than go to the trouble of making one themselves, we've seen them do that kind of thing before. |
| 79 | ** Making a bomb is significantly easier than complex electronics. Their ship should have enough firepower to do better than that bomb could. Fowler was just blaming the aliens. |
| 80 | *** To be fair, the 'Cons ''were'' the only known threat at the time. Shot down by a rogue chopper over U.S. airspace? It's a logical deduction that it was one of them. |
| 81 | |
| 82 | * In ''Sick Mind'' Bumblebee goes into Megatron's mind and talks with him. Unless his "speech impediment" is a programming error shouldn't Bumblebee be using actual words in Megatron's subconscious? If the impediment is a hardware issue like it is in the movies it shouldn't be a problem here. Seems like a missed moment to hear Bumblebee's real voice, instead of needing other characters to translate for him. |
| 83 | ** Bumblebee's vocalizations need to be filtered somehow. If he cannot vocalize in speech, then he must be using a different system to vocalize in that binary beeping. He wouldn't swap back to speech, even in a dream world, because this is how he talks. It's second nature. |
| 84 | ** In ''Out of His Head'', Megatron seemed to be able to speak through Bumblebee fine in the real world. Maybe we'll get some clarification on that in Season 2 when they explain what happened to his vocalizer. |
| 85 | *** In ''Operation Bumblebee'', Ratchet says that Bumblebee's voice box is damaged, so he can't talk in anything but those beeps. I'd be willing to buy that Bee had been speaking that way so long he talks that way in his head now, but that raises the question of how Megatron was able to speak? Were we just hearing his voice from Raf's perspective and Raf just hears Bee talk normally? |
| 86 | * In ''Out of His Head'', why is it that Dark Energon made Megatron right as rain, but Cliffjumper CameBackWrong? |
| 87 | ** Megatron was alive, but injured-his spark was still present, so the reanimated body still had his mind to override the dark energy's control and direct action and thought. Cliffjumper was dead, his spark gone on to the Allspark, so the reanimated body was purely Dark-Energon-directed. |
| 88 | ** Related to the comment about Megatron's Spark. I always thought that a Transformers mind and Spark were part of the same thing. But Knock Out said that Megatron's mind was no longer in his body. Why was the doctor still detecting his Spark ''beating''? |
| 89 | *** Aside from the soul thing, the spark also functions as heart equivalent. Human bodies can also be kept "alive" despite being brain dead, so presumably it was like that. Megatron's soul and consciousness being in different bodies at the same time is still kind of weird though. |
| 90 | |
| 91 | * Also from Out of His Head, why didn't starscream just hit Optimus with a missile or something instead of wasting time trying to fry him with the telescope? I thought Starscream was suppose to be this more sensible version of the character. Wouldn't he have thought of eliminating Prime the easy way? |
| 92 | ** He had the telescope right there, and seems to have felt its ''was'' the best way to deal with Optimus. He was wrong, but even clever characters miscalculate. |
| 93 | ** Do you really think just a missile is going to kill Optimus Prime? The concentrated heat beam that was enough to melt through a permafrost iceberg barely slowed him down. Shooting anything less at him definitely wouldn't have gotten the job done. |
| 94 | |
| 95 | * At the end of ''Shadowzone'', why don't the Autobots take down Starscream? He's weak, outnumbered, can't fly, and literally standing right in front of them. Instead, they allow him to escape via the Ground Bridge that the Decepticons "suddenly" have. |
| 96 | ** He was hiding behind a rock, and even missing an arm he could still shoot back. They were caught off guard by the second bridge. The second time, he probably ran before they could shoot him. |
| 97 | ** Optimus doesn't exactly endorse the Autobots shooting down fugitive Decepticons who are unarmed (He says that's what separates them from the 'Cons). After all, Optimus did cut off his arm, thus no longer making Starscream dangerous and armed. |
| 98 | |
| 99 | * Also from ''Shadowzone'' How are the kids able to send a text message to Miko's phone? Isn't the base surrounded by a signal dampener? I could have sworn that had been established since the first episode |
| 100 | ** I believe in ''Convoy'' they mention a "comlink cell phone patch" or something to that effect. The kid's phones are using the Autobots communication systems, which get through just fine. |
| 101 | |
| 102 | * So at the end of "Metal Attraction," Arcee and Bulkhead have beaten Breakdown and Airachnid, who are both totally at their mercy. I can kinda see Bulkhead not executing Breakdown after what happened in "Operation: Breakdown", but why would Arcee not kill Airachnid? |
| 103 | ** There's no guarantee that either 'con won't just get up and snatch the gauntlet again, so Bulkhead and Arcee decided to just leave while they have it secured. Of course we know that the ''real'' reason is so that they don't lose two characters right then and there or have to show the Autobots doling out cold-blooded (though justified) executions on something with a face. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | * How come no one has noticed the insane amount of crashes and explosions in and around Jasper lately? I know that the Transformers are all about stealth, and most of the battles that have taken place near populated areas were at night, but some of the fights have taken place right behind buildings that were clearly in use! Shouldn't someone come out to check things out, or call 9-1-1? Sure, {{Status Quo is God}} and all, but it would make the show more interesting if, like, one day at school the kids found out that there were rumors flying around about the Transformers. |
| 106 | ** Fowler and his men prove that the US government is fully aware of the Transformers and allied with the Autobots. It's not ''too'' big of a stretch to assume that they can pull a bit of a cover-up of some battles. Especially those that involve MECH. Since most of the biggest collateral damage happens in fairly remote areas, it's more believable than the movies' absolutely idiotic excuse of cover-ups after an entire city is destroyed. |
| 107 | *** "The explosions outside of town this afternoon were the result of an army training accident involving live ordinance. There were no casualties, but citizens are advised to avoid the area for the time being ... " |
| 108 | ** There has only been a handful of episodes actually set IN Jasper where a fight breaks out (Darkness Rising Part 1, Speed Metal, Crisscross) and even then the only thing in Crisscross that would really attract attention was Fowler and the military helicopters. Speed Metal was mostly in the outskirts with a short fight in a storage yard and Darkness Rising was a car chase that later ended in a drainage ditch. |
| 109 | |
| 110 | * Why did Megatron bother to save Starscream at the end of "Rock Bottom"? He had been planning on slagging him earlier and 'screamer hadn't really endeared himself during the episode. Why not just leave him to his fate? |
| 111 | ** Megs did say he always found something about Starscream's floundering attempts amusing. And it's pretty much normal for every Megatron to have moments of poor judgement. Whether it be G1's arrogance, or Beast Wars' habit of getting ahead of himself due to self indulgence. |
| 112 | ** Jack showed Megatron mercy. Maybe he felt charitable after that. |
| 113 | ** Starscream's still got his uses, and Megatron's pretty confident that he can take whatever 'Scream tosses at him. He probably doesn't consider Starscream a ''serious'' threat to him, at least not enough of one to get rid of him completely. He figures it's better to have a clever, competent warrior at least ''sometimes'' pointed at the Autobots rather than gone completely, even if he has to watch his back. |
| 114 | ** Vamping off Jack's act of mercy to Megatron: If Megatron saved Starscream instead of leaving him to die, ''after'' almost executing him, that would just emphasize how deeply in Megatron's debt Starscream is. Basically, he owns his ass. Viewed through that lens, Starscream's subsequent desertion just underscores his complete lack of redeeming qualities. (Megs at least has self-confidence and and drive going for him.) |
| 115 | ** If you watch "Partners", you get an idea of why Megs chose to let Starscream back in. In a way it's a combination of both putting him in debt, and his importance as a decepticon. If you notice Starscream's attitude when he returns, he's clearly humbled by Megatron's show of mercy, and would have continued to stay a loyal subject had not Airacnid started to backstab and give the impression that she was now megatron's favorite. as for his importance, when Starscream goes missing at the end of that episode, Megatron's more outraged at, "the loss of my second in command" than the loss of a weapon, indicating that no matter what he might do, Starscream is still important in keeping the army in toe. |
| 116 | ** "Loss of my second-in-command" was mostly an issue because she left Starscream in the hands of the Autobots, who could get valuable information from him. Rightfully so, as he did just that. Had she slagged him, it wouldn't have been an issue. My guess is that he was surprised that Starscream had come back. He had said the breaking point for him was that Screamer had become boring, predictable. He was actually surprised again. |
| 117 | ** My personal reasoning is a combination - Megatron was clearly sick and tired of Starscream's predictability, and how even punishing him wasn't serving as much of a good example if he was always being incompetent, so he was going to kill him. By the end he was in something of a good mood, having survived - and he sees Starscream. He's smart, he realizes Starscream obviously came back to save him and get into his good books, but somehow managed to wind up holding up the ceiling himself. Guess he realized there was still some entertainment value in the mech yet... |
| 118 | |
| 119 | * Why does the show keep going on Hiatus? Are there some issues going on in production? And before when there was an extended wait for an episode, if you went onto the transformers wiki, the date of the next episode would be there. There are another six episodes left in season one. I cam understand that they're having trouble, but I'd like to know why. |
| 120 | ** ProductionLeadTime. The show is being aired while its being produced, and it takes quite a bit of time to make a show of this quality. The hiatus's are when the airing schedule catches up with production. At least, that's one possible explanation. |
| 121 | *** If that's the case, why is Canada now showing the remaining six episodes, when the Hub was prepared to wait until ''September 10th'' just to show the first of them? They can't possibly still be working on the rest of Season 1; some other motive is at work here. |
| 122 | *** Hasbro seems to have stopped Canada from airing anymore new episodes before the Hub. [[MerchandiseDriven The toys are due for release in December]], so maybe Hasbro wants the new episodes to air closer to the toyline? |
| 123 | *** Season two is scheduled to start on Nov. 28. My guess is they're trying to minimize the gap between the S1 finale and the S2 premiere. |
| 124 | *** You think you have it bad? You should see how often ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' goes on hiatus... |
| 125 | |
| 126 | * Soundwave had at least TWO chances to get rid of the kids. But he never did. I don't hate them, I like little pests but... Why? |
| 127 | ** Maybe he's not a sadist, or doesn't see humans as worth the trouble. |
| 128 | ** There's a theory in WMG that Soundwave's been keeping the kids alive in the hopes that they eventually lead him and the Decepticons to the Autobot base. Since soundwave can only properly monitor, well, [[CaptainObvious sound]], he might have let them go as he thought they might have another use later. |
| 129 | ** However, from observing soundwave and his actions, [[Tropers/EricW I]] notice that he very rarely does much except his job and serve Megatron's interests. Soundwave therefore could be characterized as having a very one tract mind. He's given a goal and he fulfills it and it alone. (him spying on Starscream excluded, but again, that's his service to megatron) The 2 times he sees the kids he's got a different job than killing them. The first time he already got the space bridge locked on, so he just makes a visual reminder and flies off. The second time his orders are to retrieve the harvester, and since Jack and Raf were in no position to resist him, he probably just took it and flew off as ordered. Either way, Soundwave's single minded devotion to one task led him to let our humans go. (Of course, the real reason is that so early in the series, killing off a human character in a place where according to WordOfGod [[DeathIsCheap death]] [[SubvertedTrope is not]] [[KilledOffForReal cheap]] would cut off any chance at further development of their many different characters. |
| 130 | *** Watch what happens the first time they encounter each other. Right before he flies off, Miko takes a picture of him. He responds by taking a picture of them, with a slight nod. To this troper, it looked like a gesture of mutual respect, like when the bad guy tips his hat to the hero before jumping off the train and making his getaway. He was acknowledging their badassitude in taking him on. |
| 131 | *** Badassitude? Really? I always figured that headdrop was just apart of Soundwave's ''snap-shot'' camera-function or something like that. Though I guess you could be right, he does seem to really go out of his way not to harm them to badly when they meet. Which is really weird for just about ''any'' [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated Soundwave]]. |
| 132 | ** Soundwave seems to have no ambitions for himself, no motivations beyond loyalty to Megatron and the Decepticons in general. If he wasn't ordered to kill defenseless humans he doesn't see a need to. |
| 133 | ** Perhaps it's pragmatism combined with a general lack of sadism inherent to most of the other Decepticons. Given his duties, he's calm, rational, and serious and doesn't see any point in evil for evil's intent. If he can do his job while minimizing collateral damage, perhaps he sees that as a job well done. Given his alt mode (a UAV spy drone), it may also be that he's had the most contact with humans and so has some sort of appreciation of them. |
| 134 | *** Also, I wouldn't be surprised if Raf's hacking duel with Soundwave led to the latter regarding the former as a WorthyOpponent. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | * Where did all those energon come from. How is it they are found on Earth like [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries tiberium]], and how did they get there in the first place? |
