The Energon Pub

So, I started watching Beast Wars from the beginning like last week. I am now on season 3. Depth Charge debuted a few episodes back and he's a Transmetal. It never bothered me until now. Why is he? He wasn't there when the transwarp explosion happened. He wasn't in one of the stasis pods. Yet, he still is a Transmetal? I don't get it.

Depth Charge went transmetal when he went through that "warp-gate" thingie in pursuit of Protoform X...I see it as something the Vok brought about when they shut down Nexus Earth.....

..I could be wrong on that last part, I dunno.

Didn't he go through the same warp gate as the Maximals/Predacons did orginally?

In Deep Metal you'll notice he's turning Transmetal as he goes through the warp tunnel he runs into. I think basically, after the whole Planet Buster incident, the entire 'atmosphere' of space was contaminated with transmetal... stuff. Meaning that any post-G1 Transformer who entered it would mutate on contact.

Original Sin wrote:Didn't he go through the same warp gate as the Maximals/Predacons did orginally?

I don't think so - the Maximals followed the Predacons through the Transwarp rift the Darkside momentarily opened (very similar to how the Dinoriders story began, actually).

If the Darkside had opened a permanent portal connecting Prehistoric Earth and Future Cybertron, the Maximals would have had reinforcements by the end of the first episode.

I presume that the random rift in ('restricted' i.e. Earth) space that Depthcharge started detecting Protoform X's signal through was:

1) A product of the "quantum wave front" released by destruction of the alien moon at the end of the first season, the same wave that Transmetallized everyone else.

2) The same rift or what have you Starscream's ghost travelled through?

3) A biproduct of Megatron messing with the Alien starship in season two, the vessel which, IIRC, was powered by the Transmetal Driver.

4) A biproduct of Megatron's attempts to alter the time line during the end of the second season.

I have no idea why that was bothering me so much. But I'm glad you guys had some theories and they all sound plausible/something the writers would do.

Know what I think?

After the Predacon/Maximal upgrade, the Transformers found their bodies mutated in Earth's solar system and so the place became off limits. Beast Wars explains exactly why it became restricted.

Maximal/Predacons find Earth's atmosphere dangerous.

Earth goes off limits.

Beast Wars happen.

Earth's atmosphere becomes transmetalised.

Autobot/Decepticon war.

Maximal/Predacon upgrade.

Maximal/Predacons find Earth's atmosphere dangerous.

and the Autobots/Decepticons wouldn't be effected since they aren't made of the same thing as the Predacons/Maximals right?

Original Sin wrote:and the Autobots/Decepticons wouldn't be effected since they aren't made of the same thing as the Predacons/Maximals right?

I assume so.

the Ark was supposedly built from different materials than the Axalon or Dark Syde, so I'd say the Transformers themselves are too.

Maybe if we would have used this theory when we tried to write that one post Beast Machines story we would have gotten a little bit farther

Original Sin wrote:Maybe if we would have used this theory when we tried to write that one post Beast Machines story we would have gotten a little bit farther

I hardly remember it...

Would explain a lot though

Meverix wrote:

Original Sin wrote:and the Autobots/Decepticons wouldn't be effected since they aren't made of the same thing as the Predacons/Maximals right?

I assume so.

the Ark was supposedly built from different materials than the Axalon or Dark Syde, so I'd say the Transformers themselves are too.

Could be the interaction between the quantum field and their energy systems too. Beast Warriors were supposed to be more energy efficient than their ancestors, which is typically attributed to their small size, but could also mean they may have processed Energon differently.

Could also have something to do with their sparks. Although Beast Wars implies that G1 Transformers had them, we never saw them in G1, suggesting, possibly, that they were present in a different 'state'. The more exposed nature of Maximal/Predacon sparks might make them more vulnerable to the quantum field, and would explain why TMIIs' sparks seem to be mutated as well as their bodies.

Could be an interaction of all three.


Of course, all this raises more hackneyed questions.

Why were Airrazor, Tigatron, Dinobot, Waspinator, Inferno, and Black Arachnia unaffected?

We can assume Dinobot and Waspinator were unaffected because they were both in CR chambers at the time. The CR chamber may have shielded them from the Quantum Wave Front, or may have 'repaired' any changes as they were happening, preventing the mutation from occurring.

But that still leaves the other four. Interestingly, all four had been activated on Earth, but what could that have to do with the effects of the QWF? And if that precluded them from being Transmetalized, why didn't it prevent Transmutate and Rampage from being turned into Transmetals in their stasis-pods?

Also, are the Fuzors Transmetals? Silverbolt has exposed hinges in Beast Mode like a Transmetal, Quickstrike has the metallic skin and the glowing eyes of a Transmetal, and both appear to be more resistant to energon fields than normal TFs.

Could it be that they made him a Transmetal in the show just because Hasbro had already made his toy one?

There were actually Transmetals that never made the show, like Ramulus.

Caelus wrote:Could be the interaction between the quantum field and their energy systems too. Beast Warriors were supposed to be more energy efficient than their ancestors, which is typically attributed to their small size, but could also mean they may have processed Energon differently.

