Lets be entirely honest. Sentinel wouldnt have been in the crash vault with the pillars when they left Cybertron, he would have been helping the others on the bridge or something. When the ship got hit Sentinel changed plans and killed all the other Protoforms on the Ark - explains why Protoforms are seen dangling from the roof while others are in their seats or slumped to the ground.

Sentinel then went to steal the pillars but after failing to hear from Megatron he simply went into stasis to await commands from Megatron.

That explains why Sentinel`s is the only life sign. Autobots can survive crashing and millions of years in stasis after a crash. Sentinel killed them all while drifting through space, then went to the crash vault to 'power down' and go into stasis. He was the only one they could revive because he wasnt dead, only in stasis.

 

The fact that the matrix (and a shard of which) brought transformers back to life in the movies always kind of bugged me to some degree. The MAtrix brings back Prime and Megatron. Why couldn't they do it with Jazz?

 

Well by the time the Matrix was found who knows what had become of Jazz's remains. But yeah the shard (which was from the AllSpark, not the Matrix) was retrieved mere moments before Jazz's remains were deemed "unsavible". So yeah... I guess we have to go with the real-world explanation that Jazz's unrectafiable death was due to the Pontiac Soltice being discontinued.

 

Because Jazz was ripped in half and dead, not in stasis lock like everyone else resurrected by the Allspark or Matrix.

 

Megatron was stone cold dead as well and the shard brought him back. Not to mention Bumblebee's legs got blown off and had to be driven around by a tow truck during battle. Being ripped in half for a transformer isn't necessarily terminal as long as his spark chamber or whatnot isn't damaged.

 

Bumblebee lost his legs below the knees, which is not anywhere near as damaging as being torn in half.

 

It's theorized that channeling the Allspark into Megatron allowed him to be ressurrected and rebuilt later.

 

Jim! :-D

Well, the theory about Sentinel killing everyone aboard the Ark - he obviously didn't use his rust cannon, or there'd be all gone by 1969.

 

On moon -> No atmosphere -> No Oxygen -> No Oxydation -> No rust

Could be it killed them, but wasn't reactive enough to rust them into dust like Ironhide.

It didn't look like they'd rusted to death though. Could be he killed them another way, but it looked like they were active at the controls until the missile hit them. Sentinel could have gone out to finish survivors and then locked himself in the crash vault again after the crash, I guess.

 

Yeah, also all TFs are different. For example, Frenzy was able to survive as just a head. His spark was probably located in his head while Jazz's was destroyed because his was located where he got torn in half.
And Optimus and Megatron are two of the most powerful TFs, which is probably why they were able to be resurrected by shards while others weren't...

 

Best explanation ever.

 

He could have scanned a new alt mode, like the twins, Ratchet, Bumblebee, etc.

 

Jazz could've scanned a motorcycle and sidecar and then his body halves could've been both parts of the vehicle.  

 

I get that, but the (slightly humorous) angle is that most Transformers historically have been killed off for marketing reasons. (The toys don't sell, Hasbro introduces new ones, etc.) Besides, it only takes a writer's whim to bring any of them back to life anyway.  

 

Nice.