| 137 | ** Optimus mentions in the first episodes that the Great War spread across the galaxy, using many different planets as battlefields. Earth happened to be the site of an unusually large campaign, which explains why so many Cybertronian artifacts and energon deposits were left behind. |
| 138 | ** Basically, Earth is a forgotten ammo depot from the Great War. |
| 139 | ** It's been explicitly stated that both energon and artifacts were spread across the galaxy by both sides to keep them out of enemy hands. Earth just happened to be particularly favored for "storage space". [[spoiler:Bet it wouldn't have been if they'd known where [[EldritchAbomination Unicron]] was snoozing...]] |
| 140 | |
| 141 | * At the end of Rock Bottom, how did Starscream and Megatron get out of the cave? If Starscream left the cave, the roof would fall on them. |
| 142 | ** Vehicon Mook 43, Ground Bridge down here. ''I need an example...'' |
| 143 | *** Radio signals don't transmit through the caves. |
| 144 | *** Nothing stopping Megatron from just walking out of the cave, ordering a random Mook to Bridge down, and walk back in to replace Starscream with said Mook. Knowing Megatron, he'd probably take his time with that just to mess with Starscream. |
| 145 | ** With someone there to help they might be able to make some sort of alternate support besides a character doing an AtlasPose (maybe using pieces of a driller tank). Either that or he opens up the way so that Starscream can let go and run out of the chamber before it collapses completely. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | * Am I the only one who think that Airachnid's interactions with Jack come across as paedophilic? (I'm aware age of consent in the states is higher than in the UK where I am, but still.) |
| 148 | ** Isn't that the point? |
| 149 | *** I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me. |
| 150 | *** She ''is'' a villain, after all... |
| 151 | |
| 152 | * In part of Darkness Rising, Soundwave manages to locate Agent Fowler and send his drone to collect him, after Fowler radioed his superiors as he left the Autobot base. Shouldn't the Decepticons already have a good idea where the base is because of that? |
| 153 | ** Did Fowler mention that he had just left the base? If not then as far as Soundwave knows Fowler could have left the base five minutes or five hours before the transmission. Taking the speed of a helicopter and the time issue into account, the Con's have probably narrowed it down to the American Southwest. |
| 154 | |
| 155 | * So Uncron IS the Earth! AWESOME! Wait... WHAT?! How autobots are supposed to save the humanity if THE EARTH is someone who must be destroyed?! |
| 156 | ** [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt We don't.]] |
| 157 | ** TheNeedsOfTheMany in the rest of the universe outweigh the needs of the few on Earth. Presumably they can try to evacuate as many earth-natives as they can, before they do what they must and try to blast it to kingdom come, but Unicron needs destroying a lot more than we need to keep existing. |
| 158 | ** Unicron is ''inhabiting'' Earth. Kill the mind but keep the body intact, and [[StealthPun boom]]: Problem solved. |
| 159 | ** You're partially right. The autobots plan to put Unicron back into stasis because they cannot really kill him. |
| 160 | |
| 161 | * Plus... if the Earth is the Unicron... why the organic life forms are weak to Dark energon? Aren't we supposed to be like... his little organic kids??? |
| 162 | ** His little organic kids he makes it plain he has nothing but contempt for. Besides, the implication I got was that Earth is a natural planet that happened to have formed around Unicron's comatose form, meaning that its life evolved naturally and Unicron didn't actively create any of it. No reason for us ''to'' be protected against Dark Energon. |
| 163 | ** "Earth formed around Unicron" was explained in detail in OSR, pt. 1. Unicron's body may be the delicious chewy center, but the rest of the planet is made of good ol' normal solar system stuff. The effect of the possession of the planet by Unicron's consciousness is another matter ... |
| 164 | ** Are we resistant to lava? Just because a planet has something in or on it, doesn't make inhabitants resistant to it. Remember, it isn't like Dark Energon radiation is remotely easy to come across on the surface of the planet. |
| 165 | ** Also, have we seen any humans other than Raf react to Dark Energon? Lots of [=WMGs=] out there that he might be [[{{Pun}} more than meets the eye]]... |
| 166 | |
| 167 | * In "Partners" Megatron believed the Autobots had captured Starscream. Why hasn't he asked Optimus what he has done to Starscream, particularly when he ''enters their base and Starscream is not there''? |
| 168 | ** Because he's got bigger things to worry about, and probably wouldn't expect Starscream to be held in the command center itself anyway. |
| 169 | ** Well if Starscream had been captured by the Autobots, they would have caused serious problems for Megatron. Since those problems never happened Megatron probably figured it out that Starscream wasn't with the Autobots. This Megatron is savvier than most versions, particularly regarding Starscream. |
| 170 | ** Episode 27 reveals that Megs realized that Screamer had done a runner and had told his Vehicons to "detain" him if he ever turned up. For what it's worth, he bluntly tells Optimus that Screamer died. |
| 171 | * I'm a little confused as to the exact nature of Optimus' amnesia at the end of season one. So...if emptying the Matrix of the Wisdom of the Primes has caused Optimus to lose his memories of BEING a Prime and revert back to Orion Pax, that still doesn't explain why he still thinks of Megatron as his good buddy Megatronus. Ratchet's explanation of Orion's past with Megatronus and the beginning of the war (and Exodus would confirm this as the stories match up closely) Orion wasn't OFFICIALLY a Prime until he went to the Core and received the Matrix of Leadership, by which point the war with the Decepticons had been going on for some time. Shouldn't Optimus (as Orion) still at least have memories of Megatronus blowing up at the Council (and then blowing UP a councilor, if Exodus is to be believed), and at least the early days of the war? Yet as soon as he sees Megatron he assumes it's his best buddy and mentor, Megatronus. Or am I wrong? |
| 172 | ** Maybe that was his only available [[DudeNotFunny restore point?]] |
| 173 | ** He didn't ''officially'' become a Prime until he got the Matrix, but he began that path to Primehood the same day he and Megatron turned on one another- that day in the council chamber. Apparently when the Matrix begins collecting his wisdom to add it to the collected wisdom of the Primes, it counts wisdom and memories thereof from ''before'' getting the Matrix as well as from after. |
| 174 | *** They didn't turn on each other that day. They disagreed. There's a big difference. He was friends with Megatronus for a long time before that. It's reasonable that if he forgot becoming a Prime and remembered that conversation he'd still consider Megatron an ally. That said, it doesn't seem like he remembered that day at all. |
| 175 | *** Whether you use the flashbacks from the show, the War For Cybertron game, or the Exodus novel there is no part of the aligned continuity in which Optimus got the Matrix before the war had been going on for a long time, the show's a bit more ambiguous but states that Orion traveled to the core to try and reverse corruption caused by the war, now unless the core is ''extremely'' sensitive to the hatred between the Autobots and Deceptions that implies the war went on for quite some time, the Exodus novel describes numerous battles taking place over the course of the war, and the game actively has Zeta Prime still in charge and the war in full swing when the game starts, none of these fit with the idea that loosing the matrix would revert Optimus to a pre-war state, where he wouldn't recognize his allies (in the exodus novel Bumblebee was one of the ones who accompanied him to he core) and would be unaware Megatron is still his friend and not an enemy. It would've made more sense for Optimus to revert to a less skilled, less sure of himself version of himself (something akin to TFA Optimus for example), who isn't able to match Megatron and needed to goon a quest to re-earn the matrix and regain hiss memories. |
| 176 | ** Or he could be faking it. |
| 177 | ** It's basically RuleOfDrama, but we can argue that it isn't supposed to be straight deletion of data as you would from a computer. These are MechanicalLifeForms and not mere machines, there are ways to eliminate memories from the human brain but it is still a big guesswork "[[Film/MenInBlack You're going to erase her med-school or something]]." Not only that, the shock of events left him confused and more open to manipulation. It's likely he will become an Autobot again before his memories actually return in full because of his nature, whatever story Megatron comes up with to keep Prime as a 'Con is going to unravel because of the inherent idealogical differences between the two. |
| 178 | |
| 179 | * So is Unicron "dead" (a stretch of the term, I know) now and thus never appearing again, or returning later on? |
| 180 | ** The impression I got was that he was just sent back into hibernation and isn't ''dead'' dead. Wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't try to wake him up again/tap into his power/ do something with him later on, though (last I checked, the Fallen worked for Unicron). |
| 181 | *** Furthermore, if he is dead, it's established that the Blood of Unicron can revive dead transformers (make them Come Back Wrong)--so can Unicron be revived by his own blood? |
| 182 | ** Would they really completely use up such a prominent, threatening character within the first season? I have my honest doubts. It seems Optimus just put him back to sleep anyhow. That doesn't mean he can't just wake up again, though. |
| 183 | ** Wasn't it claimed at one point that Season 2 would be about preventing Unicron from waking up and destroying Earth. In hindsight, that claim seems to have been just a diversion from the real Season 2 plot regarding Orion Pax. I'm thinking that as Season 2 goes along we'll see subtle hints of Unicron coming back while the Autobots try to restore Optimus. |
| 184 | ** Even if Unicron is dead, that just means he's dead in ''that universe''. extinguishing Unicron's spark would only send it to another reality where he starts trouble all over again. |
| 185 | *** I'm guessing there was just confusion and people saw the preview for the season finale and thought it was the preview for season 2. |
| 186 | ** He's not dead, came back through Megatron in Predacons Rising. |
| 187 | |
| 188 | * While it's obvious that Megs rules by fear, why is it that the Decepticons aside from Soundwave seem resistant to another leader taking charge (primarily Starscream)? Yeah, Starscream's a bastard and he's not as powerful as Megs, but he's also sane, knows how to play to his officers to ensure their cooperation and punish them in fitting ways, and in general is a lot less prone to YouHaveFailedMe and OnlyICanDefeatHim moments. Starscream's flaws are many, but considering how competent this incarnation is, it's odd that his hold on leadership the Decepticons is portrayed as rather tenuous when the incumbent is clearly not playing with a full deck on a ''good'' day and spends a lot of time berating or beating on his underlings for failures great and small. |
| 189 | ** Technically, part of it is tradition, and part of it is skepticism. Remember that at the beginning of Starscream's reign, the vehicons were skeptical that Scream could be any more effective compared to Lord Megatron. Consider: Megatron lead the decepticons to destroy cybertron. True it was destroyed, but they were successful in their fights. If they had a leader that powerful, why would they put trust in a lieutenant who was still demanding, but not always as competent as well. |
| 190 | ** Also consider Arachnid's mini-revolt. Notice that despite Knock-out's brief objection, nobody raises an objection until Soundwave steps in. Perhaps Megatron's power isn't as great as you might assume. |
| 191 | ** Or they all know about Soundwave's UndyingLoyalty and know that he can and will beat the scrap out of anyone that tries to seize power from Megatron. |
| 192 | ** There's also the fact that he planet they're on was about to blow up. The 'Cons might respect Megatron's power, but they lost contact with him usual and waiting for him is putting them all at risk. Airachnid had a good point that nobody (save Soundwave) would dispute: the current situation is bad for the Decepticons and they should seriously consider leaving. Nobody seemed to really like the idea, but they can't argue with her logic. Soundwave kicking Airachnid's aft silenced that through both intimidation and displaying just how weak, and therefore unworthy to rule, she was. |
| 193 | * One of Starscream's plans is to melt the Arctic polar ice cap via a giant laser. One of the possible side effects that is mentioned is flooding. However, in real life were the Arctic to melt in its entirety it would not raise sea level an inch: there is no land under the Arctic, so its floating in the water already. If Starscream melted the ''Ant''arctic, which ''does'' rest on a landmass, then we'd be screwed. |
| 194 | ** While the ice cap itself is over water, the Arctic Circle does include some landmass covered by glaciers (Greenland, for example, or northern Scandanavia). He may have been in one of those locations. |
| 195 | *** What we basically have is an InUniverse example of Screamer not fact checking. Even with that said, the Cons still have a powerful weapon with the potential to raze a small city at minimum, it was inevitable that the laser would need to be taken down anyway. |
| 196 | *** Except it was Fowler who was concerned about flooding, not Starscream. |
| 197 | |
| 198 | * Why is the show so different from the [[VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron game?]] the visuals, the history, it seems more like the bayformers than the game? |
| 199 | ** It's sorta similar to the differences between the [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers original cartoon]] and the [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Marvel comic.]] It's the same basic story and universe, but they have different ways of portraying it. |
| 200 | ** WFC, Exodus, and Prime are all based on the same 354 page production bible, which details the history and lore of the universe. As stated before, it's more like the parallel between the G1 cartoon and the Marvel comics, in that they essentially take place within the same universe, but portray events in their own way. Furthermore, while they do take place within the same continuity, the creative teams have a good amount of leeway in crafting their stories, able to craft the best stories they can even if it means a few contradictions here and there between other entries within the same continuity. |
