The Energon Pub

...that the autobots choose some pretty lame alt modes. The main characters are cars and trucks whilst the decepticons have more battle oriented modes such as tanks and fighter jets. Anybody got any idea why this is?

Autobots are pacifists while the Deceptions are militaristic.

That's how i've always looked at it.

It's been made pretty clear (in multiple continuitues) that the Autobots mostly rose from crafters and artisans and such, where Decepticons largely came from soldiers built for military and combat purposes and the like...

Ooooooor, you could just as easily argue that the Autobots are in major denial and the Decepticons are not. Sure, blahtyblah, the Autobots are happy little collectivites making art and modern interpretive dance up until the Decepticons come in and start stomping skidplate, but...

They ain't any more. Seems to me when I watch my DVDs, any continuity, they are both whaling the mechanical SNOT out of each other. And the Autobots normally win. Which means that they're better at the whaling of mechanical snot than the so-called non-pacifistic types. Odd, right?

So their cutesy little alt modes are just part of their denial of the fact that ('scuse me Siren Prime), they're giant warbots. Whatever they were in the past, even on the kiddies' cartoon, they're using weapons and fighting now and in every comic I read, every episode I watch....

HK, only in my dreams do they do modern interpretive dance.

Kind of figured that your selection of an altmode is at least partly limited by pre-existing upgrades and design aspects.

For example, unless they're upgraded with a mass-shifting system, a two ton Autobot can't really select a 60 ton tank as an alternate mode, and still have a functional disguise. And characters like Grapple, Inferno, and Hoist were configured with alternate modes that complemented their duties well.

If there weren't some sort of limitations on what bot could have what alternate mode, Teletran-1 would have simply used the first thing it scanned (an F-15 IIRC) for everyone in the G1 cartoon and comic.

And appropriately, there were individuals on both sides that violated the norms. Even before they made a point of bringing in the Stunticons and the Aerialbots, there were the Constructicons, the Reflector trio, Soundwave & the Cassetticons, Hound, Warpath, and Powerglide.

Additionally, if you go by the story-line related in Megatron: Origins, and hinted at in War Within, built in weapons & tools are added to a G1 Transformer's structure, rather than in-born, with many Decepticons undergoing painful surgeries to increase their armor and firepower, and slowly turn their noncombat alternate modes into real war-machines.

The Autobots on the other hand, for the most part never did that, opting instead to carry conventional pistols & rifles, or adapting the noncombat tools they already had. Since (in the comics) character's cybertronian modes usually seem to be functionally identical to their earth modes, the Autobots' average-Joe cybertronian alternate modes were reconfigured into civilian ones on Earth.

An Autobot could probably undergo the same procedures the Decepticons did to receive comparable abilities (WW: Darkages implies that Jetfire did), but it may be perceived as violation of cultural norms or spiritual beliefs. I mean, it would be like a healthy human soldier volunteering to have himself cut up and turned into a deadly version of Inspector Gadget. You have to be kind of a fanatical psycho to do that.

hellkitty wrote:They ain't any more. Seems to me when I watch my DVDs, any continuity, they are both whaling the mechanical SNOT out of each other. And the Autobots normally win. Which means that they're better at the whaling of mechanical snot than the so-called non-pacifistic types. Odd, right?

No, they're the good guys, good guys always win. It's that simple.

Were TF's real and the war real, the Decepticons would easily have won with their superior firepower.

Take the movie for example, how many did it take to bring down Brawl? And he's a classic example of a Decepticon designed for war and he stood up to attacks from multiple Autobots, which included the Autobots biggest gun carrier.

But in the end, the good guys had to win ...

Burn wrote:

hellkitty wrote:They ain't any more. Seems to me when I watch my DVDs, any continuity, they are both whaling the mechanical SNOT out of each other. And the Autobots normally win. Which means that they're better at the whaling of mechanical snot than the so-called non-pacifistic types. Odd, right?

No, they're the good guys, good guys always win. It's that simple.

Were TF's real and the war real, the Decepticons would easily have won with their superior firepower.

Or if TFs were anything like humans there would have been a lot more characters like Grimlock and Roadbuster, that see the ends (good guys winning) as justifying the means (killing the enemy in their sleep, etc.).

Caelus wrote:Kind of figured that your selection of an altmode is at least partly limited by pre-existing upgrades and design aspects.

For example, unless they're upgraded with a mass-shifting system, a two ton Autobot can't really select a 60 ton tank as an alternate mode, and still have a functional disguise. And characters like Grapple, Inferno, and Hoist were configured with alternate modes that complemented their duties well.

If there weren't some sort of limitations on what bot could have what alternate mode, Teletran-1 would have simply used the first thing it scanned (an F-15 IIRC) for everyone in the G1 cartoon and comic.

And appropriately, there were individuals on both sides that violated the norms. Even before they made a point of bringing in the Stunticons and the Aerialbots, there were the Constructicons, the Reflector trio, Soundwave & the Cassetticons, Hound, Warpath, and Powerglide.

Additionally, if you go by the story-line related in Megatron: Origins, and hinted at in War Within, built in weapons & tools are added to a G1 Transformer's structure, rather than in-born, with many Decepticons undergoing painful surgeries to increase their armor and firepower, and slowly turn their noncombat alternate modes into real war-machines.

The Autobots on the other hand, for the most part never did that, opting instead to carry conventional pistols & rifles, or adapting the noncombat tools they already had. Since (in the comics) character's cybertronian modes usually seem to be functionally identical to their earth modes, the Autobots' average-Joe cybertronian alternate modes were reconfigured into civilian ones on Earth.

An Autobot could probably undergo the same procedures the Decepticons did to receive comparable abilities (WW: Darkages implies that Jetfire did), but it may be perceived as violation of cultural norms or spiritual beliefs. I mean, it would be like a healthy human soldier volunteering to have himself cut up and turned into a deadly version of Inspector Gadget. You have to be kind of a fanatical psycho to do that.

Very well thought out and well put. Especially in the case of Megatron, who went to the final extent of turning himself in to a weapon.

Plus in terms of the disguise aspect, there are a lot more cars out there than military vehicles. Therefore easier to hide among them when the TF is a car itself.

Again, it also reflects the Autobots' peaceloving natures.

Mykltron wrote:...that the autobots choose some pretty lame alt modes. The main characters are cars and trucks whilst the decepticons have more battle oriented modes such as tanks and fighter jets. Anybody got any idea why this is?

Hey, at least they didn't choose monkeys!