The G1 Footage

I still think it's a movie with fake actors and stuff, explaining the cheesiness, just to show HEY DECEPTICONS WE BEAT YOU AND WE MADE A MOVIE.

Yeah, I agree. You have those superpowerful giant guardian bots who fight for the Autobots blasting the crap out of thousands of similar decepticons with inferior drone-like intelligence, and some biddy-looking Megatron-look-a-like, and at the end, a noble autobot saluting for the glory of the Autobot Empire.
A propaganda movie would be the very best in-universe explanation.

Megatron didn't look like that in the great war back then. In episode Lockdown, we see that in Ratchet's flashbacks, Megatron already has his cybertronian robot form.

And it wouldn't seem beneath the Autobots in TF: Animated to glorify their own victory and debase their defeated Decepticon enemies with an educational video.

i think of it as their past. the only character shown that is the same is Megatron, and any footage of any other bots is just random footage. though i would LOVE to see a Dion made to look both Animated and G1 at the same time.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transf...adformers.html

I think the simplest explanation is always best unless the writers actually tell us what it means. (Doubtful)

I'm just going to pretend that the G1 footage is historical footage of some kind of past war. We know it's Dion and G1 Megatron, but to people like Bulkhead and Lugnut, they just see some soldier who fought on the battleground hundreds of years ago.

Funny, did Sumdac founded megatron in the 1950's or something... Before Megatron was a gun in 1984-2005?

How can Megatron be both?

Animated is not the same universe.

I think the writer paid homage, or reused for laziness, the G1 propaganda footage.

No, Sumdac found Megatron's head somewhere around the 21st century (not specified). Listen to Sumdac's speach, he says he'll bring new revolutionary things into the coming 22nd century.

I think Animated takes place around AD2100, so Sumdac would have discovered Megatron's head sometime around AD2050. Of course, he didn't seem particularly familiar with Earth, which he should have been were it Megatron from the G1 continuity. Then again, that doesn't necessarily preclude him being G1 Megatron--he could be the same character, but dumped into a different timeline.
Or maybe I just have no idea where I'm going with this.

Honestly its a fanwank homage I wish they hadnt used.

AMEN

In some way but not really.