Not that I'm aware of. It was, however, retconned into G1 continuity by Beast Wars and the fact that the Autobots and Decepticons onboard the Ark were supposed to be in that state.

Based on what little I understand of it, it seems to operate on a similar principle as blood loss in humans (but the two are not analagous). If you're seriously injured but are sedated, takes things easy, or otherwise have the loss of blood stemmed, there's a good chance that you'll live. But if you overexert yourself and the amount of blood you've lost exceeds a certain amount, there's a good chance that you'll die.

Another thing that factors into this is probably what components of a Transformer are damaged. All parts in regular machines are not made equal and neither are those in Transformers. There's a difference between a faulty power cord and a fried motherboard, after all; both will result in your computer not working, but one's a way more serious issue than the other. If Megatron somehow damaged Optimus Prime's stasis lock mechanism or fried his cosmotron (again), or damaged some critical components that Perceptor either couldn't or lacked the skill and time to replace, that would be a plausible explanation for his demise.

As for Prime surviving his vivisection, he was actually conscious while Scrapper was slowly carving him up. He thus had enough time to potentially "prepare" for the worst by feeding off of auxiliary power systems and rerouting key functions to backup systems or whatever. Hell, considering that Megatron was intent on keeping his head as a souvenir, he might've intentionally incorporated a power source into Prime's head just to keep him alive and prolong his suffering.

Honestly, we can come up with excuse for the original writing staff all day, the inconsiderate, lazy bastards.  

*laughs* Maybe! Have you ever seen the abysmal reenactment (and I use the term very loosely) of his movie death scene during a flashback in Headmasters? You can almost see the "Eh, screw this, I'm outta here." look on his face as he just comically keels over and drops like a sack of potatoes. And if you thought his fatal injuries were pathetic before...

It's also the company that counts. I once accidentally shifted into nerd mode while talking to Linda Hamilton. I caught myself two sentences in, but it was too late to avoid getting branded a geek.  

I bow to your superior nerd knowledge. That being said, the explanation's so damn convoluted that I'm surprised I got even a small part of it right.  

 

Awesome.  

True enough; these topics are inherently silly. That's part of my point. I'm not saying people shouldn't argue about this kind of thing simply because it isn't a "serious" topic like ethics or politics, I'm just saying we should keep the topic in mind as the discussion gets heated. We're all here because we like Transformers. Our disagreements are ultimately superficial.

 

That's hilarious!! I love it! He dies and turns grey before the debris even hits the ground!  

zmog

 

I must admit that I exaggerated a bit for a comic effect earlier.   He actually just gets blasted, turns gray...and they just freeze frame on his newly-minted corpse before cutting to a scene of Rodimus Prime. I think they were going for drama but it just ended up looking "BLARGH ME AM DIED" hilarious. Here's a link:

YouTube - TF Headmasters- Four Warriors Come Out Of The Sky 1/3

The magic moment occurs around the 1:50 mark. No wonder the TFWiki calls it the most half-hearted death of Optimus Prime ever.  

 

What the crap was that?!   I knew there was a reason I didn't watch the old cartoon.

My favorite part was when the Decepticon headmasters fly up and BREAK THROUGH THE CEILING! There was a f**king elevator 10 feet behind them! They'd just gotten out of it!

 

That's from the Japanese Headmasters cartoon.

That's the space bridge, guy, they've just come through from another planet.

 

I also love how Chromedome manhandles Rodimus like a small child in the opening animation for Headmasters.  

zmog