Post-war, human companies manufacturing machinery specifically to appeal to Cybertronian tastes so they can charge a licensing fee for scanning the altmode
Cybertronian models on the runway at defense contractor’s conferences, “And here comes Sunstorm, looking stunning in the latest from Northrop-Grumman!”
Humans working tirelessly to figure out clothing and jewelry that won’t break or tangle through a transformation, because the Cybertronian civilization may be shattered, but they love this stuff and if you ask real nice they’ll haul an asteroid full of precious metals to the nearest Lagrange point for mining
Just sitting here thinking about the implications of it being G1 canon that red optics are a sign of starvation, which is brought up once and never mentioned again
For everyone going “what”, in S3 (The Dweller in the Depths, which is about the previous slave race the Quintessons made that didn’t quite work out… There’s a lot going on here, okay), there’s a monster that sucks all the energy out of tfs, leaving them as shambling zombielike empties and instantly turning their optics red. Apparently that’s what happens when you run out of fuel.
tbh it probably wasn’t intentional worldbuilding (most of G1 is a fever dream held together with paper clips and string), but since this is the season that keeps trying to convince us the Decepticons are a huge evil force when most of what they’re doing is hanging out on a crappy asteroid without anything to eat… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Okay one way to jury rig G1’s worldbuilding back into something sensible would be to say the Decepticons artificially give themselves red optics as a political statement about the cause
Yeah, it doesn’t make too much sense that all of the Decepticons are actively starving all the time, except for Swindle, Dirge, and the Stunticons. But I’d believe it as an aesthetic thing. “We are hungry and we are here for your fuel! (and then we will take over the universe!)” is pretty much the G1 Decepticon mission statement a lot of the time.
(It’s been a bit since I’ve seen the relevant scenes, but I believe the red optics go back to the original Quintesson military hardware line, though. Which, you know, G1. It does tie into my grand unified G1 theory that the ‘Cons overall have greater fuel needs than the ‘Bots, to power their flight and weapons systems and such. The Quints might have been underfueling them as well, deliberately or not.)
Semi-Related but I like the idea that optic color is determined by a lot of environmental factors when the Cybertronian is first being forged or is developing out of sparkling-dom.
This is pseudo-science but longer wavelengths have lower energy. So maybe, when being forged, if there’s less energy/resources available in the area red optics are developed to save energy.
So maybe it’s not so much that the cons are always starving, just that the majority of them underwent their short developmental years without access to surplus energon.
(Side note: I think the ‘symbolic red optics’ are totally metal, but I also can’t see the cons having the resources to switch everyone’s optic color just for that reason. I can see it being a mix of reasons, like if you’re a con and your optics aren’t red and yellow you get them switched to save energy, make a statement, and be better accepted by the troops)
Yeah, to be clear I don’t think the cons were actually starving all the time (except in season 3, when that was the plot, and they even joined up with their old masters the quintessons for a while because the quints showed up like “we’ve got fuel” and the Decepticons went “seems legit!”. wtf, season 3). It’s just a weird little implication along with the whole 80s energy crisis subtext. But! On the topic of fueling military hardware, let’s compare, say… Starscream and Powerglide.
We’ll ignore fiction and go for real-world measurements. G1 Starscream is an F-15 Eagle, and Powerglide’s an A-10 Thunderbolt II. Unfueled, an F-15 weighs 15.8 tons to an A-10′s 14.5. An A-10 can carry 5.5 tons of fuel, about a third of its own weight.
A fully-fueled F-15 weighs 40.5 tons.
That’s almost double its own weight in fuel, holy shit. Multiply that by the number of seekers in the armada and the energy costs must be insane. I can see the Decepticons being hungry all the time on rations that would feed an Autobot nicely, just because being ‘full’ is a wildly different thing.
Just sitting here thinking about the implications of it being G1 canon that red optics are a sign of starvation, which is brought up once and never mentioned again
For everyone going “what”, in S3 (The Dweller in the Depths, which is about the previous slave race the Quintessons made that didn’t quite work out… There’s a lot going on here, okay), there’s a monster that sucks all the energy out of tfs, leaving them as shambling zombielike empties and instantly turning their optics red. Apparently that’s what happens when you run out of fuel.
tbh it probably wasn’t intentional worldbuilding (most of G1 is a fever dream held together with paper clips and string), but since this is the season that keeps trying to convince us the Decepticons are a huge evil force when most of what they’re doing is hanging out on a crappy asteroid without anything to eat… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Okay one way to jury rig G1’s worldbuilding back into something sensible would be to say the Decepticons artificially give themselves red optics as a political statement about the cause
Yeah, it doesn’t make too much sense that all of the Decepticons are actively starving all the time, except for Swindle, Dirge, and the Stunticons. But I’d believe it as an aesthetic thing. “We are hungry and we are here for your fuel! (and then we will take over the universe!)” is pretty much the G1 Decepticon mission statement a lot of the time.
(It’s been a bit since I’ve seen the relevant scenes, but I believe the red optics go back to the original Quintesson military hardware line, though. Which, you know, G1. It does tie into my grand unified G1 theory that the ‘Cons overall have greater fuel needs than the ‘Bots, to power their flight and weapons systems and such. The Quints might have been underfueling them as well, deliberately or not.)
So I was thinking about the differences between Autobots and Decepticons – besides the obvious philosophical ones. (My headcanon is different for Prime and the rest of the continuities; this is primarily just G1 here – cut because I freaking ramble.)