| 201 | ** The books, games, and cartoon are set in the same universe but their and theirs signs of continueity but the but sense their are different writers, contradictions show (Characters looking different) but its still generally similar enough to fit somewhat. |
| 202 | ** If you need an in-universe explanation, it could be that since WFC takes place a few million years before Team Prime comes to earth, and they simply had ample time in the interim to make modifications to themselves. |
| 203 | * In Orion Pax Part 1, Megatron says that he had Soundwave wipe all encriminating data from their computers. But when Orion Pax lookes up Optimus Prime, he gets an image. Why did the name Optimus come back with anything? Ratchet was supposed to have been the Autobot leader since the begining of the war. Why leave anything that even looks or sounds like Optimus? Especially if it directly contradics you. |
| 204 | ** He didn't wipe the computers, he sanitized (encrypted) them. Scrubbing all references to Optimus from the database would leave too many gaps to be practical (insert Ratchet for Optimus, you then have to insert someone else for where Ratchet used to be, and so on). They probably had less than a day to get everything set up. |
| 205 | *** Also, Megatron knew the deception wouldn't last long, so the faked records only had to last until Orion decrypted the Autobot files. If Starscream hadn't shown up and piqued Orion's curiosity, [[FridgeHorror it probably would have worked]]. |
| 206 | |
| 207 | * As awesome as ''Orion Pax Part 3'' was, one thing does bother me a little. When Megatron saw, from across the Space Bridge cavern that Jack was restoring Orion's memories as Optimus Prime, didn't he FIRE THE ENORMOUS CANNON ON HIS ARM at Jack, but instead chose to charge across the cavern at them, giving Jack the time he needed to bring Optimus back? It just doesn't make sense for Megatron to forget he has the cannon at a moment like that. |
| 208 | ** He wanted the Matrix. If he shot Jack, he might destroy it. Shooting Optimus, given the transfer was in progress, was a similar concern. |
| 209 | ** There's also the consideration that in a situation like that, it's not uncommon for strategic thinking to go right out the window. Put bluntly, he saw defeat looming and panicked. |
| 210 | ** I'm pretty sure destroying the Matrix was the plan all along. But yes, Megatron saw his carefully-laid scheme - which stood on the brink of success despite so many failures - crumbling before his eyes, and reacted by irrational instinct. |
| 211 | |
| 212 | * Why didn't Megatron have Optimus/Orion's weapons removed? |
| 213 | ** That would probably have set of Orion's suspicions, especially given that nobody else had their weapons removed. |
| 214 | ** And it would have let Orion know he ''had'' weapons. |
| 215 | * Why do they keep the kids around by this point? I'm not the kind of fan who thinks no humans should ever walk across the screen, but do the Autobots by this point really think the Decepticons would care about the kids who saw a Vehicon or two once months ago? Isn't it clear by now the 'cons have bigger fish to fry and that the danger the kids are in from being around ''giant robot warfare'' is also a factor (see One Shall Fall)? It's not like the other series that went farther to justify the kids' presence; no [[Film/TransformersFilmSeries Allspark map in a pair of glasses]], no [[Anime/TransformersCybertron MacGuffin-related sound that only they can hear]], no [[WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated magic key]]. There haven't been any humans who were constantly with the Autobots despite being ''completely'' superfluous since Spike and Sparkplug. |
| 216 | ** Because Jack has TWO of the 'cons as personally invested in killing him (one of which would like to.. do things to him first), Raf has out-hacked Soundwave on something like three non-consecutive occasions, and Miko... is Miko. |
| 217 | ** If you were assigned to protect someone, and then you become [[TrueCompanions incredibly close friends]] with that person, would you show them the door just because you decided they no longer needed guarding? |
| 218 | ** Besides, after what happened with the Scraplets, Predatory and Vector Sigma, perhaps they see there's some kind of hidden strategic value to their presence in making the little things fall into place. |
| 219 | *** Anyone in the Autobots' hilariously outnumbered position would have to be a complete idiot to throw away allies, no matter how small and squishy they may be. |
| 220 | ** The kids, especially Jack and Raf, have proven their value to the Autobot's cause by this point. Raf aids Ratchet in adapting Autobot and human technology, Jack impressed Prime so much that he'd trust the boy with the single most important item he possesses, and even Miko has shown some useful resourcefulness. Besides, having a group of humans willing to go into areas that giant transforming alien robots can't (as well as government spooks) without drawing unwanted attention would be vital in covert warfare. |
| 221 | ** It was briefly brought up in Darkness Rising, that having an emotional connection to the planet gives them added incentive to protect it. They figured that if the 'Cons are going to keep at it they might as well lay down their roots and treat the Earth as actually their home. |
| 222 | |
| 223 | * Dreadwing's characterization kinda falls apart when you look at it. He's suppose to be an honorable warrior yet in his first episode he used bombs to kill Sea Spray and used ambush tactics on Wheeljack and Bulkhead. Neither of those things seem very honorable to me so what gives? |
| 224 | ** Maybe he's honorable towards Decepticons only or just a good liar |
| 225 | ** He's probably honorable in the sense that he's loyal and will obey any terms he's agreed to, but enemy soldiers in times of war are fair game. |
| 226 | ** Dreadwing may be honorable, but he's not stupid. He'll abide by the rules of conflict, but bombs and ambush tactics are completely allowed. |
| 227 | *** He only keeps his word when he ''gives'' it. |
| 228 | ** There is a difference between doing what is necessary to win (or escape) a battle and being honest in your negotiations with the other side. Dreadwing was going to keep his cease fire negotiation with Optimus, but Megatron would double-cross once it was in his favor. |
| 229 | ** He has his honor, but [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars it isn't Autobot honor.]] |
| 230 | ** "All's fair in love and war." Dreadwing will do what it takes to kill you, but if he gives you his word, it's as good as gold. |
| 231 | |
| 232 | * What is with the hating on Sierra? Is it because of [[DieForOurShip Jack X Arcee]]? |
| 233 | ** She's a human, and therefore despised on principle by fandom. |
| 234 | *** But she's not [[TheScrappy Miko.]] That alone should raise her pedigree. |
| 235 | *** Not to mention that even this article's WMG page has one WMG with calling Sierra a Pretender or Silas' daughter ([[RuleOfFunny Though the latter could easily have been a joke]]). |
| 236 | *** Coming from the troper who originally posted the latter, it ''was'' a joke. [[EpilepticTrees It was just a random, spur-of-the-moment crack theory.]] And this whole "Sierra is now being hated by the fandom" is news to me. Admittedly, I often hold sympathy for the characters so many people hate (I for one sympathize with [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari]] and consider his instability and somewhat timid demeanor to be FridgeBrilliance rather than poor writing), Sierra is generally the one archetype I hate: the girl who's there for the sole purpose of having the male lead like her. The reason is because half the series does ''not'' revolve around everyone trying to get her and Jack together, and she's (so far) avoided the entire ''[[DistressedDamsel she-gets-kidnapped-solely-because-a-specific-guy-likes-her]]'' cliche. |
| 237 | *** Five will get you ten she gets brain-switched with Arcee at some point...oops, wrong page... |
| 238 | |
| 239 | * Okay, Megatron is pretty much DEFINED by his incredible pride and hubris; not even a GOD (Unicron) could subsume said-pride. And yet when he defeated Airrachnid's Insecticon, he PROUDLY wore his past as a Gladiator like a badge of honor. SatisfiedStreetRat or not, a Lord and Conquerer like Megatron would surely realize that acknowledging himself as a Gladiator is basically acknowledging that he is a ''slave'', something that NONE of the Megatrons across the multiverses ever did willingly. Does anybody else consider this a contradiction to his proud nature? |
| 240 | ** In this context he's boasting about his fighting skills, something he honed as a gladiator- without that experience, he certainly wouldn't have been able to overcome the Insecticon. Him boasting about that part of his past to impress his troops would be weird, I agree, but this is a Megatron who's just triumphed by himself in savage battle against a powerful ,feral opponent. In this case, it's more of a "yep, still got it". |
| 241 | ** Megatron is obsessed with personal strength- he was perfectly willing to abandon a useful asset like Breakdown because the latter was captured by PunyHumans. I think it's more likely that Megatron ''boasts'' about being a former gladiator, since he went from being a slave to leader of the Decepticons. |
| 242 | ** Megatron also makes a point to say he was a gladiator of Kaon, which most are fully aware of as being the Decepticon capital these days. Even if it acknowledges he was a slave, it also brings to mind the image that even as such, he made Kaon his. Almost its own little badge of power in taking the very place you were once a slave in as the center of your own reign. |
| 243 | ** His boast has nothing to do with him saying he is a slave. It has everything to do with him saying, "That's how goddamn tough I am. I've been kicking ass literally my entire life, and don't you ever forget it." |
| 244 | ** Megatron's entire reason for starting the war was to eliminate the caste system, that some individuals would never escape their lower status. He was on the bottom rung of the ladder as a miner but fought his way up to be one of the most badass warriors Cybertron has ever seen. He isn't about pride in his circumstances but pride in what he became despite his circumstances. When someone thinks they found a bigger stick, he was quick to remind that he is not easily defeated. |
| 245 | |
| 246 | * At the end of Orion Pax part 3, the Autobots are fully assembled, relatively uninjured, and fighting Megatron. Why oh why did they call to retreat rather than fight Megatron? They cannot possibly have better odds. Granted, Prime was somewhat out of it given he just got his memories back, but even he knew enough that he had to fight Megatron, and should've been intelligent enough to realize this was the best shot they would have to take out Megatron... ever. |
| 247 | ** For that matter, why didn't they just throw him through the ''still open'' space bridge onto derelict Cybertron and then destroy the space bridge, thus marooning him there? Sure, he could have flown back to Earth eventually (he already did it once in Darkness Rising), but that would have still bought the Autobots a ''lot'' of much-needed recovery time. |
| 248 | *** Megatron flew back to Earth through Spacebridge 1.0. He'd be stuck on Cybertron for good, or until Spacebridge 3.0 was online. |
| 249 | ** "Relatively uninjured" is a pretty broad category -- a few moments earlier, they could barely stand. They were ''all'' somewhat out of it. Plus, their ''one and only'' goal was to get Optimus back -- we're talking the kind of single-minded focus that makes people forget to eat, sleep and even pee until they reach their target. Add in the presence of a tiny squishy human, and retreat is really the only choice. |
| 250 | *** The simplest answer is that DeathIsNotCheap on this series. (Marooning Megatron would be tantamount to killing him.) |
| 251 | ** Even if the Autobots did manage to defeat Megatron, there's nothing stopping him from calling in backup that would easily overwhelm the team in their condition, especially when they have Jack to protect. Better to complete the mission, take Prime and run rather than risk what little they have and make the entire affair pointless. |
| 252 | ** Optimus is the one who made the call to fall back. He had (mentally) just arrived on the scene and had no idea where they were or what was going on, only that they were on enemy ground and that Megatron was there, kicking ass. Given those things, retreat was definitely the right call. |
| 253 | ** They had accomplished their mission, changing plans on something so delicate might end badly for them. Bailing out and running was reasonable. |
| 254 | |
| 255 | * In Nemesis Prime, how does Silas match the Autobots in hand-to-hand combat? Silas boasts about his combat prowess, but he's dealing with guys with centuries if not eons of experience, and he's taking them on with an unintuitive interface. Yeah, he's got size, strength and the inability to feel pain on most of them, but I'd imagine trying to fight someone via remote only is really effective when fighting at extreme range. |
| 256 | ** Not to mention that his control rig is set up closer to that of a truck than anything resembling a human body, meaning that his combat experience would be about as applicable as any random couch potato's Mortal Kombat technique. |
| 257 | *** That rig was obviously supplementing his simple movements. There's a part where the screen is targeting parts of Optimus. |
| 258 | ** Why, when Silas was about to get crushed, did he not simply get ''out of the way''? Granted, it probably was quicker than it looked, but still. |
| 259 | *** Deer in headlights effect. He did lose his composure immediately prior, and didn't seem to realize his robot was the thing coming through the roof until it broke. |
| 260 | ** Another thing, which is likely an animation error, but why is it that Arcee is maintaining covert surveillance by '''not having her hologram up'''? |
| 261 | *** It's not an error. She only uses the hologram when she's in populated areas. On an empty highway, she has time to activate it before anyone could get close enough to tell the difference. (As for this particular situation, MECH would recognize her regardless, so why bother?) |
| 262 | *** In this instance, "covert" means "quiet and sneaky" more than it does "disguised". |
| 263 | |
| 264 | * Just where ''were'' Soundwave, Knock Out, and Dreadwing during Armada? You think they would be defending the Nemesis from the Insecticon swarm, but none of them appear for even a second. |
