Transformers: Prime/Headscratchers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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?
    • Getting a sandwich so when Megatron came back he wouldn't get stepped on for disobeying orders.
    • Apparently Starscream sent him to Texas to commandeer some radio telescopes to replace the equipment Bulkhead damaged.
      • 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.
        • The point of him not really fighting is Jossed as of episode 26. He curbstomps Airachnid.
        • Well, he can fight amazingly well; presumably, it's just not his thing unless someone's making obvious moves against Megatron.
      • The timing doesn't work, as the satellite was damaged during the attack. The most logical explanation was that he just never encountered them.
  • First episode of the series. When riding with Bumblebee to the Autobot base, why is Raf sitting in the backseat?
  • Jack's mom 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?
    • Driving while on a Cell Phone?
  • 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?
    • They were scattered across time zones, and would have had to regroup before they could go and help him.
    • 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.
  • Why aren't there more Autobots on Earth? And where's the Ark?
    • Dude, all we've got so far is the Five Episode Pilot and new episodes don't start til February. Give it some time to answer the questions.
    • There's no Toyline out yet, so it's better to keep the cast small so they wont be forced to kill anyone off to make room. As for the Ark, they probably don't want anything thinking about Noah's.
      • Honestly, I think the lack of the Autobot Ark is more because this is a reboot of the franchise, and it's not necessary; 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.
    • The producers have gone on record as saying that they'll keep the cast size relatively small to keep costs down. 
    • Transformers: War for Cybertron and its sequel are prequels in the Prime universe. If Fall of Cybertron is any indication, we'll find out what happened to the Ark there.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • 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.
  • While it cements his position as a Badass Normal, 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.
    • 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?
    • 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.
  • Miko's voice. If the actress was going for a Japanese accent, they dropped the ball because she sounds more like a female Tommy Wiseau.
    • 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.
      • Does... does this mean we've finally identified Tommy Wiseau's accent as being Indonesian?
  • How, exactly, was Fowler supposed to be transporting the DNGS on that plane?
    • In the cargo space behind him or in the belly of the plane. It doesn't scale very well, but this is Transformers. Scale matters not.
      • 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.
      • Speaking of which, does Starscream in this series transform into the tiniest fighter jet ever or what?
      • He seems bigger in alt mode than he does in robot mode...but, again, that's Transformers scale for you—nothing new. 
  • 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.
    • There's a trope for that. But more seriously, because Ratchet is The Smart Guy, and Wheeljack wouldn't work as well as another Smart Guy.
    • 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 Word of God 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 Informed Ability. 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.
    • Knowing the Wreckers, it's entirely believable that their mechanic would have to be a huge badass.
    • 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.


  • How does Raf know what Bumblebee was saying in the pilot movie? It makes no sense.
    • 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.
      • This is just one of the reasons I made the Raf is Sari 2.0 WMG.
      • In 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, 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:

"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."

  • 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
    • Starscream has them in his concept art and in "Sick Mind" as well.
  • 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?
    • Fowler is just quick to blame them for his problems, and MECH obviously kept under the radar until now.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • In Out of His Head, why is it that Dark Energon made Megatron right as rain, but Cliffjumper Came Back Wrong?
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
      • "The explosions outside of town this afternoon were the result of an army training accident involving live ordnance. There were no casualties, but citizens are advised to avoid the area for the time being ... "
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • 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.
    • Jack showed Megatron mercy. Maybe he felt charitable after that.
    • 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.
    • 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.)
    • 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 Aracnid 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.
    • "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.
    • Because Megatron is a horrible leader with bad judgement of character. If Starscream was leader of the Decepticons, he would get rid of treacherous units in a second.
      • I dunno if that's an accurate statement, at least for the series so far. If Starscream as we've seen him was leader of the Decepticons, any suspicion of treason would send him into an Azula-worthy paranoid tailspin. Watch him carefully: He's only confident when he thinks the other party is absolutely no threat to him, or when he thinks he can out-maneuver the threat they pose (his interaction with Arcee in "Partners" is a great example). OTOH, his decision to fly off on his own could signal some massive development in that area.
