Is 4 million years too long?

Discussion in 'Transformers General Discussion' started by Prime Noble, May 7, 2020.

  1. Nova Maximus

    Nova Maximus Well-Known Member

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    G1's war was 9 million years on Cybertron alone, 5 million years before the Ark launched, where characters supposedly underwent development on Earth if they were lucky. IDW's war was 4 million years across the galaxy that, as pointed out by Megatron, "whole centuries would pass without a single shot being fired. Both sides would spend millennia preparing for battles that would be over by nightfall". Where characters would go through development in early years, put that on hold to fight in a galaxy spanning war, and then have more development again afterwards. I'd say IDW's is far more believable than G1's.

    For me I'd prefer that the war would be longer than most human civilizations have been around, so at least a few millennia, but I say make it shorter if it's just on Cybertron and longer if it's also fought elsewhere.
     
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  2. Agamus

    Agamus Not an Iguana

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    The thousand years number came from Marvel Transformers #1, I guess I assumed the cartoon was the same. Just another way the G1 comics are superior to the cartoon, heh.
     
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  3. Arrogant Arachnid

    Arrogant Arachnid Banned

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    since time in transformers dont work the way it works here since apperantly tfs can live for millions of years, it doesnt really matter
    find the whole idea of a war somehow lasting millions of years with no major changes of ideologies or truces or whatever stupid to begin with, like just look at how different earth was a million years ago, its a long ass time
     
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  4. Rapidfirestormer

    Rapidfirestormer Not Even Remotely Dorky

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    After Cyberverse implied the war lasted over 65 million years, I'm incapable of considering 4 million years to be excessively long.
     
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  5. Autoboticon

    Autoboticon In like a Bot, out like a Con

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    Still not as long as the Ammonite war.
     
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  6. Cyberbot8460

    Cyberbot8460 Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?

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    Yes. it should be a few hundred years at most. Cybertronian lifespans are way, way too long.
     
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  7. Primeultra

    Primeultra Well-Known Member

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    I think a few hundred years is way too little

    A few thousand I can get behind.....with guys like Alpha Trion maybe being the oldest tipping the 10 thousand scale
     
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  8. HunterGreen2005

    HunterGreen2005 In-Stock

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    Did you see how slow the Transformers were talking and moving in Transformers War for Cybertron season 1 and 2?

    I'm more surprised it was ONLY 4 million years and not 40 million years! :eek: 

    :p 
     
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  9. stephen

    stephen Well-Known Member

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    I think Animated did it better. Having crashed and being asleep for 50 years. While the humans found discarded wreckage from there ship, but not finding the ship to advance there own society.
    I also like how IDW did it and the Autobots and Decepticons come to earth and fight a secret war on the planet.
     
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  10. Prime Noble

    Prime Noble Well-Known Member

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    Plus to explain the Dinobots, go the Beast Wars and IDW route of scanning fossils.
     
  11. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    I mean, that's how it's always been. Dinosaurs weren't around 4 million years ago. They'd still be at least 61 million years too late.
     
  12. pilot00

    pilot00 Well-Known Member

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    Again another alien perspective and functionality to be rationalized with human standards.

    I swear most of you that are seeking rationale in this franchise are at war with fun.
     
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  13. stephen

    stephen Well-Known Member

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    Except the Savageland(Marvel), Skull Island, Center of the Earth or Time Vortex that leads to an Island with lots of Dinosaurs. Any of these made canon in any version can explain were Shocwave(FOC) or the Slag(IDW) found some alive and kicking.
     
  14. Darker

    Darker The Lord of the Dark

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    To be fair, the main conflict, the Great War, went (according to the Allspark Almanac) on for around 10 million years.
     
  15. Furnace

    Furnace Antroid at a picnic

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    Maybe I'm just misunderstanding, but I'm not sure I understand how one could put their development on hold to fight a war. Wouldn't the war act as a catalyst for development?
     
  16. Nova Maximus

    Nova Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Yes, but since half of IDW's stories took place after the war, we would only really get flashbacks to points of the war that weren't near it's end. So even though there was some development, most of it you couldn't really see and was mostly either decent more towards the morally grey (Optimus), desertion, or to villainy (Megatron), while after the war development was more towards regaining some of those morals or trying to write some wrongs.
     
  17. Furnace

    Furnace Antroid at a picnic

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    That makes sense. Initially, I thought you were speaking from an in-universe perspective, but it looks like you were actually speaking from a writer's perspective.
     
  18. Lola

    Lola Soap

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    I actually like the 4 million years thing. In my Headcanon 4 million years ago, right after the great Exodus, when the Planet became uninhabitable, The Transformers would spread around the Universe to find Energon, But the War accompanied them with their search of a new home. The Cybertronians were known through out the stars as harbringers of doom, as the devastation they left, made them highly unpopular. But as time came their population started to swindle. Once known through out the stars, know there entire race has been pretty much forgotten. They are facing extinction. Alot of the surviving members of the species only know of the Decepticon and Autobot leaders as mythical entities whose names have been discarded through the ages. Only few remaining Transformers continue the war, they are more like cults following ancient tratidions that have changed through time, there faction splintered, broken up and reunited multiple times in the eons that have passed. When The Ark/Nemesis crew reawakens in the present time all they find is a Universe that has no knowledge of their existence their proud race phasing extinction, yet they continue the war as they have no knowledge of their kinds demise nor of the state Cybertron is in. Shockwave and the rest of the Cybertronians have gone into hybernation as the resources have depleted. Only occasionally do Cybertronians reemerge from their slumber to recharge energy or in case of Shockwave find new ways to repower Cybertron, and create Energon. A Question the Ark/Nemesis crew has to face is if their continued war has any meaning as they grow closser to the realisation that their Species may be all but extinct, and that they may be an ancient relict of a time all gone.
    -Deadend

    also the actuall war would not have been 4 million years more like a few thousand. The war on Cybertron happened 4 million years ago and ended in that timespan aswell. There were many truces, but with the dwindling resources and the constant tention between the factions the war broke out over and over again, until most of the population decided to leave this baren wasteland. The ones who keep the fight going on, are descendants of the warmongers, they fight for a grudge long forgotten, something wich has become more religious than anything. Only few of the original warriors are still alive, most have passed with time while the suviving ones are in constant stasis, waiting to be called upon by their masters to reignite the GREAT WAR.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2021
  19. SPLIT LIP

    SPLIT LIP Be strong enough to be gentle

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    To be even more fair, the Allspark Almanac was about 50% fanfiction that just aped whatever was popular, namely IDW. In the show it's a lot more vague just how long it lasted and how much of it was actual combat. (which was likely the intention) For example, it's never implied that Ultra Magnus was ever leader for the entire duration of the war, that was only added in the Almanac with its ridiculous "Decepticon Registration Act" and "Tyrest Accord" and other copied concepts that don't sound or feel like they at all mesh with what we see on screen.

    Problem is it still suffers from a writer's perspective that more happens in ten years than had happen over four million years. The backpedaling and retcons to try and explain how the characters and setting remained virtually unchanged since conflict first began were weak and often times contrived.

    Honestly, it's funny that the G1 cartoon is the only series to actually give a halfway reasonable explanation for the stagnation: with all the major players dormant on Earth, Shockwave deliberately sought to maintain a status quo on Cybertron, only dealing with small rebellions that weren't strong enough to break the system he maintained. The only goofy part is how he just randomly contacts Megatron after four million years when the latter had woken up.
     
  20. Nova Maximus

    Nova Maximus Well-Known Member

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    Maybe he's been trying for all those years and it finally worked.
    "Ok, maybe this time he'll pick up and I can do something else around here."