The Energon Pub

Lorekeeper wrote:

Scatterlung wrote: That's why they called Robots In Disguise.

Oh.. "disguise!" I thought they could all fly. The Autobots confused me to no end. hey, they're not in the skies!

"Robots in de skies"

Hahahaha, that's what I used to think

I can agree with much has been said already (specifically the quints creating the transformers), but I am also irked by the whole concept of gender and romance. Yeah, storywise it may have been cute for Botanica and Ratrap to lock mechanical lips together, but the mechanics of it all.... how does that work and to what purpose? And looking at Animated, just what sort of magical mojo is being effected when Black Arachnia encounters pretty much any male autobot?

I haven't read the spotlight arcee either, which i'm told somewhat talks about the gender issue, but for the most part romance in the transformers universe is just something I find.... well, irksome.

darkqueen01 wrote:
I haven't read the spotlight arcee either, which i'm told somewhat talks about the gender issue

That's an AWESOME issue btw...You should check it out

typh0id wrote:

darkqueen01 wrote:
I haven't read the spotlight arcee either, which i'm told somewhat talks about the gender issue

That's an AWESOME issue btw...You should check it out

Consider it another item on my long list of things that I need to buy. I've heard good things, to be sure.

Windsweeper wrote:I wholeheartedly agree with Editor. I too am sick of the constant G1 reboot.

I was didsappointed when Dreamwave didn't continue on from the Marvel G2 comics but then I did grow to love the Dreamwave stuff. Especially since they really seemed to get the characters.

Again, I was disappointed IDW restarted the continuity again. And because they changed so much stuff, I just haven't warmed to their G1 like the others. But I do like some of their ideas.

I know I sound like a typical G1-er but that's how I feel. I do like the Universe comics because they carried on from BW/BM and even a certain BW dvd had an extra that tied BW to the Marvel comics.

I read somewhere that Marvel wouldn't Dreamwave do that because there were some copyright issues with the human characters, besides I shudder to think how ugly Circuit Breaker would have looked drawn by Pat Lee.

For one every good thing that Dreamwave did they at least two bad things, and most of their stories was just a badly written fanfic.

IDW was wise not to restart from where DW's crap.

Have to agree with the earlier poster on the mega-cycle/time issue. It is hard to keep track of.

I don't find hard to keep track of but it's annoying as hell.

I usually refer to issue 8 of the MTMTE series for the basics and terminology.

One of the few things that Dreamwave did right.

I really miss Dreamwave.

I miss Dreamwave's annoying anime art style that almost every artist had to do and often hurt the series and art.
I miss all the blown deadlines.
I miss Dreamwave not interacting with the fanbase.
I miss Optimus Prime man-boobs and inflatable feet.
I miss each issue of every series having 7 million series (something I wish IDW would stop).
I miss badly written stories.

What I really think is silly are Transformers with beards. I can understand Unicron and even Scourge but Alpha Trion. I just think it looks so stupid. That and Ratrrap's buckteeth.

Also not a fan of Animated's handling of the Prime/rank issue.

Or the movie Allspark, and the way it turns machines into Transformers almost magically.

The rest I agree with.

Cyberstrike wrote:I miss Optimus Prime man-boobs and inflatable feet.

I would so enjoy a picture of this.

Lately the whole TF:A "Processor over Matter" thing has been getting out of hand. My husband and I are starting to use it when we're lazy to do things around the house, making all these "Processor over Matter" jokes. The idea is getting ridiculous.

I'm going to dare and be the minority here and say how much the Unicron/Primus origin never sat well with me. Even when I was a little kid I would wonder "Who actually built them?"

To me a giant robot deity as an origin explanation was the same thing as saying "A wizard did it." The Quints just made more sense, because you know how important that is when watching alien robots fight. Again note that this is how *I* feel. Robots + Religion =

Also, as mentioned earlier, absolutly nothing happening on Cybertron while the ARK crew was gone. More specifically no changes in technology. Humans in the fiction advance in very little amounts of time but the "advanced" transformers accomplish nothing? A more interesting approach to that would be in the next inevitable G1 reboot the Autobots/Decepticons return to Cybertron and it ended up looking like Axium Nexus because everyone had their own approach to solving the energy crisis. Everything and everyone would be different. But I do understand from the writers point of view the problems if they attempted such a thing.

Ponycorn wrote:Lately the whole TF:A "Processor over Matter" thing has been getting out of hand. My husband and I are starting to use it when we're lazy to do things around the house, making all these "Processor over Matter" jokes. The idea is getting ridiculous.

Now that this was mentioned I'm a little irked about the whole "ninja" motif in Animated. More of a pirate fan myself, but i still dig the ninja and all, but while watching "Five Servos of Doom" I could barely stifle an "Pfffft". I couldn't really take it seriously. I think I'm just having difficulties in the idea that Mostly mechanical beings can have some sort of deep spiritual side that can allow them to perform feats of eastern pseudo-religious feats of amazingness. Which then leads me too....