| 265 | ** Keep in mind that Soundwave is busy cracking the Iacon code and is far to valuable to risk, however badass he may be. Dreadwing and Knock Out are [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Tunnel_Vision probably]] busy tracking down the Macguffins Soundwave has already managed to locate. |
| 266 | ** The next episode showed them all aboard the Nemesis; presumably they were fighting the Insecticons conveniently offscreen or something. |
| 267 | |
| 268 | * In Nemesis Prime, why do the other characters immediately jump to the conclusion that Optimus has turned evil after a mysterious truck tries to run Fowler off the road? Did they all just forget about that time a Decepticon spy infiltrated their base by disguising himself as an Autobot? And I could understand if Fowler was the one who suggested that Optimus might have gone over to the Decepticons (he seems like the paranoid sort to me) but in fact it was ''Miko'' who said it first. And Bulkhead and Arcee are apparently so convinced by this that they actually ''draw their guns on Optimus'' when he comes back to base. For that matter, why would they even assume the mystery truck was Optimus? They never saw him transform. For all they knew it could have been an angry truck driver with a grudge against Fowler (Fowler also strikes me as the sort who would attract enemies). |
| 269 | ** It's the small details that made everyone believe. For example, Fowler noticed the Autobot symbol on the grill, which isn't exactly something any truckdriver has lying on their grill. Second, the spy was Makeshift, which has the ability to change forms, and they sent him back with a grenade strapped to him, so they probably figured that he wasn't it. Optimus probably also has a fairly distinct design, as they commented that it "looked like Optimus." And besides that, they knew that Optimus was a decepticon once. All these things together made the team suspicious, and with Humans to protect, they probably wanted sure confirmation before letting their leader off the hook. |
| 270 | * Why can't Decepticons fly in robot mode? |
| 271 | ** Decepticons are robots just like the Autobots. Their vehicle mode doesn't necessarily translate to every decepticon having a jetpack. |
| 272 | *** They could fly in robot mode in the G1 cartoon. Why not here? I suppose it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things and it certainly doesn't affect my enjoyment of the show. It just seems like such an odd choice that I wondered if there was a particular reason they went this way. |
| 273 | *** Because this isn't the G1 Cartoon. The only difference between an Autobot and a Decepticon in Prime is choice of faction whereas in the G1 Cartoon, the Decepticons were originally designed as war machines by the Quintessons so flight was likely considered necessary for establishing air superiority. If you're asking why can't the Decepticons who have a flying vehicle mode fly in robot form, that is a better question. |
| 274 | *** The same reason that the Autobots aren't as quick in robot mode as they are in vehicle mode: the abilities of one mode don't necessarily transfer to the other. The modifications that allow them to fly when shaped like a vehicle don't apply to a completely different shape where all those parts are used in other capacities. You can't expect quick flight when your wings are folded into your chest and your boosters are somewhere in your back. The G1 cartoon didn't care much about justifying Transformer abilities so they could do just about anything the writers felt like doing that day, much like any other 80's toy-commercial cartoon. |
| 275 | *** Better question: why haven't we seen any Vehicons in car mode since the pilot? IIRC they've only flown since then, with none of them driving. |
| 276 | *** Hilariously featured in a recent episode - Smokescreen skydives off of the Nemesis, Megatron orders the vehicons near him to pursue and picks two up and throws them off. Both transform... one into a jet, the other into the car. |
| 277 | |
| 278 | * When the kids were trying to hide from Fowler in the five-part pilot, why didn't Miko just unplug the guitar? I figure that Fowler wouldn't really pay attention to a random wire on the floor. |
| 279 | ** A) She's Miko, "action before thought" made flesh. B) Even if she had unplugged the guitar, the motion of a taut line suddenly going slack would have attracted Fowler's attention. It's a lose-lose. C) It moved the plot forward. |
| 280 | * Toxicity- [[spoiler:is Hardshell dead or alive?]] He could be either, but given that Creator/DavidKaye was awesome in this episode... |
| 281 | ** Given that he survived FALLING INTO A PIT OF LAVA to shoot Bulkhead in the back, I'm pretty sure this isn't the last we've seen of the Insecticon king. |
| 282 | ** A better question might be [[spoiler: Is BULKHEAD still alive?]] |
| 283 | * In Toxicity, why didn't Bulkhead just bring the Tox-En back to base and dispose of it properly there? Keeping it on his person in hopes of tossing it into the volcano just risked him losing it to the Insecticons and gave him a near-lethal dose of the stuff. If he had enough time to drop that grenade and make a get away before the bugs got to the site, he'd have enough time to get seal it up in the canister and take it back to base through the groundbridge instead. |
| 284 | ** None of the others were around to actually do any disposing of it--Ratchet appears to be the first one back, and Bulkhead only gets in about two minutes later. Presumably, he felt it safer just to dispose of it than to risk bringing it back to base at all. |
| 285 | ** Why not groundbridge back to base, then groundbridge to the rim of the volcano? It would've limited the amount of time he was exposed, and kept the Insecticons from getting their hands on it? |
| 286 | ** Heck, why not just ''put the lid back on the container?'' |
| 287 | ** I believe that in "Convoy," Optimus says that it's unwise transporting especially dangerous materials via GroundBridge, because if said materials are damaged they can "seep" through the GroundBridge and contaminate huge areas. Given how humans vulnerable to Energon and Dark Energon, it would stand to reason that a noxious subtype would be even worse for them... And besides, would you really want to handle something that dangerous in your home? As for putting the lid back on the container, Bulkhead realized (rightly so) a booby trap would be a good idea, what with being chased by a group of hugely powerful berserker killing machines and all. Sacrificing the container was a worthwhile gamble; the booby trap took out one of the Insecticons and bought Bulkhead time. |
| 288 | * I don't mind too much, but does anybody have any idea when the hiatus is going to end? |
| 289 | ** Sometime between August and October, apparently... |
| 290 | ** August 24, new epsiode is call Hurt, and apparently involves Miko and Wheeljack going looking for revenge... |
| 291 | |
| 292 | * Here's something I haven't seen mentioned yet, which surprises me. In the FiveEpisodePilot, Megatron hurls what was essentially all the Dark Energon he had through the Space Bridge and onto Cybertron, raising ''every Cybertronian corpse on the planet'' to form his army. Now, I can buy that they all launched themselves into space (HOW is another question) and got killed(..er...rekilled?) when the Space Bridge went kablooie. But how come, when Arcee and Jack go to Cybertron at the start of season two, there's no evidence of any Dark Energon, when we were explicitly shown it infecting the entire planet? Does the stuff fade away after awhile? Why didn't it affect the Insecticon sentries - or Vector Prime for that matter? |
| 293 | ** This is going to take a while, and I'm not even sure these are good answers. |
| 294 | *** In the case of Vector SIGMA, I'm guessing that without the Key, it was impossible to corrupt (prime locks?). |
| 295 | *** For the Insecticon sentries, I get the feeling that although Dark Energon does work on A) reviving the dead, B) being nonfatal to Megatrons, C) being semifatal on contact or constant exposure to living cybertronians, and D) capable of repairing inanimate ships, we actually don't have any idea if dark energon affects transformers in hibernate mode. There is also the possibility that for the particular insecticon, as it was suspended from a bridge, was far enough from the detonation zone to be relatively unaffected. |
| 296 | *** Finally, for the lack of evidence, it's been a while since I saw the pilot, so I'm not quite sure how it spread, but there are any number of theories for how it could have worked. Kaon could have been too far from where the blast hit, and perhaps even unaffected, if I remember those energon lines at all. It could be that since Cybertron is built atop Primus, that despite being fatally injured, he could purge his brother's blood from his system. Or, as a third alternative, perhaps the writers were just banking that it had been so long for their young audience, they would have forgotten about that minor detail. (Ok, so the last one's just lame, but given that there are a ton of animation/continuity errors riddled through this series, it's not unheard of) |
| 297 | *** It appears that the only plausible theory now is that (despite the on-screen evidence) the wave of Dark Energon spawning Terrorcons on Cybertron did ''not'' cover the whole planet. Because if it had, you'd ''think'' Shockwave might have noticed. |
| 298 | |
| 299 | * How is it that Rachet was the first Autobot to return, when it shows that he was out for several hours, so that it was dark when he left wherever he was? Not only that, but according to Triangulation, all 4 relics were in the area of North and South America as well as Antartica. How is it that Rachet was not only first back, but was out so long, that even at the equator, it was still sunny when bulkhead "returned"? |
| 300 | ** We don't honestly know how long the others were gone, but it probably was a decent amount of time given how much ground they all had to cover in their searches. As for the sunset, I just chalk that up to dramatics overriding consistency. It'd hardly be the first geographical or chronological error that went under the radar. |
| 301 | * Why does Dreadwing blame Optimus for killing Skyquake? Soundwave showed footage of the battle and it was clearly Bumblebee who killed him. |
| 302 | ** Perhaps he sees Optimus Prime as having been in charge, while Bee was [[JustFollowingOrders following his directions]]. |
| 303 | * Yes, I cried too when Bulkhead became a vegetable for the rest of his life in the conclusion of "Hurt", but wasn't the TOX-EN stored in a special casing that prevented the spreading of that poison? Couldn't the big fella have just closed the lid on that bastard and then carried it as opposed to carry it cold turkey and suffer the radiation poisoning from it? |
| 304 | ** Bulkhead needed to leave the Tox-En can where it was so that his booby trap against the Insecticons would work. |
| 305 | * Why are Cybertronians aside from Megatron seemingly unable to transform without analysing a human vehicle first? Both Skyquake and Dreadwing never transformed before stealing the schematics, likewise for Wheeljack. We don't even see Arcee or Cliffjumper transform in "Out of the Past" at all. Is there really any reason? |
| 306 | ** The simplest reason is so the art team doesn't have to design and then go to the major expense of rendering a 3D model of an altmode that's only going to be on-screen all of five minutes. |
| 307 | *** That's fair enough, but Optimus Prime ''explicitly states'' that Skyquake's lack of an alt-mode gives him and Bumblebee an advantage. In Airachnid's and Dreadwing's cases, you can handwave their lack of transforming and need to scan away, but not Skyquake. |
| 308 | *** Optimus' statement in itself is probably the show's attempt at handwaving why Skyquake didn't attempt to go all Death From Above until Fowler came along. After that, the handwave was in place and didn't need to be stated again for Airachnid and Dreadwing. Alternatively, it could be taken as Skyquake had been in stasis so long he couldn't transform until he acquired a new one. |
| 309 | ** It could be assumed that some Cybertronians revert to a non-transforming form in order to conserve energy, which would explain Wheeljack (a loner), Smokescreen (a prisoner) and Skyquake (in stasis). The use of an alternate form is most useful when you expect to be in a regular combat scenario, which is what team Prime found themselves in all the time, in addition to the Robots in Disguise mantra while on Earth. |
| 310 | ** You deserve a cookie for that. |
| 311 | * How did Smokescreen know he'd need the phase shifter to get Starscream out of the Apex Armor? Nobody had told him Starscream ''had'' the Apex Armor, had they? Hmmm... |
| 312 | ** Or maybe they did tell him offscreen. |
| 313 | *** Furthermore, he mentions being stationed at Iacon, and spent enough time with Alpha Trion to learn that he mentored Optimus. He also mentions being bored a lot, so it's a good chance he passed the time by ''reading the Iacon Database'' (thus his recognizing the phase shifter as soon as he saw it). |
| 314 | *** To the first, if so, that's dissapointing; ShowDontTell after all. The second...true, but that wouldn't have told him Starscream was in possession of the Apex Armor. |
| 315 | *** It did "show" instead of "tell". Smokescreen recognized the Phase Shifter on sight and used it without prompting, displaying that he had the knowledge that'd fit his background very clearly. |
| 316 | *** Not the point. Yes, he recognised ''the Phase Shifter''. But he ''didn't know Starscream had the Apex Armor''. The point isn't the Phase Shifter [[AssPull coming out of nowhere]] - it didn't, that was well done. But it wasn't explained how he knew, at the point he went for it, he even ''needed it''. |
| 317 | *** It's stated that Smokescreen is still green when it comes to combat. Even without the Apex Armor, Starscream is a dangerous adversary to have to go up against. Having the [[IntangibleMan Phase Shifter]] would've given Smokescreen an advantage. He was using his head to fight an opponent that had way more experience than him. |
| 318 | *** It's also been shown that Smokescreen just REALLY likes that particular toy, and is quite adept at using it. So he may have just brought it along because it was available. |
| 319 | ** Writing is sometimes not covering all the bases but sometimes jumping from A to C and hope the audience follows despite not being told/shown B. The fact is that taking the time to explain all the details to Smokescreen is a blindingly unnecessary InfoDump (as the audience is ahead of the character on this point) and in a 22 minute show you make every effort to skip unnecessary parts. I guess it could have squeezed in some extra detail about him being told about the Apex Armor, but the real point is that Smokescreen used his intuition to prove his worth to the team. |
