So I just started rewatching g1, and I noticed in the first episode that the autobots were flying, so why did Optimus need a jetpack later in the series? Is this just a continuity error, or was it explained?

 

Pfft, definitely just a continuity error I think.   The whole 'Autobots capable of flight' stuff was kind of up in the air early on, and even on some of their tech specs like with Wheeljack it described him as being capable of flight IIRC.

 

It's something they write out after the opening mini-series. Just an early retcon as the series found its feet.

It's worth noting that Optimus' sole use of his Energon Axe also occurs in this string of episodes, and that he wouldn't wield an axe again until 2007’s Animated.

 

I've always looked at it this way. The Autobots can fly, but as jets the Decepticons can FLY.

 

Did the axe in Animated come before the axe from the first Bay movie? Is the Bay one even really an axe?? Or is it more of a blade / sword???

But yeah, just a weird element from early in the show that's written out by the end of MTMTE.

 

lol you’ll notice the first 5 episodes or so are noticeably a different show.

It’s very much like the Movie where it’s Transformers, but it’s not the show exactly.

That said I still think it’s dumb any non seeker flying unless they have some kinda built in flying mechanic…them just super man flying drives me mad lol.

 

NOW!

 

?

 

Bay Prime got an axe in DotM, it was hand held like in animated but it glowed orange like in G1.

 

It was also double-bladed, which is stupid.

 

Why is being double-bladed stupid¿ In my opinion it´s cooler because the more the merrier.

 

It increases the weight for almost no gain. It is also worth noting that the blades in question were too chunky

 

Well it´s Optimus Prime, he has the strength to swing it around with a single hand so he in particular does gain from it.

 

They just... Do it. No explanation needed, just is.

In all seriousness, G1 has a lot of animation errors anyway, so it's pretty much expected that the Transformers that aren't supposed to fly, fly.

 

While I never noticed it that much while watching the series on DVD when I was younger, G1 is a deliciously absurd and inconsistent series.

 

Easily explained...

It was the 80s, this was originally going to be just a few episodes to start off the campaign of having a cartoon shown that would be a 30 minute commercial for a toy line, which was written in the cheap and aimed at kids, and turned into a lot more, so they had to change the format of the stories to write a bunch more episodes.

These cartoons were NOT based on true events, nor are they documentary recreations. Each episodes were plot driven and many of them had single occurences of a plot power that never is seen or mentioned again. This was and still is typical of quickly written cheap shows (or just bad writers).

 

I think it's clear the "Autobots can't fly in robot mode" rule just wasn't set in stone like a lot of things in MTMTE. These kinds of errors were common in G1 due to how little internal consistency the writers had.

I don't think the physics of human-scaled real world weapons apply to these giant robot weapons, especially given the characters' strengths and abilities.

After all, Prime's swords are hilariously bad at being swords if taken into the consideration of real world weapon designs, (the bulbous edge near the tip does nothing for him, and the layers of armour along the back of the blade would interrupt clean cutting/stabbing and get easily snagged) but they don't look immediately unfeasible, like the axe, so it works. A double-bladed axe also believably works for a guy like Optimus who's constantly switching his grip.

 

The show never explains the mechanics of bot-mode flight for anyone. The fact that the Autobots can fly at the beginning but need jetpacks later on is... I'm not sure I'd call it a continuity "error" because that implies there was a concerted effort to maintain continuity at all times and it was violated. It's more like a continuity inconsistency because the show's relationship with focused and consistent lore underpinning its stories was, let's just say "questionable" at the best of times. But they also don't actually explain why the Decepticons should be able to do it when the Autobots can't. And that's fine. Not everything needs to have an explanation if the story doesn't require it. And the story is never about them flying, it's only a means to the end of telling what the actual story is.

Eventually they do more or less settle into a groove of basically no Autobots being shown able to fly in bot mode except for the Dinobots and I think Wheeljack (who has an explanation for bot-mode flight baked into his tech spec/character bio. I believe Gears did as well, and I think Sideswipe was mentioned somewhere to have a jetpack of his own. But I also don't recall them flying in bot mode at a point in the series when there was attention paid to that sort of thing). And then every so often they violate that rule because some writer has a story to tell and the speed at which these scripts were turned out basically precluded the writers from spending a lot of time working out internal consistencies.

This is, after all, the show that gave us no less than 3 competing backstories for the Constructicons that cannot be reconciled without a significant amount of fanwank and its absolute scads of animation errors.

Just don't worry about it too much. It's not as big of a deal as it gets made out to be sometimes. It's rough around the edges but that doesn't mean it can't be fun.

 

I'd say that depends on whether you'd call Cybertron Metroplex's Sparkdrinker an axe.



Strictly speaking, it's a wheel of excavator shovels. But when Metroplex or Prime swing it like that, what do you call it? A hammer? An axe? Either way it's one veritable mass of metal.

Personally I never considered Bay Prime's armblades to be axes, even before DOTM came around and gave him what is visibly, definitively an axe to clarify that his swords aren't axes and he has a different weapon for questions that need to be axed.

 

Yes, but it would be much more effective with one blade.

Actually, it us rather similar to a Greek Xiphos, which was a pretty good shortsword.

That would be a giant mace.