The Energon Pub

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F HAPPENED DURING ALL THAT TIME?

4 million years is huge. Did the war just paused during all that time?

Shockwave played Solitaire and Mine Swepper during 4 million years?

The Quintessons just chilled and played fetch with the Sharkticons?

Unicron played bowling in some asteroids field?

This 4 million years time leap needs some explanations.

As far as I know, this is all about human evolution. 4 million years ago, there were no modern humans in the world. The early hominids were too primitive to be influenced by the presence of the Ark. This explains how humanity evolved without Cybertronian taint. It also demonstrates that Cybertronian technology is very rust-proof!

snavej wrote:As far as I know, this is all about human evolution. 4 million years ago, there were no modern humans in the world. The early hominids were too primitive to be influenced by the presence of the Ark. This explains how humanity evolved without Cybertronian taint. It also demonstrates that Cybertronian technology is very rust-proof!

I supposed that was only for the bots to arrive on Earth before modern humans existed. But if they arrived at just 100 000 years BC, it would have been the same, with a much more reasonable time-leap.

Unless Shockwave was the only Transformers that remained behind on Cybetron, and he have the patience of a Buddhist monk, these 4 millions years where NOTHING happened makes zero sense.

The 4 M years was first written in the comics, 1984. If you know the history of the comic, it was written in a hurry. It was actually rewritten in a hurry. Originally, the Transformers were going to be built by humans. The writers realised that that was not feasible. They had to change it quickly. They didn't have much time for getting details right.

snavej wrote:The 4 M years was first written in the comics, 1984. If you know the history of the comic, it was written in a hurry. It was actually rewritten in a hurry. Originally, the Transformers were going to be built by humans. The writers realised that that was not feasible. They had to change it quickly. They didn't have much time for getting details right.

That is a given. Sht happen.

But since over 40 years, there's no in-universe lore at all for what happened during that time?

On Cybertron, the war dragged on. The Autobots were nearly defeated. Lord Straxus was in charge of the Decepticons. There were some G1 comics about it.

On Earth, no one officially discovered the Transformers until 1984.

snavej wrote:On Cybertron, the war dragged on. The Autobots were nearly defeated. Lord Straxus was in charge of the Decepticons. There were some G1 comics about it.

On Earth, no one officially discovered the Transformers until 1984.

Of course, nothing happened on Earth. But on Cybetron, the "war" must have been some insults and petty pranks done every few millenia.

That is, until Megatron wake up finally and fuk everything up.

This is the absolute worst aspect of TF lore in all media. Ever. I hate it. Whenever I think about it too deeply it breaks my immersion.

I like how Dreamwave just had everyone shut down for millennia because they lost power. Perfect!

Gauntlet101010 wrote:This is the absolute worst aspect of TF lore in all media. Ever. I hate it. Whenever I think about it too deeply it breaks my immersion.

I like how Dreamwave just had everyone shut down for millennia because they lost power. Perfect!

Me and my friend are making a web-comic featuring his toys and my customs. In our lore, an experiment has gone very wrong, resulting in a huge EMP like shockwave that not only cause the crash of the Ark and Nemesis on Earth, but it also shut down Cybertron and the remaining TFs for that long. Then, it took some millions of years for the auto-repairs to kick in.

Dreamwave just had everyone shut down for millennia because they lost power. Perfect!

And conveniently only Shockwave magically woke up all by himself, and took control of Cybertron, waking up only those he knew wouldn't oppose him. Except for Ultra Magnus.

As for the general concept of "4 million years later" which did get its inception in the comics but was used in the cartoon as well, you have to remember, both comic and cartoon was produced to sell toys to children, and the creators knew that most kids would have no problem just accepting the concept, because both stories would be focusing on Earth instead of Cybertron at least initially.

For me, in just 20 years leaders change on a near annual basis. Unicron shows up, creates Galvatron, who travels back in time, and new advancements with humans and nebulons happen.

Yet in 4 million years Shockwave and co do not even change their hairstyles or alt modes.

skyshadowprimus wrote:For me, in just 20 years leaders change on a near annual basis. Unicron shows up, creates Galvatron, who travels back in time, and new advancements with humans and nebulons happen.

Yet in 4 million years Shockwave and co do not even change their hairstyles or alt modes.

Yup. That's what bugged me to no end.
So, I came up with the theory that an incident put in stasis every single TF in the galaxy for this time.

skyshadowprimus wrote:Yet in 4 million years Shockwave and co do not even change their hairstyles or alt modes.

Shockwave considers his alt mode perfect for him. Changing it would be... illogical.

Millions of years, but nobody undergoes any personal growth, except in the relatively short timespan we see them in. Even Wheeljack's lab is exactly where he left it.

It only makes sense if everyone just stops. As a kid you rarely saw MTMTE, so it's not like you're always reminded that the war went on for this absurd amount of time.

I prefer a FAR shorter war. Make it something relatable. Not longer than the entirety of human civilization. Not if TFs have the same sort of personal growth timelines we do. If it takes a small amount of time for BB to grow into a leader naturally what was he doing for literally millions of years (movies I know, but it's the same problem).

-Kanrabat- wrote:So, I came up with the theory that an incident put in stasis every single TF in the galaxy for this time.

Big problem with that would be, "in 4 million years, no other species took over Cybertron, or even laid an appendage on it?"

Burn wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:So, I came up with the theory that an incident put in stasis every single TF in the galaxy for this time.

Big problem with that would be, "in 4 million years, no other species took over Cybertron, or even laid an appendage on it?"

Maybe TFs are in stasis but automated defences would annihilate almost any invader.

Cyberverse did it even better and changed it to a whopping 65 million years.