| 320 | * So, why didn't Agent Fowler just flash a badge to Raf's mother and tell her that he was helping the government on top-secret issues she is not cleared to know about, but which require his unique computer prodigy skills? It'd get him out of any further situations in the long run, and get her understand any slight slips in his grades. |
| 321 | ** Because it'd make his mother very suspicious as to why the government wants her child specifically and exactly what it is that they'll have him do that she can't know about. It'd raise a lot more questions for her than it'd answer and probably cause her to become overprotective in response to this new, unknown potential danger to her son. |
| 322 | *** Also, RuleOfFunny. |
| 323 | ** "Hello ma'am, I'm Raf's tutor" fits much better with the current situation. It also resolves the issue of Raf's grades, because (from his mother's point of view) if he has a tutor, that means he's working to bring them back up. As long as he doesn't come home with his hair on fire, nobody's going to question "I stayed late working with my tutor at study group" as an excuse for where he's been. |
| 324 | ** Of course, given that Raf's family is now being moved by the government, she probably has a lot more questions. |
| 325 | |
| 326 | * In "The Human Factor", the map of the U.S. on the Autobots' screen is missing Louisiana. Animation error or FreezeFrameBonus illustrating the results of Unicron's wrath at the end of season one? |
| 327 | ** That's because it's clipped into Texas. |
| 328 | *** ...eh? |
| 329 | *** The state is ''inside'' Texas on the map. It isn't gone, someone screwed up the model and the state moved over Texas. |
| 330 | *** There's a geography joke there, but darned if I can find it. |
| 331 | |
| 332 | * When Raf nearly [[spoiler: kicks the bucket]] back in the Season 1 finale, we're told that energon does not like human tissue. So...what would MECH use to run [[spoiler: Silas!Breakdown]]? |
| 333 | ** They probably separated him from the fuel lines. |
| 334 | *** Or it's futher [[{{Pun}} fuel]] for the "Raf is an android" theory... |
| 335 | ** Dark Energon is harmful to humans. Normal energon was used to neutralize it without harming Raf, which suggests that the normal stuff has little effect on human tissues. [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Other series]] portray normal energon as having little to no effect on organics. |
| 336 | |
| 337 | * So, is [[spoiler: Silas]] now a disembodied head that's somehow still alive without a heart and lungs, or does he have to worry about figuring out how to use the bathroom? |
| 338 | ** We're not really sure how much of [[spoiler: C.Y.L.A.S]] is still human. There may be a significant portion of his original body inside or not. |
| 339 | ** It looked like his body was encased in a permanent life-support system, which would explain why they used a neural interface instead of manual controls. |
| 340 | |
| 341 | * Why in the world has Dreadwing not shown up in the last 4 episodes? You'd think that as the 2nd or third strongest con, Megatron would bust him out a bit more despite his failure with the Apex Armor. Heck, having him around at [[spoiler: The Star Saber]] would have really kept the autobots at bay with him helping to coordinate defense. |
| 342 | ** I'm pretty sure Soundwave is the second strongest (In cunning). Anyway, Dreadwing is probably on some important mission and just hasn't appeared yet. |
| 343 | ** Dreadwing is doing his job: being Megatron's second in command. A good 2IC does the grunt work so that his boss can do the ''important'' stuff - like, for instance, trying to pull a Prime's sword from a stone. Compiling ammunition usage statistics, dealing with the fact the ''Nemesis''' deck 8 bay 24 temperature is five degrees cooler than it should be, auditing Starscream's energon mines - these are the things a competent, trusted executive officer does so his commander doesn't have to. And Dreadwing is precisely that. (And his job in this role likely isn't helped by the fact that 1. both of his predecessors in the position really ''weren't'' "competent" or "trusted" (at least as seconds-in-command) and 2. he has to do (most of) Breakdown's job now too (like, for instance, checking up on late-reporting Minercons)... |
| 344 | |
| 345 | * On another note, why didn't Rachet call in Wheeljack to help Smokescreen in episode 20? I know he's still bitter at him, but he's still a soldier and backup that could help (with missiles if necessary!). |
| 346 | ** Bitterness aside, it'd probably take longer for Wheeljack to go from wherever he was at the moment to Smokescreen's location than to groundbride to the main group, then groudbridge them from the base to the battle. Even if Wheeljack did show up, they'd still need the power of a Prime to claim the Star Saber without dragging a giant rock with it. |
| 347 | *** You're not thinking with portals. He could still have Wheeljack land his ship, groundbridge him out of there and into the base, then groundbridge him to where Smokescreen is. That won't take too long considering that it's an established fact that multiple successive grounbridging is no big deal. |
| 348 | *** Ratchet probably knows that you have to be a Prime to remove the Star Saber. Plus, he had the problem of the rest of Team Prime being out of communications and sent on a wild goose chase. Bringing in Optimus solves both problems at once. |
| 349 | *** It was confirmed later that it was explicitly because of Wheeljack's loose-cannon modus operandi that they stopped inviting him over. |
| 350 | |
| 351 | * So, you're in a war for your planet and the enemy is winning. He has no qualms about wiping you out to the man, and once he's done with you, he's probably going to start on other planets. You have a big-ass super sword that can take down warships, could easily turn the tide in any ground battle, and can only be wielded by someone of a given lineage on your side, meaning no danger of it being turned against you. When the chips are down and you're losing this war you...send this incredibly powerful, tide-turning weapon out into space? |
| 352 | ** The relics were relocated to prevent their capture, which indicates the hall was (or was about to be) under siege. There may not have been time or resources to get the sword to someone who could use it. |
| 353 | ** Also, keep in mind that this was the personal weapon of the First Transformer Ever, the equivalent of a sword which is known and confirmed to have been a defining trait of the biblical Adam. Religious and cultural reverence is inevitably going to make everyone more reluctant to permit its use under ''any'' circumstances. |
| 354 | * Based on what we saw of the Phase Shifter's capabilities in in "Tunnel Vision", in "New Recruit" [[spoiler: shouldn't Smokescreen have passed through the armour AND Starscream?]] On top of that, [[spoiler: since Starscream WASN'T wearing the Phase Shifter, how would HE pass through the armour to begin with?]] |
| 355 | ** In "Tunnel Vision" it was being used by someone who had no idea what it was, or how it worked, or what could be done with it. Smokescreen knows what it does, and with his knowledge of the Iacon relics, probably knows how to do a lot of tricks with it that Bumblebee wouldn't. There's probably a lot of neat little adjustments you can do with it for all kinds of tricks. |
| 356 | *** Based on "Alpha; Omega" we can presume that the 'default' setting is 'phase through anything but floors', while a knowledgable user can 'transfer' the phase shifting to a grabbed object as well. [[spoiler:Such as, for instance, Starscream. Or Optimus Prime. Also: Dark Energon blasts can't touch something that's phased.]] |
| 357 | ** Explained in "Inside Job". |
| 358 | * Why does Megatron keep making so much use of Dark Energon if he's already learned that he and Unicron do not get along very well, and use of the former grants control to the latter? |
| 359 | ** Simple. As far as he knows, Unicron isn't going to be an issue again, or at least, for a good while. Why get rid of something that's proving to be an advantage when the only reason not to is gone? If anything, in his eyes, Unicron being taken down is reason to use Dark Energon all the more. No drawback. |
| 360 | * How did the Star Saber ''break'' in "Alpha Omega"? Isn't it supposed to be an invincible, legendary weapon. |
| 361 | ** It broke because it's being hit by another weapon forged by the same hammer and composed of evil in crystal form. |
| 362 | *** Also a much ''newer'' (and, one might presume, sharper) weapon as well. |
| 363 | ** The Star Saber has broken before in other stories where it was ''much'' more powerful. |
| 364 | ** The Dark Star Saber is a weapon that was forged by the same device used to create the original. Something may be explicitly powerful but it is still likely vulnerable to something created for the sole purpose to destroy it. It's like a Kryptonite Bullet, it doesn't make Superman less powerful for the fact he was injured by something like that. |
| 365 | * How could Solus Prime be so dumb to allow any cybertronian to just attach a dead arm of any Prime to them to wield the Forge? She knows that appendages are left in tact and cybertronians can attatch them. This was disaster waiting to happen. |
| 366 | ** Likely at the time the Forge was created, it was believed that no Cybertronian would ever stoop to such a thing. Recall that when Bumblebee's T-Cog was stolen, the involvment of the Decepticons was rapidly dismissed due to the fact it was believed even Megatron would never stoop to so horrible an act - and also Optimus' pure shock at seeing Megatron's Prime arm. It's simply Something That Is Not Done. ([[SanitySlippage Until now...]]) |
| 367 | ** And indeed, Megatron was sitting on the hammer for months and months, when he already had a way of getting to Cybertron. He only even considered it when it became clear that Prime now had the ability to wipe him out with a flick of his wrist, and Dreadwing isn't exactly thrilled at the prospect. |
| 368 | ** Swap cybertronians with humans, and suddenly you have a human sewing on another body's arm. That's something right out of Frankenstein's Monster. Can you blame Solus Prime for not thinking that anyone would stoop that low? |
| 369 | ** Solus Prime might not have been able to stop the Forge from working for any Prime, or making the forge detect whether the person using was a true Prime or just using a limb. Additionally, the original Primes and the war with Unicron seemed to predate the mass population of Cybertron, so restricting the usage of the Forge might not have occurred to her at all, making any form of security a happy accident. |
| 370 | * I just thought of this after watching Inside Job. [[spoiler: After Starscream invaded the Autobot base, why didn't he pick up the Apex Armor at the time? If he had the time to retrieve the Omega Keys, why not pick up his favorite armor as well?]] |
| 371 | ** [[FridgeLogic He would have had to use his second missile to get it]], and he didn't want to risk being unarmed. [[spoiler:As things turned out, good idea.]] |
| 372 | ** He was also in a hurry. He had only a short supply of super speed, and the Apex Armor is bad for a quick escape. The armor also doesn't make him invincible, as he was defeated both times he went into battle with it. |
| 373 | * Where has Starscream been getting all his missiles from? he had 2 from Crossfire, 2 from Armada, 1 from New Recruit and 2 from Inside Job. It's established before that he can't transform his hands into guns because of No T-cog, so how does that factor into him using the natural missiles on his wrists? Does he just restock from his sides/his clone if he's running low? How does he keep getting more? |
| 374 | ** He's currently based in (half of) a crashed warship; there may be a stockpile somewhere on board. |
| 375 | * This may seem like a dumb question but, how did Alpha Trion [[spoiler:get the last Omega Key ''inside'' Smokescreen?]] I figure he would have needed the Phase Shifter for that, and that would have already been launched into space by the time the cons attacked Iacon right? |
| 376 | ** The Phase Shifter would have been the fastest and easiest way to do it, but putting Smokescreen into stasis and using conventional surgery was still perfectly doable. |
| 377 | |
| 378 | * How come Starscream just barged into the Nemesis? How did he know Megatron wouldn't have just blown his head off and grab the keys? |
| 379 | ** Because he was, at the moment, high on whatever the Cybertronian equviliant of adrenaline is after having snatched the Keys right out from under the Autobots' noses. Plus, he's TheStarscream - do you really think he'd come up with a decent plan? |
| 380 | |
| 381 | * This just occured to me upon rewatching the fight scene in Triangulation; when Starscream is in the Apex Armor, where does his wing [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Kibble kibble]] go? There's nowhere near enough room in the armor for it. Perhaps it goes into the same {{Hammerspace}} the armor comes out of... |
| 382 | ** Arcee's kibble sometimes folds down when she's in a funk; maybe Starscream's can do the same thing? |
| 383 | *** It definitely can - watch Armada and see how Clonescream's wings fold down when he gets scared. Or Patch, when Starscream starts panicking during the patch, they do the same thing. |
| 384 | |
| 385 | * And speaking of Hammerspace: what's up with Megatron's fusion cannon? In his robot form Megs lost his trademark weapon when he went with the "Arm of Dead Prime" look. But the animation has consistently retained the cannon in alt-mode; often enough that it has to be wondered if it's deliberate instead of an error. Perhaps it folds away now in robot mode? [[spoiler: We know for absolute certainty it's gone in standard form, as Megatron uses Dreadwing's discarded cannon to shoot Dreadwing in "Regeneration".]] |
| 386 | ** Same reason as stated in other HS'ers here: production cost. I don't know how they make or change the models (much less the monetary or time cost to do so) but I highly doubt its as cheap or quick as highlighting the gun and hitting "Ctrl+X." Especially so when you consider how little time Megatron actually spends in his altmode. Finally, take it as evidence he'll eventually get his original arm back. |
| 387 | |
| 388 | * How come Megatron didn't heavily guard the Forge of Solus Prime? It is probably the most important artifact he has. |
| 389 | ** They've had the Forge for a while now, so maybe they got complacent in guarding it, especially when even more important and recently acquired artifacts are aboard. More importantly, Megatron wasn't expecting a Decepticon--least of all his second-in-command and (as far as he knows) most trustworthy soldier--to steal it. |
| 390 | ** Dreadwing was Megatron's second-in-command, he either had clearance, or told the guards that he did. |
| 391 | |
| 392 | * It's a dark hour on Cybertron. The Autobots need all the resources they can to defend the only means of resurrecting their planet - they couldn't even spare one 'Bot for [[spoiler: looking after the kids.]] So, my question: where is Wheeljack in all of this? |