      • There's also the problem of "loyal" and "Decepticon" in the same sentence. Megatron has one loyal officer in his army: Soundwave. He KNOWS that's the only loyal officer he's got. Megatron's callous disregard for Breakdown and the company Breakdown keeps isn't exactly the makings of Undying Loyalty towards Megs, only an idiot would trust Airachnid, and Knockout would turn on Megatron in a second if he thought the balance of power had shifted. Since Soundwave isn't suited to be a commander, Megatron sets him to doing important jobs (including watching everyone) and gave the position beneath him to the most COMPETENT of the scheming, opportunistic backstabbers around; Starscream might be transparent in his ambitions, but Megatron knows the rest of them aren't any more loyal and none of them get better results.
  • He keeps Starscream around to keep him on edge.
  • 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. 
    • Animation Lead Time. 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.
      • 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.
      • Hasbro seems to have stopped Canada from airing anymore new episodes before the Hub. The toys are due for release in December, so maybe Hasbro wants the new episodes to air closer to the toyline?
      • 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.
  • 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?
    • Maybe he's not a sadist, or doesn't see humans as worth the trouble.
    • 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, sound, he might have let them go as he thought they might have another use later.
    • However, from observing soundwave and his actions, 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 Word of God death is not cheap would cut off any chance at further development of their many different characters.
      • 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.
      • 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 Soundwave.
    • 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.
    • Perhaps it's pragmaticism 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.
  • Where did all those energon come from. How is it they are found on Earth like tiberium, and how did they get there in the first place?
    • 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.
    • Basically, Earth is a forgotten ammo depot from the Great War.
  • 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.
    • Vehicon Mook 43, Ground Bridge down here. I need an example...
      • Radio signals don't transmit through the caves.
      • 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.
    • With someone there to help they might be able to make some sort of alternate support besides a character doing an Atlas Pose (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.
  • 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.)
  • 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?
    • 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.
  • 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?!
    • We don't.
    • The Needs of the Many 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.
    • Unicron is inhabiting Earth. Kill the mind but keep the body intact, and boom: Problem solved.
    • You're partially right. The autobots plan to put Unicron back into stasis because they cannot really kill him.
  • 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???
    • 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.
    • "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 ...
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • Because he's got bigger things to worry about, and probably wouldn't expect Starscream to be held in the command center itself anyway.
    • 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 more Genre Savvy than most versions, particularly regarding Starscream.
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • Maybe that was his only available restore point?
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • Or he could be faking it.
    • It's basically Rule of Drama, but we can argue that it isn't supposed to be straight deletion of data as you would from a computer. These are Mechanical Lifeforms and not mere machines, there are ways to eliminate memories from the human brain but it is still a big guesswork "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.
  • So is Unicron "dead" (a stretch of the term, I know) now and thus never appearing again, or returning later on?
    • 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).
      • 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?
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
      • 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.
  • 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 You Have Failed Me... and Only I Can Defeat Him 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • Or they all know about Soundwave's Undying Loyalty and know that he can and will beat the scrap out of anyone that tries to seize power from Megatron.
    • 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.
  • 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 Antarctic, which does rest on a landmass, then we'd be screwed.
    • 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.
      • What we basically have is an In-Universe 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.
  • Why is the show so different from the game? the visuals, the history, it seems more like the bayformers than the game?
    • It's sorta similar to the differences between the original cartoon and the |Marvel comic. It's the same basic story and universe, but they have different ways of portraying it.
    • Exodus, WFC, and Prime being one continuity were decided at a late stage (WFC and Exodus already out, Prime on the way) by people not directly involved in the making of either. They weren't written to fit together and it shows. It's kinda like when Takara (the Japanese toy company) suddenly said "RID and Bayformers are all totally in G1 continuity!" and everybody else said "What the slag?!" When people not actually involved in the making of the fiction say something that's clearly nonsense, it's best to ignore it rather than to get a migraine trying to make it fit.
      • Actually, 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.