I wonder how Transformers handle the death penalty when it comes to spark-bonded individuals. A spark bond entwines the participating parties’ sparks. If one person was to die, there’s a high chance the other may as well from the trauma induced over their spark bond.
If a spark-bonded mech was sentenced to death, would the system legally allow it? If the other bot was innocent, not involved at all in the crime, can they honestly kill this mech and risk killing an innocent in the process?
Some of them, yes. In fact, there were entire terraced gardens in crystal city that looked like this on an enormous scale. Each of those squares resonated in it own sound when you walked on them, and even as they warmed in the morning sun and cooled at night. It was Sparkbreakingly beautiful.
It depends on what type of modifications the wings on said flier have. Some have built in mechanisms that will warm and properly regulate the wings. Most have this to some extent but this can’t always account for the various extreme conditions we can face with environmental factors.
Medics can conduct these procedures but to my knowledge most of the time any flier with half a processor could self prep for the proper conditions. Metal fatigue and sensor malfunction due from extreme conditions on the other hand is more of a medical need.
They might need a help reaching their wings occasionally though either way heh heh.
If I may, Knockout, I will explain. Cybertronian fliers almost never need to de-ice our wings, but when required in certain extreme cases, we have ways of doing so. We also prepare ahead of time so we don’t get iced up to begin with. Ice is pretty rare on Cybertron – it is a very dry world with hardly any water. Our precipitation is mainly hydrofluoric acid, which freezes at -118.4 degrees Fahrenheit, or -83.55 degrees Celsius. However, Seekers specifically encounter ice when most Cybertronians have never even seen it, and then we also must account for other planets’ climates as well. I’ll get to that.
First things first. Earth planes need regular de-icing because they sit outdoors in the elements and they are inanimate objects with cold, hollow wings. Seekers live indoors like civilized people, and our wings are also quite warm. Even in cold, wet places like Earth, our own body heat is normally sufficient to keep our wings clear of ice, at least for the amount of time we can comfortably be out in icy conditions.
But let’s look at conditions where we would need to de-ice. I said before that Seekers actually do encounter ice from time to time, and that is because we operate so high up, and also because Vos is so far south. Our winters are very dark and very cold, and the wind through the towers could bring the temperature down enough to form frost. For those cold days we had spray coatings we would apply to our wings so ice wouldn’t form on them as we flew. Some were simply an adhesive carrying nanites with a simple ice-breaking program, while other, more expensive, brands were made of fluorocarbons and other plastics, and could last all winter if properly applied. They were a more slippery version of the sprays people sometimes used in the rainy season to avoid irritation from the caustic humidity. I can still remember the odd smell of those sprays. People who had to be outside for extended periods, such as law enforcement, had thermal sleeves they could slip onto their wings when they were in root mode. Usually they had someone help them put those on, but they were designed to come off with either a strong wing flick or a magnetic release, so they could fly at a moment’s notice.
Winter flying conditions could be hazardous if you weren’t careful about ice. As Knockout mentioned, acidic frost forming on your wings can lead to deterioration, and trying to shake it off our your control surfaces can cause metal fatigue. Ice forming over your sensors for even a short time can be deadly. At very high altitudes, there are thin, iridescent clouds that indicate ice, and flying near them, especially under them, can quickly place a layer of ice on your wings. Losing air speed data and having your control surfaces freeze up is not something you want to experience. Fortunately all of that is very unusual on Cybertron and only high altitude Air Command soldiers really had to contend with it.
Not so on alien worlds. I knew it would be an issue once we got to space, since I had read a lot of stories about the Golden Age when people went to exotic planets with other kinds of precipitation. Our patrols were outfitted with thermal sleeves for their wings, and we formulated wing sprays for ices made from all manner of unusual substances, such as ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. We spent a lot of time on Earth, and had to get used to ice because of its wet conditions. I trained the Eradicons for what to do if they did find their wings icing up when they flew.
Ok: Two new really stupid Decepticons that go around causing mishaps and accidents around Griffon Rock, but their basically harmless.
A problem, but manageable: A minor Decepticon that would cause accidents and would actually fight the bots, but is still easily defeated.
Bad Times for Eveyone: Starscream, Soundwave, or some other major Decepticon.
Worst Possible Outcome: Megatron/Megatronus
OH MY GOD THEIR FUCKING DEAD: The DJD/Overlord
Counterpoint: any Decepticon, even the most dangerous, but they’re forced to abide by the rules of a show for small children. Soundwave’s causing mayhem at the radio station. Astrotrain refuses to let humans ride the train to work, because the trains are his friends and ‘it’s undignified’. Starscream has declared himself mayor and refuses to give the sash back.
Megatron emancipates everyone’s washing machines. No one can get anything done and tha washing machines are trying to eat city hall.
Ok: Two new really stupid Decepticons that go around causing mishaps and accidents around Griffon Rock, but their basically harmless.
A problem, but manageable: A minor Decepticon that would cause accidents and would actually fight the bots, but is still easily defeated.
Bad Times for Eveyone: Starscream, Soundwave, or some other major Decepticon.
Worst Possible Outcome: Megatron/Megatronus
OH MY GOD THEIR FUCKING DEAD: The DJD/Overlord
Counterpoint: any Decepticon, even the most dangerous, but they’re forced to abide by the rules of a show for small children. Soundwave’s causing mayhem at the radio station. Astrotrain refuses to let humans ride the train to work, because the trains are his friends and ‘it’s undignified’. Starscream has declared himself mayor and refuses to give the sash back.
Cybertronian Database 