IDW Publishing Forums

[temple]

Okay, I was gonna post this in the podcast response thread, but to be honest this is kinda its own issue. Without making too much reference to anything else Mike said in the interview, his comments about some of the fundamental tenets of the Transformers mythos not making sense got me to thinking, and yes, there are a few oddities in the franchise that are a little... let's say, 'off.' Some of them are because they are often sidestepped/handwaved by the writers, some of them are outdated concepts that look a little strange a quarter-century on. Concentrating on G1 for now, and just off the top of my head...

-Altmodes. Yes, their function is for disguise and in many cases offense and enhanced locomotion as well, but how and why did the ability come about in the first place? Were the first Cybertroneans built with altmodes? Did they develop it later in response to a particular challenge or threat?

-Religion. Does everyone believe in a Primus? Is there any conflict with 'atheist' Transformers? If there IS/WAS a Primus, how long ago was He active, being that all the members of a quasi-immortal race who had personally seen Him are apparently dead? Is there a scripture? Religious traditions?

-Age and personalities. Why DON'T the Cybertronians seem to alter their perceptions that much? How is it that some TFs are 'old' (like Kup), while others are 'young' (Hot Rod)? When you get past a few millennia, wouldn't it all even out?

-Minds being essentially computer programs. Okay, so the mind or Spark can be extracted. Does that mean you could back up a Transformer (not on a floppy disk, but certainly in some digital format)? Why would they need to learn experience when they could just upload knowledge and skills in an instant?

...and so on; (I haven't even touched the fembot issue). Thing is, these kinds of questions get me excited, because imagine what fun a great writer could have giving answers to them. I think we often fall into a happy little rut of "Oh, that's just how Transformers work" without seeing what story opportunities could be had thinking about these things.

So fellow forumites, over to you: is there any part of the TF lore that you feel has never made sense to you? Have you come up with a particularly neat explanation for a seeming inconsistency? Have any past writers nailed a troublesome issue, and you think they deserve props? Let's mingle minds and see what we come up with!
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Oh, and OK to print...

[DanielW]

I seem to recall transformation being described in most versions of the franchise as being something that they 'did' to themselves during the civil war (usually the Autobots to counter the skills and number of the Decepticons - although in Shattered Glass it's the Decepticons who develop the ability first).

However, they've gone recently for a more "this is something we've always been able to do" approach - presupposing they were created rather then evolved.
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Ohh 'Eck!

[HdE]

Two points stick out to me from the venerable Mr. Temple's post.

[Kingoji]

Polite term is "Mechanoid", yes?
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Print me easy!

[HdE]

I see what you did thar.
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The dead do not letter comic books, Stanley.

[Optimus]

You know,
I use to try to logically connect all the dots too.

For the most part,
and I do not mean to be rude
It's a fictional story. The idea of big talking, walking, intelligent, and Transforming robots came before anyone thought to try to explain-
Where does the trailer go?

So from one perspective, it's all just put there to be enjoyed, not explained.

On another hand, answering every last part of the great equation of life and attempting to make Transformers so they could actually possibly and logically exist adds a certain measure of entertainment value.

Yet, on another hand besides those, who are we to be defining someone else's world?
It's great to be able to have an interface and be able to submit ideas, but in the end, did we have any say so in the universe we exist in and still do not completely understand?

Having started a fem bot discussion myself, I dare say go for it, simply to be able to state your own ideas... not just on the fem bot topic. It's gratifying to spell it all out on the off chance someone important might read it and incorporate it.
...Even if there already are old threads. While, responsibly, we should go read them first, ultimately, who came here to read yesterday's ideas? If we go too far on something, I'm confident it will be appropriately moderated if needed.

Overall, I ran a few polls, and the majority of the results came back as something very near-
You're not the author. Read and enjoy.

Of course, I'm sure, or at least hope, some would appreciate being notified of gross errors... if not at first, then later when they maybe can see how far off the mark they were on a particular concept or idea that ends up splitting the fan base. If nothing else, even though I am not an author, if I bought it and I disagree with or don't like certain things, I feel like I've at least earned the privilege of speaking my mind.
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Transform and roll out!!!

[hook line and sinker]

Just personally, I tend to look at all of the human like qualities of Transformers, from their politics to religious type beliefs to be the result of their origins, transitioning at some point in the past from organic to cybertech or being built by someone who instilled those tendencies into their programming.

I'd love to see James address some of these questions though because much like he did for Optimus Prime, they need to be updated to make sense and be relevant again.
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Monstrosity is like a delicious Italian feast followed by a glass of perfectly aged wine and a cigar.

[Darth Bombshell]

[Josh]

[HdE]

So, what you're saying there, Josh, is that there's maybe a case for this franchise being occasionally written by letterers and colourists?


Seriously - there's a lot of great stuff in that post.

I seem to recall that there was a thread here way back where somebody (Temple, I think) put forward the idea of an iteration of Transformers where they were TRULY alien beings. Unfathomable in terms of motives, agendas, psyche... something COMPLETELY unrelatable to our own field of human experience.

Now, that would be a challange. And the fact that we can say so only further illustrates the point that , as they are now, these characters ARE quite relatable.

Ask yourself this: Science fiction writers have been writing and characterizing alien beings in their works for decades. Even E.E. Smith was doing it a century ago in his Skylark books, if i've got my facts straight.

Now, if that can be accomplished, I'm damned sure the same can be done for sentient mechanical beings.

And the kicker? Well, they don't HAVE to be relatable to us on every level. Sometimes, the differences are what makes for interesting fiction. Heck - just look at something simpel that we take for granted in the stories, like the difference in relative size between Transformers and humans / aliens. That alone could be the springboard for something interesting.
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The dead do not letter comic books, Stanley.

[temple]

[Sprite]

Does anyone know what the gravity on Cybertron is? Size might have been influenced by that.
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OK to print.
D&D/TMNT/MLP modding, avatar tech support and shattered trousers repair.

[Darth Bombshell]

[HdE]

[temple]

Don't get me wrong - in no way should Transformers have 'hard science' applied to it; it's a space opera, essentially, and all the better for it. All we need are explanations that are good/cool enough for the readership to go "yeah, sounds all right"... like the size-changing/mass displacement explanation, or Prime's trailer/subspace; whatever works.
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You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it.

Oh, and OK to print...