      • What happens in one clearly didn't happen in all three, which is what sharing a continuity means. Taking place in the same universe but telling the story a different way is a contradiction in terms. And what we have isn't a few differences, but three wholly incompatible, wildly different versions that don't have much in common past the existence of Dark Energon and some events of the early days of the war (maybe those commonalities are because of that production bible.) - not even character designs like the G1 show and comics.
    • The series is not based on the game and the game was not meant to be the backstory to the series, they were developed side-by-side but still independantly from each other. Because of the already mentioned Production Bible they have a good deal of related elements. As far as Hasbro is concerned they are connected through that Bible, not directly to each other in the way that everything in the game is canon to the series. Beast Wars did something similar with regards to G1 and it is a pretty standard useage of Broad Strokes.
  • 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.
    • 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.
      • 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, it probably would have worked.
  • 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.
    • He wanted the Matrix. If he shot Jack, he might destroy it. Shooting Optimus, given the transfer was in progress, was a similar concern.
    • 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.
  • Why didn't Megatron have Optimus/Orion's weapons removed?
    • That would probably have set of Orion's suspicions, especially given that nobody else had their weapons removed.
    • And it would have let Orion know he had weapons.
  • 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 Allspark map in a pair of glasses, no MacGuffin-related sound that only they can hear, no magic key. There haven't been any humans who were constantly with the Autobots despite being completely superfluous since Spike and Sparkplug.
    • 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.
    • If you were assigned to protect someone, and then you become incredibly close friends with that person, would you show them the door just because you decided they no longer needed guarding?
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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?
    • Maybe he's honorable towards Decepticons only or just a good liar
    • 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.
    • 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.
      • He only keeps his word when he gives it.
    • 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.
    • He has his honor, but it isn't Autobot honor.
  • What is with the hating on Sierra? Is it because of Jack X Arcee?
    • She's a human, and therefore despised on principle by fandom.
      • But she's not Miko. That alone should raise her pedigree.
      • Not to mention that even this article's WMG page has one WMG with calling Sierra a Pretender or Silas' daughter (Though the latter could easily have been a joke).
      • Coming from the troper who originally posted the latter, it was a joke. 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 Shinji Ikari and consider his instability and somewhat timid demeanor to be Fridge Brilliance 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 she-gets-kidnapped-solely-because-a-specific-guy-likes-her cliche.
  • 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. Satisfied Street Rat 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?
    • 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".
    • Megatron is obsessed with personal strength- he was perfectly willing to abandon a useful asset like Breakdown because the latter was captured by Puny Humans. 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.
    • 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.
    • 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."
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
      • Megatron flew back to Earth through Spacebridge 1.0. He'd be stuck on Cybertron for good, or until Spacebridge 3.0 was online.
    • "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.
      • The simplest answer is that Death Is Not Cheap on this series. (Marooning Megatron would be tantamount to killing him.)
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • They had accomplished their mission, changing plans on something so delicate might end badly for them. Bailing out and running was reasonable.
  • 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.
    • 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.
      • That rig was obviously supplementing his simple movements. There's a part where the screen is targeting parts of Optimus.
    • 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.
      • 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.
    • Another thing, which is likely an animation error, but why is it that Arcee is maintaining covert surveillance by not having her hologram up?
      • 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?)
      • In this instance, "covert" means "quiet and sneaky" more than it does "disguised".
  • 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.
    • 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 probably busy tracking down the Macguffins Soundwave has already managed to locate.
    • The next episode showed them all aboard the Nemesis; presumably they were fighting the Insecticons conveniently offscreen or something.
  • 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).
    • 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.
  • Why can't Decepticons fly in robot mode?
    • Decepticons are robots just like the Autobots. Their vehicle mode doesn't necessarily translate to every decepticon having a jetpack.
      • 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.
      • 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.
      • 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.
  • Toxicity- is Hardshell dead or alive? He could be either, but given that David Kaye was awesome in this episode...
    • 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.
    • A better question might be Is BULKHEAD still alive?
  • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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?
    • Heck, why not just put the lid back on the container?
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