| 393 | ** Further, why didn't Megatron take any Insecticons with him on the mission? You'd think that for such an important romp, they'd want their berserkers on hand for enforcers. |
| 394 | *** For the first, Wheeljack was going rogue and it is possible that they couldn't contact him. For the second, Megatron didn't expect the Autobots to show up. |
| 395 | ** They made it clear after the events of "Hurt" that no one really trusted Wheeljack, even Ratchet's newfound respect for him in "Triage" was quickly discarded. The running theme of this season has been about the dangers of an un-united team and with Smokescreen the Autobots made it clear that they aren't going to ignore a wild card just because they need the numbers. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | * As a follow up question regarding the battle, it was made clear by knockout that the phase-shifter was self aware enough not to phase through the ground, but isn't that precisely what Smokescreen does in the battle? |
| 398 | ** Same reason he could phase through the ground after free-falling. However that "intuitive" interface works, it can tell when you do or do not want to phase through a surface. |
| 399 | ** It seems to be half manual control and half "intuitive" control, to use its full potential Smokescreen needs to have it turned on but there are too many variables to require constant tinkering with the controls. |
| 400 | |
| 401 | * How did Megatron figure out where the Autobot base was? |
| 402 | ** Either the same way he figured out where the kids were - Soundwave - or via a tracking device on the kids' "tanks". |
| 403 | ** It was a matter of narrowing down the alternatives, the three kids were from Jasper and there has been some explicit encounters in the surrounding area ("Darkness Rising: part one" "Speed Metal," "Crisscross," "Hard Knocks") and it was probably just putting two and two together and determining that the supposedly abandoned missile silo a few miles outside the city would be an appropriate location. |
| 404 | ** I personally believe that Megatron only knew the general location of the Autobot's Base, but couldn't pin-point its exact location. So he aimed the Omega Lock at Jasper, knowing that the US military would investigate the source of the cyber-beam and most likely rally up at the Autobot base since it's an extra-terrestrial threat. When Fowler arrived at the scene of the crime, all Megatron needs to do is to have Soundwave pinpoint Fowler's copter to its destination. |
| 405 | |
| 406 | * How come the Autobots were completely unprepared for if the Decepticons knew where their base was? They could have made a back-up base or get a self-destruct function so one didn't have to stay behind to destroy the ground bridge. |
| 407 | ** It's possible that years of inactivity left them complacent. Besides, they might not have anticipated the Decepticons finding their base due to the heavy shielding and careful defense. |
| 408 | |
| 409 | * Was Agent Fowler's helicopter modified to have energon cannons or something? Because if it wasn't, Megatron should be a lot more concerned at the prospect of pissing off humanity. Fowler managed to take down two via seemingly conventional firepower (he killed two more by DeadlyDodging but that's not something you can load on a ship). Humanity can field a lot more people than the Decepticons can, the sheer weight of numbers might be enough to take down Megatron's ability to at least run his ship. |
| 410 | ** We know that Fowler always spoils himself with autobot tech (hence his mask free jet), so it's probably specially modified. Alternatively, vehicons are weak on their backs. |
| 411 | ** It's also all mooks, by definition they are meant to be killed en masse. Given how many the Autobots alone have slaughtered it's surprising the Decepticons still have plenty lying around. |
| 412 | ** Gunfire from MECH footsoldiers was able to force Bulkhead to his knees in Operation: Breakdown. It's possible that Fowler helped himself to some anti-Transformer rounds while decommissioning a MECH facility, like the one from Crisscross or Nemesis Prime. |
| 413 | *** And we know MECH's [[EveryHelicopterIsAHuey Hueys]] were modified with energy weapons. Logic follows Fowler's has one now too. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | * Why oh why wasn't whatever the Omega Lock designed to ''automatically do its job'' if the planet were to go dormant? That would have the wonderful added bonus of ''completely cutting out its potential as a weapon for wiping out non-cybertronian life on other planets.'' Heck, why even make it so that it can do that to other planets? |
| 416 | ** Perhaps the primes built it with the intent of having it to restore cybertronian damage in the result of war, but wanted it to be intentional in use so they didn't overdo themselves in restoration projects. My guess was that the omega lock was meant as a quick fix device first. Hence why the omega keys were so important: a safety protocol to prevent their improper political use. I'm thinking that when it was made, cybertronians were unaware of life elsewhere, so they didn't even consider it. It's just that megatron is far more ruthless than the tools were originally meant for. |
| 417 | ** A lot of things could go wrong with an auto-restore, consider that it might actually revert Cybertron to a different "save file" than intended. And the capacity to reformat other planets wasn't the intention, Megatron used the space bridge to make it capable of doing so. |
| 418 | ** As far as preventing it from being used on others planets... Being able to cyberform other planets might actually be one of it's functions. Remember, transformers did colonize other planets back in the day, so being able to make other planets more compatible would have been useful. That might actually have been the Omega Lock's '''original''' purpose, since it's unlikely that the original Primes or Primus expected anyone to render the planet unlivable. |
| 419 | *** And they might not have thought anyone would be so monstrous as to use it on an already inhabited planet. |
| 420 | |
| 421 | * Speaking of the Omega Lock, why did Optimus ''immediately'' choose to destroy it? He should have at least attempted to disable the lock. After all: |
| 422 | ** He has the Star Saber, whose SwordBeam he could have used to knock Starscream, Soundwave and Knock Out down. The beam, when created as a horizontal wave, is thin enough for Megatron to narrowly evade it by hopping over it, as shown in ''Alpha Omega''. |
| 423 | ** Yes, the Lock was in action, but if four Decepticons can plug in the keys without any authorization, surely he could just pull them out? |
| 424 | ** Even if that's not readily possible and the Lock has a mechanism that prevents it from being disabled, Optimus is a Prime. Maybe he could have overridden any such blocks? |
| 425 | ** It's more Optimus' lack of any deliberation that's surprising here, not the destruction of the Lock itself. The Lock could have proved able to be stopped only by destroying it, but better writing would have had Optimus at least consider other options. Or maybe it was intentional, to show that Optimus was going too far in protecting humanity in favor of Cybertron? The franchise has done a similar plot with Optimus Primal back in ''Beast Machines'', where he became as much of a fundamentalist as the show's version of Megatron, only in favor of organics as opposed to technology. |
| 426 | *** He didn't have time. The Omega Lock was currently, actively destroying parts of Earth. He didn't have time to sit back and rationally consider all of his options, especially considering he had four powerful Decepticons right there that would have quite vigorously resisted any attempt by Optimus to stop what was going on. |
| 427 | *** I still remain unconvinced. Optimus was at the Lock in one leap. It would have been in character to at least grab onto one of the keys and try to pull it out. And with Megatron temporarily taken out, the only real threat to him was Soundwave, maybe Starscream as well. |
| 428 | ** And while Optimus is futzing around with the key, Soundwave impales him from behind, Starscream shoots him with a missile, and Megatron gets back up and finishes him off. "Temporarily" amounts to a few seconds, tops. Optimus is surrounded by enemies that all want him dead. He does not have time to weigh his options, only to act decisively when he has the chance. |
| 429 | *** Optimus has the Star Saber, which is not only capable of a SwordBeam powerful enough to damage The Nemesis, but quite accurate as well. Optimus could have used a well-aimed blast to knock the three Decepticons off their feet. From then on, Knock Out and Starscream are easy prey and Optimus can take a hit from Soundwave. As for Megatron, he's lacking his sword ''and'' cannon hand, although he could transform and try to attack Optimus from the air. But when has Optimus let such odds stop him? |
| 430 | *** There's a lot of assumptions being made there. They're not going to just stand there. This is suggesting that Optimus start a fight that he may well lose, instead of taking action while he can. He has ''one'' chance to act here, while he has the element of surprise. It's a decision made in the moment. |
| 431 | |
| 432 | * Why did Optimus stay behind when only death awaited him? |
| 433 | ** It's [[MartyrWithoutACause Optimus]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime Prime]]. It's kind of [[RunningGag in the job description]]. |
| 434 | ** Probably because he wanted to make sure the Ground Bridge was destroyed so the decepticons couldn't find the team. |
| 435 | ** Somebody needed to operate the groundbridge and, more importantly, destroy the computer that holds records that could be used to easily track the bots down (scattering the team wouldn't do a lot of good if the 'cons sent squads of goons to each location an hour later). Staying behind was the only way to ensure that there'd be nothing left in the base that'd help the cons. If Optimus had any greater plan, we won't know it until season 3. |
| 436 | ** There was no indicator that the Decepctions had the weapon they used on the base until they used it, Optimus likely assumed that the Decepticons would storm the base, and either he'd be forced to fight them off, or it's possible there was a second exit that they never felt the need to mention he could escape through. |
| 437 | |
| 438 | * How the fuck will the ending tie into Rescue Bots? |
| 439 | ** ...What? |
| 440 | ** Rescue Bots is supposedly in continuity with Prime, with Optimus being a character on both. |
| 441 | ** It means that there's a ForegoneConclusion. The Autobots' existence will eventually become common knowledge and they'll be on good enough terms with the human government to work side-by-side with a team of humans. And it's also safe to say that Optimus isn't dead! :D |
| 442 | *** Given that Optimus is front and center in S3 promos and TFP Happy Meal toys, logic suggests we NeverFoundTheBody, just the arm... |
| 443 | *** Pray for BroadStrokes to be in effect with every ounce of your collective will. |
| 444 | ** Later seasons of Rescue Bots just had the implication of Optimus communicating with the RB team from The Realm of the Primes (a fancy afterlife for all the Primes), usually offscreen unless absolutely necessary, until he was resurrected in Robots in Disguise, at which point he started showing up in person again. |
| 445 | |
| 446 | * Would it be possible to restore [[spoiler: the Omega Lock]] with the Forge of Solus Prime? Sounds dumb, I know, but it just popped into my head. I'm a total optimist (ha) and I'm really hoping that [[spoiler: Cybertron]] will be restored somehow... |
| 447 | ** Making a new one from scratch is out of the question, but if any of the original is left, a few whacks of the hammer should be able to get it back into shape. |
| 448 | ** Actually, probably not. If Optimus lacked the skill to recreate the keys, there's almost no way he or anyone else could recreate the lock itself. |
| 449 | ** Sounds to me like the possibility of future characters, preferably more Cybertronians. There's always the chance that there are more out there in other worlds. |
| 450 | ** [[spoiler:Turns out this is precisely the plot line for season 3. One of them, anyway.]] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | * Here's something: What happened to all the relics of iacon? Truth be told, so much time was devoted to the standoff on cybertron and the invasion of the autobot base that we didn't exactly get closure on several of the relics. The forge of solus prime and the star saber can be excused for now, given that they were still in the base. But we get nothing on what happened to the Apex Armor, Immobilizer, Poliarity Gauntlet or the phase shifter. The last one is particularly distracting, since Smokescreen seemed quite attached to it. I suppose with everything else happening they didn't have time to fit it in, but they better at least address it in season 3. Otherwise, a whole season of hunting, gone and done with in 1 episode. |
| 453 | ** The Autobots surrendered most of them. They're in Decepticon hands now. |
| 454 | ** No, they dropped them, right near where the Star Saber was. Optimus retrieved that, but after the explosion, they're not mentioned at all for the rest of the episode. That's my headscratcher. Why didn't they mention them? |
| 455 | ** The only means of reviving their dead homeworld was just destroyed in front of their eyes, a few relics probably won't matter compared to that. Though best guess is that the explosion scattered them, but were then gathered by the decepticons. |
| 456 | ** And the answer is: [[spoiler:Smokescreen grabbed the phase shifter but the rest were left (Knock Out found at least the Apex Armor), Megatron evidently never recovered the arm or sword, and the Forge and Airachnid survived the base blowing up, the Star Saber probably didn't]]. |
| 457 | |
| 458 | * For as much surveillance Soundwave usually has the ship under, it's odd that he didn't detect Dreadwing stealing the ''Forge of Solus Prime'' to give to the Autobots. |
| 459 | ** Maybe Megatron was having Soundwave search for any way in which the keys were to be used? Why did in mind that Megatron didn't know exactly ''how'' the keys were supposed to be used to replenish Cybertron. It's possible the silent 'bot had his plate full scouring their database for any clues as to their purpose. In addition, it's plausible Soundwave felt that certain other, more dubiously loyal crewmembers (Knockout and Starscream) warranted a closer eye than Dreadwing. |
| 460 | |
| 461 | * Why did Alpha Trion send Optimus a cache of Tox-En? He likely knew that the autobots would not use it, however the decepticons would. |
| 462 | ** I don't think he specified what he was sending, he just sent everything in the vault. He probably didn't have time to sort things through. |
