The Energon Pub

[Cthulhunicron]

So we're told that the Allspark is what powers Cybertron, that it is an Energon source, and that it is needed to rebuild the Transformers home.

Apparently the Allspark contains a tremendous, yet finite amount of Energon. When it is depleted, it must be re-filled using a solar harvester.

If the Fallen was on Earth 17,000 years ago to build a solar harvester, that must mean that the Allspark was getting close to empty. The harvester is never activated, thanks to the intervention of the Primes. Thousands of years pass, war rages between the Autobots and Decepticons, and presumably more Energon is drained from the Allspark. Megatron wants all the Energon for himself, so Optimus launches the Allspark into space so that Megatron can't get his hands on it. In a huge coincidence, the Allspark just happens to land on the exact same planet on which the harvester was constructed.

So now the Transformers have no Energon supply whatsoever. Despite this, they follow the Allspark and continue their fight on Earth, as we saw in the two films. Despite the Allspark's Energon levels being low, it still is capable of repairing Frenzy's body, fueling certain devices at the Sector 7 base, incapacitating Megatron with its "raw power," and later reviving the Decepticon leader using a mere shard.

So if during the events of the two movies, the Transformers don't have an Energon supply, how are they able to function? Jetfire is rusting and falling apart from Energon starvation, yet the other Transformers seem perfectly fine. I mean...maybe just before the Cube was launched into space, they all had Energon reserves stockpiled and were surviving on that. But after the destruction of the Allspark, the Autobots don't seem concerned in the slightest. What exactly were they planning on doing for Energon? Are they running on diesel now? If they can run on fossil fuels, then why do they need Energon?

[Foxbear]

Most of these questions are addressed in other Bay-verse media; comic books, novels, ect. If you are like me and can't attend the movie theatre for medical reasons, this stuff is a life saver! Anyway, I wondered about this too. So here are my conclusions. Feel free to point out logical errors.

All thirteen primes set out across the galaxy to find suitable worlds for star harvesters. I got the impression that they had found several and repowered the Allspark more than once. The Fallen just got lazy or thought a life filled planet would work better so they had to stop him. But it is quite possible the Allspark was brim full of Energon when the Primes sacrificed themselves.

Optimus clearly was worried about the amount of Energon Megatron would have access to if he captured the Allspark, that’s why he sent it off world in the first place, so it must have been pretty charged when it left Cybertron.

According to the Fallen it was no coincidence the Allspark headed straight for Earth after Prime sent it into space. It was in the Allspark's design/programming to seek out star harvesters if left adrift. This is why the Fallen ordered Megatron to go after the Allspark himself instead of continuing to battle Prime and the Autobots. Send out the fastest, strongest warrior to capture two birds with one stone.

The Allspark had easily fueled an entire planet of billions of sentient machines and their infrastructure for millennia, giving birth to untold numbers of Cybertronians before it came to Earth. Running a few human machines for a few decades and reviving a handful of Cybertronians wouldn’t have been too great a task.

In the novels Ironhide explains to Staff Sergeant Epps that Energon is naturally occurring. There is probably some on Earth even that could be mined. But they can make an artificial Energon substitute that can sustain them just as well as the real thing and is much more stable. Jetfire didn’t have the resources to make his own or to mine and purify the naturally occurring sources. With the aid of the humans infrastructure the Prime team did.

But to harvest and purify and transport the amount needed to sustain a healthy Cybertronian planet requires the Allspark and a star harvester. To rebuild a dead planet requires even more. This might be gotten around with Sentinal Prime’s space bridges. The ability to instantly transport smaller amounts of refined Energon from many slave worlds could have sustained a smaller population.

In fact the only single life function that the Allspark is statedas being essential for is the creation of new Cybertronian life, ie reproduction. That is what Megatron meant when he asked Prime weather their race wasn’t worth one human life in ROTF. Not that every Cybertronian would die if he didn’t mulch Sam’s brain to get at the dissipated Allspark energy, but that no new ones could be born .

On a side note this could explain why the Autobots, especially Prime, put up with so much from humanity . Realizing that their own race has ruined its chances of future reproduction they have adopted the humans as surrogate children. Optimus Prime displays a hyper developed Pappa Wolf instinct in every incarnation but especially in the Bay verse, as seen in his interactions with Sam and the human soldiers.

[Cthulhunicron]

I guess that does make sense, in sort of a Bay-verse kind of way. They do mention in both films that without the Allspark, they can't create new transformers. I haven't read any of the movie comics, though I have read some synopses on the Transformers Wiki, and I wasn't able to find an explanation about Energon. One thing that bugs me about ROTF is that the only way to really make any sense of the plot, you have to read the comics and then fill in a few of the gaps with your own imagination.

One thing that still doesn't quite add up is why the Allspark was launched into space in the first place. I know it was to keep its power out of Megatron's hands, but shouldn't the Autobots have realized that by jettisoning the Allspark, they were condemning their race to extinction? It doesn't seem like it had much effect on the overall conflict; they simply moved the war over the Allspark from Cybertron to Earth.

[Lastjustice]

It doesn't seem like it had much effect on the overall conflict; they simply moved the war over the Allspark from Cybertron to Earth.

It was a stall tactic. The Decepticons started the war and were better prepared being war machines. Things going the way they were, the Decepticons were going to win. Without the Allspark on cybertron Megatron's forces had to scatter and were leaderless. Divided they were much easier to handle. In small skirmishes the Autobots with the help of the humans had a chance.

It had a huge impact to the war. With the autobots dead or enslaved Megatron's forces would have taken over the Earth at some point.