so if “optimus prime” means “best first” and “megatron” means “large instrument” the entire transformers franchise revolves around the never-ending battle of epic proportions between Awesome #1 and Massive Tool
I finally downloaded a gif maker while taking screenshots (because why not, honestly) and i figured id try it out on my fav ep? (cause again why not?)
But like. Ratchet that’s so extra. you dont have to spin like that. you don’t.
I hope it’s okay to put this on this post but I keep thinking about why we always see bots (especially in TFP) spinning, jumping, sliding, generally doing some sort of extraneous movement whenever they transform and I wonder if it might actually help the process? You can certainly transform to altmode standing still, I’m sure, but perhaps having some sort of spin or momentum helps.
If you’ve never seen a Switch Pitch, let me tell you that they’re super fun toys and I have one and it never fails to make people go “what the hell” when I show it off.
They are these little balls that flip inside-out when you throw them or spin them, the momentum of turning causing them to, well-
do whatever the HECK this is I mean it’s not even really flipping inside out it’s just…flipping into a different configuration.
Maybe that’s why cybertronians tend to transform with a flourish- it’s easier, somehow, maybe the momentum helps to flex transformation seams into a “neutral” position (configuration 2 up there, so to speak) before they resettle into a proper configuration. Maybe it feels better to transform like this?
i love talking about how extra Transformers canon can be, so I’m gonna do that for a bit
did you know that Transformers has an in-canon reason for plot holes and continuity errors? an in-canon version of “A Wizard Did It?”
it’s called the Unicron Singularity
see, in Transformers, we have this Universe-Eating Bad Guy God called Unicron. Unicron is (or, I guess “was.” It’s Complicated) what’s known as a Multiversal Singularity. Meaning, across all of the thousands of different Transformers universes and timelines, there is only one Unicron. Unicron can exist in multiple universes simultaneously, but all versions of him share a collective consciousness and memory.
Well, in the cartoon Transformers: Energon, Unicron got killed. Straight up dead.
So, what happens when you kill something that exists simultaneously across all timelines, universes, and dimensions?
You get a massive hole punched in the fabric of reality that affects all of those planes of existence that Unicron existed in.
This reality-shattering black hole, named the Unicron Singularity, is the explanation for every single plot hole, inconsistency, and error in every single piece of Transformers media.
Animation error caused one of the Seekers in Transformers G1 to be colored incorrectly? That was actually a side-effect of Unicron’s death warping reality. For a brief moment, Skywarp was blue because Unicron died.
Transformers: Armada’s constant dubbing errors leading to characters getting called the wrong name all the time? Unicron’s death did that.
Transformers: Cybertron, a show initially created to be a new continuity not tied to any previous shows, being awkwardly reworked in to being a sequel to Energon despite directly contradicting basically everything that happened in Energon? Unicron singularity. In fact, Transformers: Cybertron was the show the Unicron Singularity debuted in and the Singularity was introduced solely to explain the bizarre continuity issues between Cybertron and Energon.
So, to simplify everything:
Transformers: Cybertron was made as a full reboot with no ties to any previous show
Businessmen came forward and, with no regard for the series canon because businessmen don’t give two shits about that sort of thing, said “actually, Cybertron is a sequel to Energon.”
The writers and the fans said “But that doesn’t make sense.”
The writers worked with what they were given and concocted the biggest “A Wizard Did It” explanation for every single error in Transformers ever.
And that’s how weird Transformers fiction is, which is why a lot of us just prefer to buy the toys and cherrypick the fiction whenever it decides to be good for a change.