So... Recently, I watched one of @Rodimus Primal's videos- the one about the Matrix. This video, to be exact. The basis for his conclusions was the BW animator's use of the Matrix as Optimus Prime's spark chamber, which was inaccurate. However, I don't think that this is correct to assume that it was an error. If you watch the scene in full, Rhinox comments that- and I quote: Here's the clip. Rhinox says the line at the 0:54 mark. I think that one explanation is to use Marvel G1's Creation Matrix as a excuse: The Creation Matrix merges with one's spark, causes the spark to become volatile- so a container is necessary to keep the spark under control. This could be why Primal has to struggle with Prime's spark when he removes it. But then you have to deal with the fact that, in G1 season 3, Rodimus lost the Matrix many times but still retained his spark. Maybe the container keeps the Creation Matrix, but leaves the spark behind? That would possibly explain Prime's death in the 1986 film, actually. Without the extra boost of the Matrix, his spark gave out. I don't want to outright call a user on the boards as wrong, but I do think that this needs looking into. Any thoughts?
Except he's not wrong. The production staff admitted this was an error, and they had no idea that the glowing crystal inside Prime's chest in their reference material was something unique. The line "his Spark has the Matrix with it!" was added in after the error was caught by more TF-knowledgable staff to try and allude to basically what you said, but the modelling was already done and the goof was set in stone. Personally, I'll take the retcon from that one comic of Prime's park chamber just looking like the Matrix, and the actual Matrix is in a similar compartment behind it. It also explains why the Matrix is the wrong colour and opens differently.
That's the comic I referenced in the video. It's an official retcon and fixes the error created by the show runners that they admitted they did in error. It's very much the same with G1 Megatron's spark at the end of the show.
I wish they hadn't cut that scene, it could've just been a quick two-second fade cut followed by their launch. What I really don't get about the Matrix thing is they had so much knowledge of G1 elsewhere, and referenced the movie even, so how did they not know about the Matrix?
I don't think they really did have that much knowledge, though. You had two guys that were feeding them G1 facts and they pretty much just picked and chose what served their stories. It would be like asking my son to write a Star Trek story that references the original series but he's working from my memory and maybe having seen one or two the movies. Of course he's going to get things jumbled up. I like to use Robotmasters as the explanation for the jumbling, though, after Beast Megatron's paradox creation causes major ripples in the timestream involving G1, BW2 and BW.
That might be sort of the problem though. The Movie itself doesn't fully elaborate on what The Matrix is, and doesn't necessarily contradict how it's used in Beast Wars. If they used only that shallow pool of research, then it can be made to line up, with perhaps some creative liberties. It's Five Faces of Darkness that elaborates on the actual functionality of the Matrix, and Return of Optimus Prime that renders it totally irreconcilable with Beast Wars, with the fact it can be emptied.
What I assume happened was animators were give reference images for Prime's insides and told to go away and animate a spark chamber without anyone outlining what the Matrix was. The G1 knowledge exhibited in the show (which was patchy in places) was mostly portrayed though the writing and dialogue. I reckon the animators were just working to a bad brief... someone will have known about the Matrix, but no one told them lol.
