Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It provides humans with fond memories, a longing for the "better days" gone by, and of course, plenty of rose tint in the proverbial glasses. Many people who grew up watching 1980s Saturday morning cartoons as kids remember the ritual fondly, and lament the fact that so many of today's children have nothing comparable.
At the same time, many classic cartoons are wrought with issues, usually stemming from slipshod writing. The 1980s Transformers cartoon is one such franchise that still captures the heart, even if some things make absolutely no sense, whatsoever. Here are ten of the most glaring examples.
10 The Long Sleep
The war between the heroic Autobots and the treacherous Decepticons waged longer than most could possibly remember, and the conflict spilled out across the eons. When both Optimus and Megatron's teams ended up crash landing on a prehistoric Earth, they were both put out of commission for millions of years, only to awake in the 20th century.
This is an extremely hard pill to swallow. After millions upon millions of years, Cybertron still stands, the war is still waging, and everything is still the way Megatron left it when he put Shockwave in charge. This particular plot thread should never have made it into the show.
9 Autobots Can't Fly
One of the weirdest things about the classic cartoon series is the Autobot lack of flight whilst in robot mode. The Decepticons have no problem subverting the laws of gravity, giving them a massively unfair advantage in comparison to their Autobot foes.
A ton of theories have circulated over the years as to why this is, with the most popular explanation being that the Decepticons were built for war, while the Autobots were built for maintenance. Why nobody thought to mod the Autobots and grant them the same powers after untold ages of conflict, however, is beyond excusable. It should be noted that the cartoon did show Autobots flying at first, only to jettison the idea shortly thereafter.
8 Damage & Death
During the course of the show, Autobots and Decepticons both take massive hits that leave them little more than knocked down or temporarily incapacitated. This always struck fans as odd given the hostilities between the two. Surely there would be more carnage.
This wouldn't be addressed until the 1986 full-length animated movie was released which bridged the gap between seasons 2 and 3. The entire film was a death-fest from start to finish, and not even Optimus Prime himself was saved. Season 3 relaxed the kiddie-friendly approach in favor of a little more brutality, but it wasn't the same.
7 Energon
The Decepticons pursue Energon like Cookie Monster goes after a box of Oreos, and it's never explained why they need so much of it. Sure, they have plans to conquer Earth and expand their outreach across the galaxy, but surely manpower would be far more important than the next energy fix.
After all, the Autobots seem to have little trouble with the Energon situation, which suggests that either the Decepticons have a higher output threshold, or it's all a convenient plot device for more episodes to be written. Also, how did Cybertron survive for millions of years on an energy shortage in the first place?
6 Where Does Optimus Prime's Trailer Go?
The Transformers played fast and loose with the laws of physics on more than one occasion, and even children picked up on it. Even the mighty Optimus Prime himself was not immune to some scrutiny and criticism from his adoring young fans, particularly when he transformed.
When switching from robot to juggernaut mode, Prime magically picks up his transport trailer, only for it to quietly back out of camera view whenever he reverts back. Where it goes is anyone's guess; perhaps the same phone booth Clark Kent uses whenever he turns into Superman.
5 Transformer Size Shifts
It's amazing what kind of hoops writers and creative heads will go through to sell toys on behalf of head office, and that's precisely what Transformers was. Toys and other forms of merchandising were the entire point of it all, and that meant having to bend the laws of realism over and over again.
For instance, Megatron's original toy allowed kids to transform him from a bipedal robot into a heavily modded James Bond-style Walther PPK pistol. This had to translate to the cartoon which always showed Megatron's physical size shrinking exponentially so that one of his minions could use him as a firearm. One explanation is that the Transformers have the ability to affect their size at the atomic level, but that's weak, at best.
4 The Space Bridge
Megatron seems so concerned with taking over Earth that he neglects the war being fought for his beloved Cybertron on a constant basis. However, he knew the importance of having a link between both worlds, which is where the construction of the Space Bridge came into play.
In reality, it was a writer's mechanic which allowed viewers to glimpse Cybertron and take the action off-world. It doesn't explain why Megatron simply didn't march his troops over the bridge and take over Earth. It's true he needed every available Decepticon on deck during the war, but if he was stretched that thin to begin with, he should have called it a day.
3 Unicron's Origins
The full-length animated Transformers movie introduced audiences to the fearsome and frightening Unicron, a planet-devouring Transformer with mysterious links to the Cybertronians. His evil power was stopped by the mystical energy of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, leaving his body destroyed and disembodied head orbiting Cybertron.
Season 3 of the cartoon brought Unicron back (kind of) in several episodes, one of which introduced his creator, a being known as Primacron. This pipsqueak-sized super-genius seemed like the most illogical choice in the galaxy for creating such a being. Not only did it rob Unicron of all his mystery, but it seemed like too much of a goofy premise.
2 Earth Tolerates The Transformers
The cartoon depicts the Autobots on relatively good relations with Earth's population, while the evil Decepticons manage to strike alliances with some of the planet's rogue terrorist nations. Whatever the case, it seems humanity isn't quite willing to send the Transformers packing.
This seems incredibly suspect. The mere presence of these two titanic forces would spark international panic the likes of which humanity has never seen, leading to massive military campaigns and all-out international warfare. This would inevitably draw Cybertron's backup forces into the fight, making everything worse.
1 Starscream's Ghost
The ever-loathable Starscream was a key character in the Transformers cartoon, and he brought an interesting combative dynamic to the Decepticon team that never let up. His constant undermining of Megatron's will would come back to haunt him in the Transformers movie when he betrayed him and left him for dead in the deep of space.
Unicron came across Megatron and reformatted him into the fearsome Galvatron in exchange for his loyalty. Galvatron's first act of business was to obliterate Starscream and re-claim the mantle of Decepticon leader. Season 3 found Starscream's disembodied spirit returning to wreak havoc on both Autobot and Decepticon alike, but it makes no sense that such a death would leave him in that state. Other Transformers met similar ends, and there was never any mention of non-corporeal spirits wandering about, at least not outside of the Matrix of Leadership.
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