| 463 | *** This is half right. He sent everything in the vault to a) keep the treasures safe and b) keep the weapons out of Decepticon hands. If the 'Cons hadn't been there when Bulkhead discovered the cache, the 'Bots probably would have gone into hazmat mode and destroyed it anyway. |
| 464 | |
| 465 | * Which Character Sheet should we put Predaking (as well as any other members of the Predacon faction who show up) on? Should we make a new faction sheet? |
| 466 | ** He's Decepticon-affiliated barring a betrayal down the line. |
| 467 | |
| 468 | * When the Military attacked Darkmount or New Kaon or whatever, why didn't they use long-ranged MLRS and Cruise missiles to just blow the shit out of it? It obivously outranges whatever {{BFG}} The Decepticons had on their tower (said tower requiring a straight line also being a problem). Or since he tried to use a nuclear deterent, why not just glass his face with a nuclear cruise missile? |
| 469 | ** They had to work within the "meteor strike" cover story. People are going to notice if the military starts firing missiles over Nevada. Note that it isn't out of the question yet, either; those generals on the phone clearly want to bring everything they have down on the place. |
| 470 | *** Seems to me like people would've noticed a military task force being wiped out moreso. Which do you think would be easier to explain away: some missile or artillery strikes in Nevada (the army could say it was a routine training exercise) or an entire army unit being decimated, and hundreds of soldiers being killed or wounded by an alien super-weapon. While an artillery/missile strike might not have worked, it would've been a far safer, less riskier option than a direct assault. |
| 471 | ** There's also the fact that incoming missiles would have just gotten shot down themselves by the [[WaveMotionGun fusion cannons]]. |
| 472 | |
| 473 | * Ok, how did Smokescreen [[spoiler: get back through the groundbridge, when Rachet was going through first, and had already powered it down?]] |
| 474 | ** It's a straight continuity error, just like how Darkmount got a new name. |
| 475 | ** He passed through the portal while it was still open, phased into the ground underneath the space bridge apparatus and hid so Rachet and Optimus wouldn't order him back. |
| 476 | *** Except he's shown exiting the bridge into the destroyed base. You can hear the sound in the background. |
| 477 | *** [[PreLap Transition from the previous scene?]] |
| 478 | |
| 479 | * Why doesn't Megatron go to another planet to build up his forces then return? I've only watched most of the first season, but I don't get this. The Autobots cannot travel to another planet. In the first episodes Megatron had the space bridge. I presume the Nemesis can travel between star systems since smaller ships can. Energon and weapons are on other planets. I presume Megatron can build more Vehicons since they get smashed so often. Since his current army appears limited to what is on the Nemesis why doesn't he go elsewhere to rebuild a vast army and attack Earth with truly overwhelming force? Both sides are pretty much extinct, but Megatron has a ship and access to resources on other worlds to rebuild. Why doesn't he? |
| 480 | ** Because that would admit defeat, and Megatron is far too prideful for that. So long as Optimus is here, Megatron will remain as well (and, of course, if Optimus leaves, he'll blitzkrieg us on the way out out of spite). |
| 481 | ** Because he already did. Remember the FiveEpisodePilot--Megatron ''had been'' out in the universe with the intention of building an army. When he shows up in Earth's space, the first thing Starscream does is semi-sarcastically ask him where the army is. So the reason Megatron doesn't leave Earth to build up his forces and return is because he already tried that and there isn't an army out there to gather. |
| 482 | *** I found that a bit weird. I took it that Megatron found Dark Energon and decided an undead army would be more effective. Skyquake was on Earth and Megatron did not reactivate him. I assume they can make more Vehicons and other low-class Decipticons considering how many the Autobots destroy. Energon was stated to have been hidden on many planets. I assume warriors may have been left to guard it or the very least it could be used to build an overwhelming army. |
| 483 | *** "I fear that when our master reached for the stars, he came down with a touch of... space madness." - Starscream |
| 484 | ** Going off to build his forces would allow Optimus time to build a power base without obstruction, or even go into hiding on yet another planet. There is a lot of resources and even weapons hidden on earth, so just leaving it alone would be a bad idea. |
| 485 | |
| 486 | * Why is everyone so worried about the Forge of Solus Prime running out of power? Why can't they recharge it somehow? I know it's supposed to be all "mystical-magical," but I'm sure there's some way to power it. It is a machine, after all. |
| 487 | ** No one knows exactly how to power up Forge of Solus Prime. It the same reason why Optimus Prime couldn't just simply make new Omega Keys under his whim, he has no knowledge of making them. The show makes it clear that even recent Cybertronian technology from the war were lost over time, such as the Space Bridge, the Immobilizer, and the Spark Extractor. The Forge of Solus Prime came from the era of the Thirteen at the dawn of time. |
| 488 | *** I got the idea that space bridges and the knowledge to build them still exist. It's the resources and manufacturing facilities needed to build them that are the problem. The Forge bypasses these requirements. |
| 489 | ** You might as well ask, "Why is everyone so worried about a Cybertronian getting killed?" They're machines, too, but it's made pretty clear in the Transformers that there's something about them that cannot be repaired or restored once it's gone. The forge would be similar. |
| 490 | |
| 491 | * Why didn't [[spoiler:upgraded Optimus]] swoop in help the Autobots Shockwave captured instead of going after Megatron? |
| 492 | ** [[{{Series/Supernatural}} Cut off the head and the body will flounder.]] For a while at least. |
| 493 | *** Except Optimus was always a SmallStepsHero. Chances are, he didn't know any Autobots were captured. |
| 494 | |
| 495 | * If Predaking had a tracking device, how come Soundwave couldn't have just located it and sent a space bridge before it froze to death? |
| 496 | ** Three possible reasons: One, he froze too quickly. Two, Shockwave immediately left to fight after Predaking froze, so he didn't really bother to go get him. Three, he just didn't care enough. |
| 497 | *** There's this thing called 'reaction time', yes. |
| 498 | ** Apparently it was still alive and the decepticons needed the bones. They could have simply retrieved it before "Chain of Command." |
| 499 | |
| 500 | * As cool as "Chains of Command" was, it does raise one important question regarding relics. I'm sure it'll be answered by Rachet later, but still, how is it that cybertronian relics [[spoiler: (specifically the apex armor) are compatible with humans?]] |
| 501 | ** That doesn't really take a lot to explain: Humans and Cybertronians are, physically, very similar [[spoiler: and potentially, genetically if Unicron's any clue]]: Two arms, two legs, two hands, a head, a torso etc. The armor is just that: Armor. It's supposed to protect the wearer, so my guess is it scans for those physical features and covers them up. Now the day that we see Predaking wearing the Apex Armor this theory isn't much use, but by then we'd also have an apex-armor wearing dragon to worry about. |
| 502 | ** Started out as FridgeLogic, then turned into FridgeBrilliance for me. The armor is transformer tech, changing your shape to suit new circumstances is their civilization's main Hat. It stands to reason that their tools transform as well, particularly when we can obviously see the armor transform. The only real oddity is that it recognized Miko at all, but once whatever it uses as a processor got the message "Creature Wants to Wear You" it simply transformed itself to suit Miko's biology. |
| 503 | |
| 504 | * In 'Rebellion' Ultra Magnus's plan is to shoot the power core at Darkmount. So why doesn't he do it with his ship's canon's as he is able to get extremely close to the structure with it? |
| 505 | ** Remember the end of Star Wars IV, where Luke only makes the shot because a) he's got a bunch of friends at his back to keep the Death Star's defenses busy and b) he has supernatural powers? Ultra Magnus had neither of those. There's a huge difference between "flying in close enough to jump into the fight" and "flying in close enough and then holding position long enough to make an ''extremely'' difficult shot, while being attacked from every side". |
| 506 | * Since the U.S. airforce have enough firepower to take down Darkmount, why don't they attempt to destroy the Nemesis as well? |
| 507 | ** A successful takedown requires not just firepower, but opportunity. The latter was only just barely there with Darkmount. Good battle plans rarely include "and then a miracle occurs" at critical points. |
| 508 | ** They were only able to take down Darkmount because the Autobots had taken down the main defenses and drawn off a huge chunk of the Decepticon forces. Attacking the Nemesis would by necessity include fighting every Decepticon on it. |
| 509 | * Why didn't Soundwave just teleport Airachnid and Co. to a place where they would die, like Venus or Pluto, instead of a place they would survive and likely come back to bite the Decepticons in the rear (He teleported Arcee to the Arctic, so he did at least attempt to kill her in that episode)? |
| 510 | ** The decision does seem strangely arbitrary at first, but think about the location he bridged them to. Two outcomes are likely: One, they never get off the moon, and either shut down from Energon deprivation or remain trapped to picked off at leisure (should the Decepticons return to Cybertron). Two, they somehow make it to Cybertron, their only realistic hope for returning to Earth... and immediately expose themselves to the massive amount of Dark Energon lying dormant inside the planet, which will begin to counteract the Synthetic Energon responsible for the whole "uncontrollable zombie vampires" fiasco. |
| 511 | ** So Soundwave basically put Airachnid in a lose/lose situation. |
| 512 | ** I think the bigger question is - why didn't they just throw the pod with Airachnid in stasis into the lava pit back in "Scattered" and kill her off right there? Granted that keeping her around creates more conflict for the show, but in-universe it doesn't make a lot of sense. I can only assume that since the pod survived the destruction of the Autobot base, they thought the lava pit wouldn't have been effective. |
| 513 | ** Soundwave or some other Con was probably gonna blow the moon up if they ever got back to Cybertron. |
| 514 | *** She was stored in the trophy room, so Megatron probably wanted to keep her for display. |
| 515 | * I know how silly it is to ask a serious answer to a comedic question, but here goes. Knockout claims to have learnt ZombieApocalypse tropes through his regular visits to the local DriveInTheater, presumbaly as a patron's car. Now, begging the question; just ''how the GoshDarnItToHeck'' does he even get to pay for the admission to get ''into'' said theatres, much less hook the speakers to his windows, without causing the poor kids at the box office to have a nervous- [[{{Pun}} breakdown]] , as well as having the audience and the ''entire staff who have to be there to project-said-movie'' fleeing in blind-panic? |
| 516 | ** Many modern drive-ins have the option of transmitting the audio over a radio frequency so that viewers can keep their windows closed and enjoy the sound over their stereo system without being exposed to the elements. This is particularly common in places with bad weather or insect swarms. They also often have credit-card readers for payment options. It's plausible, albeit still tricky, that Knockout remotely hacked the card reader to show that he paid, listened on the radio, and never had any human contact at all during his movie-viewing experience. |
| 517 | ** As Arcee demonstrates, the Cybertronians can put up a holographic representation of a driver in order to appear less conspicuous. Maybe this is a hard light hologram that's capable of doing that sort of thing. |
| 518 | ** In some states in the Southwest (I live in Arizona, right next to Nevada) drive-in theaters will play a movie with English audio and Spanish subtitles. It is extremely common to park on a nearby hill or sit on a nearby fence and see the movie for free by reading the subtitles. Perhaps Knock Out did the same? |
| 519 | ** Knock Out also has the option of driving to a secluded corner on the outside, transforming, then hopping the fence. Done quickly at night, he could probably escape notice. |
| 520 | * So "Synthesis" reveals that Megatron [[spoiler:had the Dark Star Saber in storage during Beast Hunters, and he can apparently wield it without a Prime arm.]] Why did he bother keeping it in storage instead of actually using it during the entire season? |
| 521 | ** Presumably because, as he also has the Star Saber in storage, there is no need. [[Webcomic/{{Erfworld}} One does not simply use the Arkenhammer to crack walnuts]][[note]]Unless you're a Tool, of course[[/note]]. |
| 522 | ** The Dark Star Saber isn't a Prime relic, it's a sword created from Dark Energon. Megatron only needed the Prime arm to use the Forge to create the sword. He just named it "Dark Star Saber" cause he made it as an anti-thesis to the Star Saber. |
| 523 | ** Given the circumstances, Megatron has no need to use it until the finale. In the beginning of Season 3, he has an advantage over the Autobots with Darkmount and a variety of resources at his disposal. Without Optimus to lead them, Megatron can easily crush any Autobot forces with overwhelming numbers alone. The moment when he truly needs it is when Optimus shows up, and his appearance was so sudden that there was no time for Megatron to gain the Dark Star Saber. And even though Megatron has lost the advantage there, there was still no really need for the Dark Star Saber as he's safe within the moving Decepticon warship. It's only when TheJuggernaut Predaking goes on a rampage and the Autobots mounting their last assault did the Dark Star Saber need to be used. |
| 524 | * The Air-To-Air combat in peruasion. Just..........Two Autocannons.........Hovering in place with VTOL...........No Air to Air missiles..............GYAAAHH!!!! |
| 525 | ** Where was Optimus going to get missiles from? Starscream has less excuse, but he ''did'' lead off the combat with one of his missiles, prudently saving the other until he confirmed the source of the signal. |
