Random Rants: Transformers Crack

[sapphirebreeze]

You know, I have, of late, heard a lot of commentary on how "cracky" the G1 Transformers cartoon was compared with, say, RiD or Armada. And you know, between episodes where the Transformers were toy sized compared with the locals, to mermaids, to random time travel devices sitting out in the open in the middle of Europe, yeah, G1 gets pretty cracky

Comments

[dragoness_e]

*Thinks about anything that resembled side-switching or even cooperation in G1*

Skyfire - you covered that. Like Silverbolt in BW, a good guy who got signed up with the wrong side initially because he hadn't read the background material and "Hey, that's my old friend/partner/*ahem*censored*! He wouldn't steer me wrong!" Once he figured out his mistake, he went to the Autobots.

Starscream - made the occasional alliance-of-convenience with an Autobot to take out one of his enemies--like Megatron or Galvatron. Never turned 'nice'.

Megatron - has been known to cooperate with Optimus Prime to stop some threat that would destroy all of them. Neither nice, or switching sides, since he IS the Decepticon side. In the Louis XIV sense.

Galvatron - Ditto

Cyclonus - cooperated with an Autobot against a mutual threat once. Has his own sense of honor, but not nice. Not impressed by small children.

Hoist/Grapnel & the Constructicons - "Let's sneak off and pretend there's no war and work together for a bit" "Aw crap, they set us up!" No small children in sight.

The teenage humans in G1 seemed to be just nuisances to the Decepticons, and occasionally hostages-of-convenience. Otherwise, the Cons ignored them. They didn't even go to the trouble of hunting them down and using them as hostages against the Autobots.

[sapphirebreeze]

There's also:

* Autobot Spike, who wasn't in his right mind at the moment

* The Dinobots, who were manipulated when they were pretty much too ignorant to know "We shouldn't trust these guys!

* The Constructicons in the Secret of Omega Supreme. They were reprogrammed!

* The Constructicons in the Core. They were remote controlled!

* Blitzwing. Disobeyed orders against a mutual threat. Helped the 'Bots. Got thrown out of the Decepticons for it. Was offered a place in the 'Bots and turned it down because he considered himself a Decepticon first and foremost, exile or no.

* Octane. Got exiled and went to the Autobots for asylum, and was granted it. Was not offered a place in their ranks.

You still don't have any of the serial flip-floppers and wobblers you see in other stories, though. Like the warning we gave when we got a Sky-Byte app, "G1-ers don't play that game."

[dragoness_e]

Now why would I forget Octane? *facepalm*

Does not change his symbol, just 'hangs out' with friend Sandstorm. I get the impression that cartoon Roddy Prime doesn't care what symbol you wear as long as you're not shooting at his guys.

Oh, the Aerialbots thought about joining the Decepticons because Starscream was cool and the Autobots weren't, but Starscream decided to be an ass about it. Sent them back in time to find out what the Cons were really like. Guess he didn't want any more Skyfires. *winks*

I'm not familiar with Sky-Byte, though.

[sapphirebreeze]

Sky-Byte's RiD, so I only know what I'm told about him. He starts out a Pred, and I'm told he meanders back and forth a fair amount before he finally decides to be good.

Thanks to a random human kid, of course.

[dragoness_e]

You're right, G1 Decepticons have no tolerance for that sort of thing. They're more likely to just shoot the traitor the first time. G1 Autobots would like to see G1 Decepticons turn good, but they don't expect it, and probably don't trust if they do.

Sheesh! Look at the suspicion Mirage came under, and he was a worst a neutral way back when. I wonder how much trouble Skyfire had because of his mistake in starting out Decepticon, and because Starscream had been a friend of his?

[koilungfish]

Sky-Byte never swapped sides, or even suggested leaving the Predacons. He had a bad case of Inferno Syndrome after the Decepticons showed up, and there was a certain amount of mistaken identity [Koji thought he was a good guy when he kinda wasn't]. There was confusion. In any case, he was supposed to end up in prison with the rest of the Predacons at the end of the series, so he certainly hadn't changed sides.

[sapphirebreeze]

Then I have been mis-informed.

By both the person who apped Sky-byte and Luna, apparently.

[koilungfish]

Unless the original Japanese is completely different from the English translation, at no time did Sky-Byte swap sides or even contemplate doing so. Koji misunderstood circumstances a bit, which is understandable for an 8-year-old.

I have no idea where Luna would get the idea Sky-Byte switched sides.

[yartek]

Sky Byte escaped prison at the end and was seen swimming into the sunset :)