Star_ling wrote:To me a giant robot deity as an origin explanation was the same thing as saying "A wizard did it." The Quints just made more sense, because you know how important that is when watching alien robots fight. Again note that this is how *I* feel. Robots + Religion =

I think either origin story is going to have its fans and it's haters. The idea of a giant robot deity does seem kinda funny, but really, what other deity/godlike figure would make sense, unless you want to try to be funny and say that said god was a omnipotent child who wanted cool toys to play with. Or if you wanted to get really crazy it could be argued that Primus and all the earth deities are just one in the same and appear differently to the two alien cultures. I mean, really, wouldn't a giant robot deity for humans, like, I dunno, BLOW YOUR MIND?!?!?!

I would bet that if a fan was more accepting to the idea of their own personal belief in a spiritual being(s) creating life then they might be more inclined to believe in the Primus creation story, vs the manufacturing creation with the Quints. I have no real way to back up this notion, its just a random thought.

The TF's are sentient beings with a culture. They're bound to come up with mythical explanations for existential questions. Some could even be based on shreds of evidence.

I like the primus/unicron thing as a STORY, the kind that the TF's would tell themselves. I don't like the primus/unicron thing as a given fact. It takes out the mystery for simple dogma. Blech.

As for TF:A's mechamysticism, I like the idea of it. Why shouldn't some TF's be prone to mysticism? Why, as a piece of fiction, shouldn't the mysticism actually produce magical effects? On a more sci-fi level, couldn't the TF be producing a signal that overrides or instructs the machinery that Prowl interacts with in the episode?

What I don't like is the Smurf jargon. "Processor over matter?" C'mon now. TF's don't have minds? One might as well say "Smurf over matter." At least "Mind over matter" is alliterative. What is a "servo" anyways? I thought it was a motor. ... quick google... some kind of feedback control. Not even remotely appropriate. Might as well say "gadget" or "smurf."
Some kind of lexicon would make sense... optics for eyes... coolant or lubricant as bodily fluids... spark for soul (I guess)... manipulators for bots that don't have proper hands... "bot" for generic robotic person, a sort of a pronoun... ventilators for respiaroty bits... etc.
But they've got to drop the crap for being down with "robot culture." "Servo" has got to go.

Lorekeeper, I agree with the need for a standard lexicon if only to stop future facepalms howevr for Servo i think you should reconcider.

Checking the wiki for Servomechanism and you will see that saying:

[quote=Lorekeeper]some kind of feedback control[/quote]

Is to oversimplifying things completely. Within a completely mechanical being the use of servos in connection to various elements found within their superstructure would provide a number of functions from assisting with articulation for manipulation and transforming to even doubling in attaching elements in the same way we have tendons and connective tissue holding muscles to bone and such.

Yes it is overused, but it does deserve to be used in the lexicon.

Editor wrote:Lorekeeper, I agree with the need for a standard lexicon if only to stop future facepalms howevr for Servo i think you should reconcider.

...

Is to oversimplifying things completely. Within a completely mechanical being the use of servos in connection to various elements found within their superstructure would provide a number of functions from assisting with articulation for manipulation and transforming to even doubling in attaching elements in the same way we have tendons and connective tissue holding muscles to bone and such.

Yes it is overused, but it does deserve to be used in the lexicon.

Certainly, but a servo is more a part of a robot's "nervous system" than it is its hands or fingers.

Ture enough, than can we agree that it can be used but should only be used correctly?

Editor wrote:Ture enough, than can we agree that it can be used but should only be used correctly?

Sure. I just like the way "'Servo' has got to go" sounds. Interior rhyme and all that jargon. Hearing them use it the way they did, though, was like putting my brain through a cheese grater.

darkqueen01 wrote:

Ponycorn wrote:Lately the whole TF:A "Processor over Matter" thing has been getting out of hand. My husband and I are starting to use it when we're lazy to do things around the house, making all these "Processor over Matter" jokes. The idea is getting ridiculous.

Now that this was mentioned I'm a little irked about the whole "ninja" motif in Animated. More of a pirate fan myself, but i still dig the ninja and all, but while watching "Five Servos of Doom" I could barely stifle an "Pfffft". I couldn't really take it seriously. I think I'm just having difficulties in the idea that Mostly mechanical beings can have some sort of deep spiritual side that can allow them to perform feats of eastern pseudo-religious feats of amazingness. Which then leads me too....