Could also have something to do with their sparks. Although Beast Wars implies that G1 Transformers had them, we never saw them in G1, suggesting, possibly, that they were present in a different 'state'. The more exposed nature of Maximal/Predacon sparks might make them more vulnerable to the quantum field, and would explain why TMIIs' sparks seem to be mutated as well as their bodies.

Could be an interaction of all three.


Of course, all this raises more hackneyed questions.

Why were Airrazor, Tigatron, Dinobot, Waspinator, Inferno, and Black Arachnia unaffected?

We can assume Dinobot and Waspinator were unaffected because they were both in CR chambers at the time. The CR chamber may have shielded them from the Quantum Wave Front, or may have 'repaired' any changes as they were happening, preventing the mutation from occurring.

But that still leaves the other four. Interestingly, all four had been activated on Earth, but what could that have to do with the effects of the QWF? And if that precluded them from being Transmetalized, why didn't it prevent Transmutate and Rampage from being turned into Transmetals in their stasis-pods?

Also, are the Fuzors Transmetals? Silverbolt has exposed hinges in Beast Mode like a Transmetal, Quickstrike has the metallic skin and the glowing eyes of a Transmetal, and both appear to be more resistant to energon fields than normal TFs.

Hmmmmm.

I don't think energy efficiency has much to do with anything. I mean, it just doesn't really.. seem.. related. But hey, I don't know.

What I can say with relative certainty is that sparks were retroactively incorporated into G1. In the cartoon series they were called Laser Cores. From The Agenda and Master Blaster episodes, I'm going to say Sparks most certainly existed in G1 as they did in Beast Wars, the way human hearts/brains haven't changed. Also remember that the Oracle/Matrix/Allspark has always sent out Sparks into the universe, it wouldn't have sent out other things then decided to switch to Sparks at some point. So I think we can rule out Sparks being the crucial difference. How 'exposed' they are can also be ruled out, as I don't personally think G1 Megatron's chest was much deeper than BW Megatron's, and we saw both. HOWEVER, there is a difference in armour (thickness or whatever) that could have attributed to how mutation would go.

TMIIs came about just out of merging two sparks (or at least putting two in the same body). That isn't exactly the same as a quantum surge. But that only applies to Megs and Primal. Dinobot was an experiment using the driver, and cheetor was an accident of that experiment.

The ones unnaffected... We've said Dinobot, Waspinator and Rhinox were in CR chambers/tanks. Airazor and Tigertron had personally interacted with Vok technology (as had Primal, but he wasn't present at the quantum surge). Inferno was offline/unconcious. This doesn't explain, however, how Tarantulus became transmetal in an even worse state, but I put that down to him having different origins, therefore not being a transformer of Cybertron (and thus being made of different materials or whatever).

Transmutate was Transmetal. Rampage said this himself, I believe.

However, Rampage seems to be the oddity. He was born on Earth and was still affected. I say again this was due to the atmosphere. He was active on Cybertron previously (where Tigertron, Airazor and Silverbolt were not) and so was in a similar state to any other Transformer who was not born on Earth. Airazor, Tigertron and Silverbolt all seem to not be aware of any previous existence (Silverbolt's line: Cybertron- the home I've never known).

Disregard the Timelines story where the former two are active since that was obviously done by a different production team who wrote it by a different set of 'rules'. This applies to G1 also.

Silverbolt and Quickstrike, I don't know. I'd have to say their bodies are just mutated, so they exhibit both muscle/fur, and their original metal bodies together. Not 'Transmetal', just metal. Obviously this metal must be transmetal to an extent, as the Beasties original bodies had to be switched out because of the energon radiation. THAT SAID, the quantum surged ignited all those deposits so it wasn't an issue anymore.

They say in "Coming of the Fuzors" that Quickstrike and Silverbolt's datatracks were destroyed. Seems to be a common theme though. Tigatron's were, same with Airazor and Inferno. It seemed like none of them had any recollection of Cybertron.

I've always assumed that Tigatron, Airazor, Blackarachnia, and Inferno weren't Transmetal because they were protoforms.

Rhinox, Dinobot, and Waspinator were all in CR.

Terrorsaur and Scorponok were "going Transmetal" as they sunk into the lava.

I assumed Rampage was Transmetal because his stasis pod was hit by the quantum surge.

simple

transmetal rocks

depthcharge rocks

therefore depthcharge is transmetal

the algebra of transformers!

Manitou Z3ROhour wrote:simple

transmetal rocks

depthcharge rocks

therefore depthcharge is transmetal

the algebra of transformers!

This guy's got it sussed.

Manitou Z3ROhour wrote:simple

transmetal rocks

depthcharge rocks

therefore depthcharge is transmetal

the algebra of transformers!

I almost sig-quoted this!

Such truth nearly brings me to tears!

All these theories are very complicated. Here's mine:

He was a triple changer..Ta da!

He goes back in time, gets a new second alt mode from a stingray...simple as that. Rampage is just a freak so I'm not even gonna try to explain him.

Or to sell toys.