| 526 | ** I meant the fighter jets vs. Scream's "Aramada". we just see the jets hovering on VTOL and shooting autocannons. |
| 527 | *** Considering that the Autobots were trying to fool Starscream into believing he'd destroyed the base and that Starscream calls humans as the weak link, my best guess is that the military wanted Starscream to believe that his mission would an easy success, for sending heavy fire might provoke Starscream into calling for backup and level the entire military site instead of just simply destroying the hanger. |
| 528 | * So from the movie, it seems that some of the Decepticon Miners/Vehicons opted to [[spoiler: Work with the autobots to rebuild cybertron]]. So, what's their status/motivation for doing so? Are they prisoners of war? Willing converts? Desperate men who'd prefer to be be on the winning team? |
| 529 | ** Since there are several Vehicons who are locked up with Knock Out in the Nemesis [[spoiler: and were killed in the attempt to take over the ship]], it seems the Vehicons who are working outside have made a genuine HeelFaceTurn by choice. And considering the other options around, it's easy to see why. |
| 530 | * [[spoiler:So Optimus is, to all extents, dead. However, Roberto Orci has said that Peter Cullen may return alongside the other actors. If so, what will he do as his character?]] |
| 531 | ** Presumably he'll get his Resurrection-Frequent Flyer Miles card stamped in the afterlife and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_many_deaths_of_Optimus_Prime be back]] just as soon as he can. |
| 532 | ** An actor doesn't have to play the same role over and over again. Aside from the possibility of flashbacks, he could play a new character. |
| 533 | ** He could be a SpiritAdvisor, similar to Alpha Trion. |
| 534 | ** He gets resurrected in Robots in Disguise to fight Megatronus, to the surprise of pretty much no one. |
| 535 | * Oh yeah, on the above spoilered note, is [[spoiler:Starscream]] dead or alive? |
| 536 | ** Well, considering the last couple times that someone tried to kill him off screen, I wouldn't put it past [[spoiler: Screamer]] to show up in the sequel series. |
| 537 | * Another movie related question, Optimus said that only the [=AllSpark=] can create life (by installing a Spark into a body). So does that mean that Predaking and by extension the other Predacons created by Shockwave don't constitute actual sentient living Cybertronians? For that matter, do any of them even ''have'' Sparks? |
| 538 | ** They seemed to be clones of existing transformers rather than entirely new protoforms themselves. Maybe Optimus meant that without the Allspark, they would only be able to resurrect old lifeforms instead of creating entirely new ones? |
| 539 | ** So basically, there sparks are real sparks? I'm still confused. |
| 540 | ** I ''think'' it means that Predaking's ''body'' can be cloned multiple times, and his original spark can be transferred into a new clone body, courtesy of Shockwave. That would go a long way into explaining Predaking's flashbacks of past life times, no doubt a side effect of the cloning process. |
| 541 | ** Maybe Shockwave found a bunch of raw protoforms like Starscream did back in "Armada" and was infusing them with Predacon CNA. Knowing Shockwave, this troper wouldn't be surprised if he has an entire vault of them. |
| 542 | *** But where did Predaking's spark come from and how, given that The Allspark was out of commission at the moment? New sparks weren't being created, and it ''propably'' isn't possible to yank a spark out of the afterlife and just put it in a new body (or at least such acts ''propably'' aren't within Shockwave's power....) |
| 543 | * The makers of the series said themselves that Death in this series is permanent. Does [[PhysicalGod Primus]] get to ignore that? Or are those the sparks of the deceased transformers. And what about all the other decepticons? What about them? |
| 544 | ** In ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'', Primus put some of his essence inside the Matrix of Leadership when Optimus went to Cybertron's core. So it's highly unlikely that he's dead. |
| 545 | ** Given how Unicron is unkillable through any known means and can only to trapped or forced into dormancy I think its safe to say the same for Primus. IIRC, from the games Primus and Cybertron would have recovered after several million years. Too late for the Autobots. Also, given the only known afterlife is to return to Primus I would think the sparks of both Autobots and Decepticons would return to him. As long as they retain enough sense of individuality I would think that they could be separated from Primus and returned to life if Primus willed it. The sparks at the end I think are supposed to be new ones showing that life is returning to the planet. |
| 546 | * In the episode "Alpha Omega" the Autobots find out that they have a chance to rebuild Cybertron so they get excited and Arcee says that the first thing she's going to do when they get back to Cybertron is take an oil bath; but how is that possible? Correct me if I'm wrong but oil is either produced naturally by plants, animals, and other organisms or by ancient fossilized organic materials being geochemically processed underground for millions of years. Cybertron is a matalic world devoid of any carbon based lifeforms so how can there be oil there? Do they ship the oil there from other planets? |
| 547 | ** Why couldn't they? They're capable of interstellar travel, and oil is not actually dependent on fossils, because apparently Saturn's moon, Titan, has lots of oil and I don't think it ever had organic material on it. However, planets like Earth wouldn't build oil baths for giant robots, if only because they're trying to stay on the down low. |
| 548 | * Is anyone else a bit bothered by how utterly weak and incompetent Starscream seems to be in show? The guy gets bossed and bullied by literally everyone he has any sort of altercation with. At least early in the series, he seemed to be semi-capable and cunning, but now it's like he's being turned into a complete assclown who's only here to be the universe Butt Monkey. |
| 549 | ** ...you do realise we're talking about ''Starscream'', right? |
| 550 | ** Yeah, Starscream's entire shtick is that he's trying to overthrow Megatron ''without'' engaging in direct combat, because he ''knows'' Megatron would destroy him easily; after all, Megatron has a giant fusion cannon on hand, Starscream doesn't. For all his cunning, Starscream doesn't do so well in the physical altercation front; thus, he resorts to deception and other underhanded tactics. That, and it's not so much that he's being Flanderized, but that he's simply being too arrogant to realize the flaws before they come up; the Apex Armor, while giving him great strength and endurance, removes his ability to fly, meaning that he has to remain grounded while using it. He's also got a silver tongue and knows what buttons to push to get his way; he just has to watch his own hide. Less "incompetent assclown" and more "cunning, but physically lacking". |
| 551 | |
| 552 | * Why do blasters/arm cannons often come across as ineffective in this series? Yes, they often work fine against Vehicons, but in other cases they come off as weak or useless. Arcee's blasted the Insecticon guarding Kaon dozens of times with no damage. Whenever they miss the energy shot will often just splash harmlessly on the ground, surrounding buildings, etc and do no damage even if Optimus is the one shooting. I know some Transformers are supposed to be more powerful and/or heavily armored than others, but is there really that much of a difference? Since they rely so much on physical attacks in battle is it because their blasters are not that effective aside from Optimus and Megatron? |
| 553 | ** To some extent Cybertronian arm cannons' firepower seems to depend on their size. Megatron, Optimus, and Shockwave fire very powerful blasts; Arcee's much smaller cannons seem to be much weaker. |
| 554 | ** StrongAsTheyNeedToBe. |
| 555 | |
| 556 | * How could the Decepticons possibly NOT have found the Autobot's secret base by the end of the second season? Starscream found out it was an old military base from Fowler (even if that's not known to be reliable, it still makes sense), an enormous amount of fighting happens nearby their base, there's actually a visible installation on top of the plateau their base is hidden in, two Decepticons have been inside it (including Megatron), it's actually CIRCLED by a road when viewed from the sky, AND, if Hard Knocks is any indication, Soundwave knows to send Laserbeak very near to there to start looking for Smokescreen. Are they just not bothering to look for it? |
| 557 | ** For much of Season 1 both Autobots and Decepticons seem to only be trying to gain footing, most of their missions are not combat offensives but attempts to seize Energon and relics. So I assume that efforts to locate the Autobot base is half-hearted, especially since they ave no idea how many soldiers Optimus has, for all they know his army outnumbers theirs. Only when the same four/five bots turn up everytime do they finally start in earnest to locate the base. As for finding it, don't forget they have a ground bridge. Sightings are basically worthless, they have no way of knowing if the Autbots were fighting near their base or teleported from Vietnam to do so. Installations and roads don't mean anything, the US alone has hundreds of places fitting that description. And their bases was stated to be shielded, Megatron can't track it from his ship even when physicaly inside because no signals can penetrate it. |
| 558 | |
| 559 | * In ''Deadlock'', after their victory, Ratchet warns Optimus that he never managed to recover Shockwave's findings about the synthetic energon formula and therefore what synthetic energon is onboard is all they have. Well, they just captured the ship containing Shockwave's lab, couldn't they just peek into his records? It's not like he thought to erase them before leaving because he was in a hurry. |
| 560 | ** Shockwave probably either encrypted his records, or kept the relevant information in his head. |
| 561 | * Does anyone know how Darkmount was back in Predacon Rising when we see it get destroyed in Rebellion? |
| 562 | ** According to the wiki, it was abandoned and being deconstructed by the US government. |
| 563 | *** Where on the wiki? I checked and can't find any such thing. |
| 564 | ** The Darkmount seen in Predacons Rising was the original Darkmount on Cybertron, the one of earth was just a replica. |
| 565 | |
| 566 | * In ''The Human Factor''' - as Megatron asked, why ''did'' Knock Out bring CYLAS to the ''Nemesis''? Why didn't Knock Out just gut and slash CYLAS to death to avenge his fallen comrade Breakdown? |
| 567 | ** Breakdown is a lot stronger than Knock Out, even if the former is basically a corpse driven by an evil terrorist. So, Knock Out didn't had a choice until they got on board the Nemesis where Knock Out has Megatron and the entire crew to help him. |
| 568 | |
| 569 | * I don't get how Megatron getting a political move from restoring Cybertron would gain the public's favor? Won't any Cybertronian be suspicious towards the Con after he was the one who nearly destroyed the planet in the first place, not to mentions the thousands of crimes against innocent bots over the millenia? |
| 570 | ** The Deceptions didn't just spring up from nowhere. When they started, they were a legitimate movement for reform over the corrupt and decadent regime. Most of the initial followers were bots that had been downtrodden by the old caste system who saw the cause as righteous rebellion or just a chance to get justified revenge. This included Orion Pax himself. When the Great War began, it would have seem like a confusing and chaotic time where either the Autobots or Decepticons could be painted as the "good" side with just a bit of propaganda. Sure, the Decepticons really radicalized by that point, but the Autobots probably didn't seem to offer much better aside from a vague sense of self-righteousness while fighting this destructive war. It only got murkier since it was Optimus himself who had to effectively doom Cybertron by jettisoning the Allspark to prevent Megatron misusing it. Fast forward millions of years to now and see Optimus again ruining the chance to restore Cybertron to life just for the sake of what would seem like bugs to most Cybertronians and you can see just how easily he could be painted as the true villain. As evil as Megatron is, he is offering them a home and purpose. Meanwhile Optimus' morality has to seem misguided at best and suicidal at worst after what it has led to. Sure, we know it's all Megatron's fault and that his rule would be nightmarish, but most Cybertronians would only see one side trying to restore their home while the other is ruining it even further. All for the sake some remote dirt ball planet covered in gross flesh creatures that'll be dead in the blink of an eye. If Ratchet, Optimus' oldest friend and ally, was almost ready to abandon him after hearing about it, the average Cybertronian would be baying for his head on a pike. |
| 571 | |
| 572 | * As Megatron asked, why ''did'' Knock Out bring CYLAS to the ''Nemesis''? Why didn't Knock Out just gut and slash CYLAS to death to avenge his fallen comrade Breakdown? |
| 573 | ** Maybe he wanted to see what Megatron would think of this? He did ask Megatron's permission to kill CYLAS so he probably just wanted the go word from him. |
| 574 | ** Agreed. In "Triangulation", Dreadwing says that it's protocol for Decepticons to bring any traitors back to the ''Nemesis'' for Megatron to either decide the punishment or execute them himself. We can assume that this extends to potential prisoners (which, by the end, CYLAS is). |
| 575 | * Is Silas/Cylas truly in control, or is he being subliminally manipulated by leftover bits of Breakdown's programming? The second he's operational/conscious again, CYLAS kills all of his remaining men (despite the fact that he'd always treated them fairly before) in favor of allying himself with the Decepticons. Then he, in true Decepticon fashion, tries to weasel his way into the ranks by giving Megatron the Damoclese satellite. He is a little ''too'' willing to fight Bulkhead, his FauxAffablyEvil personality is practically gone, and he's a lot less pragmatic than before (somehow thinking that the Decepticons would happily accept him into their ranks). |
| 576 | ** There is no real evidence that there is anything left of Breakdown's mind/spark to influence Cylas. His behaviour is likely caused by the simple fact that he got some brain damage after his body got smashed, in addition to being permanently hooked into an experimental life-support system powered by energon. We saw that Cylas's mind is affected by the dark and synthetic energons; seems plausible that the constant exposure to normal energon had some negative side-effects on his brain as well. |
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