Star_ling wrote:To me a giant robot deity as an origin explanation was the same thing as saying "A wizard did it." The Quints just made more sense, because you know how important that is when watching alien robots fight. Again note that this is how *I* feel. Robots + Religion =

I think either origin story is going to have its fans and it's haters. The idea of a giant robot deity does seem kinda funny, but really, what other deity/godlike figure would make sense, unless you want to try to be funny and say that said god was a omnipotent child who wanted cool toys to play with. Or if you wanted to get really crazy it could be argued that Primus and all the earth deities are just one in the same and appear differently to the two alien cultures. I mean, really, wouldn't a giant robot deity for humans, like, I dunno, BLOW YOUR MIND?!?!?!

I would bet that if a fan was more accepting to the idea of their own personal belief in a spiritual being(s) creating life then they might be more inclined to believe in the Primus creation story, vs the manufacturing creation with the Quints. I have no real way to back up this notion, its just a random thought.

Actually there was a thread around here awhile ago asking what TF creation story/myth you prefered and that was actually brought up. My own personal religious beliefs don't neccesarily reflect the ones I prefer for TF fiction. In this case not at all and I know other fans on this site feel the same way. It could be argued that we, or myself at least, dont enjoy the parallel being made between this and our own beliefs. We talked about this for a bit and what religion the show was actually reflecting and why it may or may not have been appropriate, you know G1=Christianity, Beast Machines=Hinduism (cant remember if this was the one they said), etc.

Of course that's speaking more on the level of ideology because I never gave it too much serious consideration. Plus I'm pretty sure the creators barely gave it as much thought as we do sometimes
Also I was saying that a Deity didn't have to be a option as we see with the Quints. The only other "deity" for them I can think of would be like Vector Sigma aka the "life giver".

bossbot wrote:Primacron.

And i agree that was realy lame, Unicron is like this ultimate warrior-god in the movie, this ultimate threat, even his harmlessly floating head still fills transformers with fear throughout most of season3

and all of a sudden we find out he was created by some little creature who just happende to just complete a 'new and improved' version of him,(the electrocloud thing) like unicron was just another doomsdayweapon of the week....

and then THAT gets beaten by grimlock?

The more I think about it, the more it "irks" me.

You know what I think about the Primacron/Unicron nonsense?

Primacron built a giant robot. Then the wandering spark of Unicron, blasted from his body in another universe, found his way into this one, unbeknownst to Primacron and everyone else, of course.

Does that work?

i never thought about that bs. its lame. wtf. why aren't people afraid of PRIMACRON? he can build the damn things.

Scatterlung wrote:You know what I think about the Primacron/Unicron nonsense?

Primacron built a giant robot. Then the wandering spark of Unicron, blasted from his body in another universe, found his way into this one, unbeknownst to Primacron and everyone else, of course.

Does that work?

If you buy into a connected multiverse, I guess so.

Lorekeeper wrote:

Scatterlung wrote:You know what I think about the Primacron/Unicron nonsense?

Primacron built a giant robot. Then the wandering spark of Unicron, blasted from his body in another universe, found his way into this one, unbeknownst to Primacron and everyone else, of course.

Does that work?

If you buy into a connected multiverse, I guess so.

Oh well yeah, personally I quite like the idea.

I don't mind not seeing it in the actual series themselves but its something to think about in the background.

Although I'm not going to go an try to explain Primus' location in G1.

I have a general question about Transformer creation in the IDW lore:

I'm wondering if the Transformer population, since it cannot "reproduce", is a limited species. I know that all Transformers are living robots because they each have a spark given to them by Primus, who is also the planet Cybertron, and is currently dormant.

So does this mean that all Transformer sparks were created once by Primus, but never will be again? If the Cybertronian race were completely wiped out save a few, those remaining essentially could do nothing to rebuild their race, because, as far as I understand, you can't just recreate Transformers at your leisure—like Megatron did with the Stunticons or the Autobots with the Dinobots in the G1 cartoon—because the spark has to come from Primus.

Different question: I've also been wondering how the Autobots fund their war expenses. It can't be taxes. Paid protection by threatened planets maybe?

8 bit wrote:Different question: I've also been wondering how the Autobots fund their war expenses. It can't be taxes. Paid protection by threatened planets maybe?

Swindle would sell his own motherboard to the highest bidder.

I'm sure in times of desperation, Autobots would be willing to shell out that little extra to characters like Swindle who'll sell them weapons and such. Obviously not Swindle specifically, since he has vested interest, but you know.

Has it been determined yet what version of the Transformers history is being used in TFA?

Point: will we be seeing a TFA version of Unicron, Primus, or the Quints?

Or, has the Allspark taken the place of those?

Random wrote:Has it been determined yet what version of the Transformers history is being used in TFA?

Point: will we be seeing a TFA version of Unicron, Primus, or the Quints?

Or, has the Allspark taken the place of those?

I'd bet on the latter...

I bet you are right.

I really don't have any big problems with the lore/mythos/continuity. I care some, but I don't guess I care enough to get overly frustrated with it. I mean some things are kind of annoying, but I think all the stories are pretty interesting, so it really doesn't bother me much.