I have a few questions regarding Beast Wars. I was watching a few episodes the other day on youtube and it hit me, after the "Great Upgrade" in order to reduce energy consumption, why did they named themselves Maximals and Predacons and why not keep their original names Autobots and Decepticons? I also noticed when the Maximals and Predacons talk about their ancestors the Autobots and Deceopticons, they always mention G1 U.S continuity and they never mention the Autobots and Decepticons from Headmasters, Victory, Masterforce, why is that? Thanks
Well, the answers are really easy. For the first question, the Maximals and Predacons are the descendants of the Autobots and the Decepticons, but they are NOT the Autobots and Decepticons. The Autobots are still around, but they're just not the dominate power anymore. Decepticons, their fates are a little more unknown. (Some later fiction would state that the Predacons were descendant from the the original G1 Predacons.) But in short, they're not the Bots and Cons. They're four separate factions. As for the second question, well, it's simple. Beast Wars is a continuation of the US Continuity, and back in those days... It was before the Internet was as mainstream as it is now. A lot of Transformers creators and fans (myself included) had never even HEARD of Headmasters, Victory, Masterforce, much less even seen them. (Unless they had access to bootleg VHS tapes from conventions or something.) So they stuck with the US Stuff. In fact the followup series, Beast Machines, even had a direct tie right to Rebirth, which wasn't Japanese continuity. Hope that helps.
And I never said that. All I said was that in the Beast Wars era, the Autobots, Decepticons, Predacons and Maximals are four separate distinct factions. What we know from the show itself, not counting supplemental material such as the the comics or toy bios, is that the Maximals are the dominate power. The Predacons are grudgingly subordinate to the Maximals, for now. (Established in the Agenda trilogy. This is somewhat a catalyst for Beast Wars Megatron's true "agenda".) The Autobots are still around, established in "Other Visits Pt. 2". (Though what they're doing is never established. We do see a few Auto-Corpses in Beast Machines.) The Decepticons in "The Agenda Pt. 1" was claimed to have retired or be reprogrammed into Predacons. (We see a few Decepticorpses in Beast Machines as well.) Later on, the Vehicons pop up and pretty much take over everything. But it's never established in the show where they came from, if they were a pre-existing faction or a newly formed one. The Plasma Energy Chamber was a major factor in the season one finale "End of the Line".
Symbolism. Autobots and Decepticons represented a bygone era. An era of war. With new forms a new name was deserved to represent the promise of future peace. Then Megatron stole the golden disk. Because the Japanese G1 continuities are not in canon with BW. They follow G1, but little follows them. There's at least three. Autobots are alive and farting around in Beast Wars' present Cybertron. We even see giant, Autobot corpses in Beast Machines. While things suggest all Decepticons were forced into Predacon bodies for what they did in teh war, few were granted amnesty and may have retained their Decepticon bodies and titles. So there could very well be four factions on Cybertron. Um, yes we do. We see them being created numerous times. Vehicons are mass-produced drones built from the sparkless bodies of the deactivated Transformers. (and considering Megatron likely did not build them all, he may have found/raided a drone factory and modified the template to create his initial force. But we do know where they come from and "Vehicon" is just a name, not a faction)
That's more what I meant. Did he build them all or did he take over existing drones. (I should have been more precise on that one.) However, I would call them a faction, since they are a power that opposes the three or four established factions, and there are a few existing members who have sparks that label themselves as 'Vehicons". (Namely the generals.) And if we bring in outside material like the comics and toy bios (even though I said I wasn't going to), they're certainly considered a faction in those.
No argument with that. Can you please tell me exactly what is said or shown in Other Visits that stipulates that the Autobots are still kicking on Cybertron? The way I've always understood it was that every Autobot became a Maximal, and every Decepticon became a Predacon. This is what the Great Upgrade was all about - with every Transformer on Cybertron getting a new, more fuel-efficient Protomatter body.
Sure, no problem. In Other Visits, when Megatron got the Metal Hunter, as he's gloating to Optimus Primal, he tells him he plans to take the device back to Cybertron, and if the aliens (Vok) found out about Cybertron, he would "in time destroy them, as I will YOUR precious Maximals, AND the Autobots too!". (You can see it at roughly the 1:30 mark of the YouTube video here.) As he called out the Autobots separately, it's safe to assume that while some Autobots did become Maximals, some remained Autobots. And later fiction, such as the convention comics confirmed it.
I also read on Tfwiki, that some of the Imperial Council are former Autobots: Ironhide, Prowl and Silverbolt, whom they can merge and form Magnaboss. How is it possible that Ironhide came back when he got his head blown to bits by Megatron on the shuttle in TF:TM and that Prowl got his innards and fell down in flames?
Beast Wars is not the direct sequel to the Sunbow cartoon, or even the Marvel comics. It takes elements from both.
Given BW Megatron's actions after the events in Agenda Parts 1 and 2, do you think he could be refering to the Autobots as they existed in G1? Megatron fitted the Metal Hunter Base with TransWarp cells, so to travel back to "present day" Cybertron. But that same TransWarp cell could return him to prehistoric Earth and he could thus have acted on G1 Megatron's instructions on the GOlden Disk and killed Optimus Prime in his sleep in the Ark - thus rewriting history. I'm more inclined to believe that BW Megatron's comment in regards to Autobots was foreshadowing what happened at the end of BW Season 2, with BW Megatron finally having the balls to try and kill Optimus Prime.
You know, that's a good point. I hadn't actually considered the time traveling aspect of it. Like I mentioned, in later supplemental material we found out the Autobots were indeed still around on Cybertron. However, as far as the original intent of the line from the show there... That's probably what he meant. I stand corrected.
In the end, I don't think there is a right or wrong answer - with material coming just from the BW show, there is justification for both points of view. I do love a good BW discussion though. There should be more of it!
I think Megs was referring only to the Autobots on Cybertron, not to the ones in stasis elsewhere on the planet. At that time, he was still "unwilling, though [he] was to follow [his] namesake's instructions." The Metal Hunter Base was his last resort to conquer Cybertron for personal glory but without changing history. After that, his attempts to conquer Cybertron were either temporal (Agenda, Nemesis) or for a grand purpose (Beast Machines).
But if megs HAD killed prime, and the bots lost the war, then how do you know the new future Cybertron would have a beast megatron? Perhaps vector sigma/all spark would be corrupted, and ceased to produce new sparks. Thus, megs and crew would never exist, and thus he would not have been able to kill prime, so the timeline would not have been tampered with to begin with! ...oh the fun of time paradoxes!
Headmasters,Victory,Masterforce were Japanese produced shows, Beast wars was not. for the record, they actually don't specify any continuity completely., and they dont name very many G1 characters either. 1] Beast Wars does not follow G1 cartoon continuity wholeheartedly. 2] we never really saw Ironhides head "blown to bits".
