I've had this thought in my head for quite some time, but never had the time to sit down and type it. I was thinking about DOTM some time back, and how Cybertron pretty much imploded, and it dawned on me that the movie verse is pretty much the most depressing of the Transformer universes.
I mean think about; Cybertron implodes due to the space bridge feedback.
The one thing the movieverse hammered home in all three movies is that because of the war, Cybertron is dead. And the Autobots have no real interest in reviving it.
It's really kind of funny if you think about it. The Autobots don't even attempt to revive Cybertron in all three movies, and ironic that the Decepticons are the only ones really trying to make any effort at all. The Autobots gave up trying to save their planet. And with the cube gone, and with Cybertron gone, and much of the Decepticon hierarchy gone, the Autobots pretty much just face extinction, and they seem to have just accepted that.
What does that tell me, the viewer; there's no hope at all for our heroes. And that's something which is kind of rare among Transformers series. Of course Earth gets a happy ending, and that's always good news.
I realize TF4 is coming out, and who knows maybe in that movie Cybertron may yet live again, but atm I'm only going on current information, and I'm not about speculate.

But compared to the other series:
G1: Cybertron is shut down, but ultimately it is revived.
BW/BM: Cybertron's okay, but eventually gets reformated.
RID: Cybertron's not really mentioned in that series but I assume it's okay.
AEC: Throughout the series Cybertron's touch and go for a while, but ultimately it gets saved.
TFA: The Animated Cybertron is probably the most intact and prosperous Cybertron has even been. I mean it's pretty much an Autobot utopia.
Even in many of the comic Cybertron tends to a return to a state of normalcy.

As far as TFP goes it's obviously highly influenced from the movies, so yes Cybertron is considered dead as well; but at least towards the end of the S2, there was a glimmer of hope for Cybertrons revival.
And who knows what might happen in Beast Hunters.

I'm not counting the video games bc they're either prequels of G1 or TFP, or both.

 

i dunno, i think prime is pretty depressing. at least that's the feeling i get from the show, considering how empty the universe feels...

 

I get what you're saying, and I do have to agree.

Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but yes, the "universe context" (for the lack of a better term) of the movieverse is definitely the most "depressing" among them. TFP being a close second.

I'm sort of okay with this. The focus of the movie Autobots, as you said, isn't the revival of Cybertron, it's the protection and defense of planet Earth. Years of their civil war that they caused that ravaged their planet. And now, their war has been brought to our planet, something the Autobots will not take lightly. No way they're going to let an innocent Earth suffer because of their species' sins. Each movie basically seems to be a toss-up: Earth or Cybertron(ian race)? And the Autobots always choose Earth. The AllSpark can create worlds and fill them with life...but if Megatron gets his hands on the AllSpark, he'll use it to create an army of Decepticons and attempt to conquer the universe. Optimus ain't gonna' let that happen. Sentinel wants to use his spacebridge technology to attempt to revive Cybertron...by enslaving the entire planet and harvesting it for resources. Not on Optimus' watch. They Autobots have accepted their fate, because it was their own doing, and any "chance" they have for Cybertron basically means that Earth will suffer. The Decepticons and Megatron have no interest in having their species survive, merely in building an evil army. Earth is now in the balance, and Earth is at risk. They've chosen their "side", that side being to protect Earth, no matter the cost.

 

Can anyone familiar with Shattered Glass make a comparison with Bayverse? Not sure how depressing that is. All I know is that they make some neat toys out of 'em.

 

Better Cybertron than earth is what I think

 

Bayverse is positively BLEAK, unless you read the novelizations, where Megatron and Optimus agree to a truce and Cybertron isn't ripped in half and everything is about as hunky-dory as things ever get in this franchise.

I'm not sure what it says about me that I prefer the movie version of the continuity, inevitable doom and all.

 

My bro.

If win was puppies, you'd have a lot, A LOT, of puppies.

 

I don't think it's that bleak. Yeah, Cybertron is gone and that's sad, but the Autobots have taken on Earth as their new home now. It's about the same as moving to live in another country because yours has been ravaged by war. And there's nothing to say the Autobots might not establish their own city on Earth or even discover and technoform a planet or moon somewhere else in the future. Now might be somewhat bleak, but it's not like there's no hope for the future. Just solve the Decepticon prolem and then concentrate on making a proper home of things. Even the issue of perhaps not being any able to create any more Cybertronians (although I guess they wouldn't be called that now since Cybertron is gone and they won't be born there. Earthitronians maybe?) isn't so bad. They'll find a way.

I suppose it is the most depressing out of all the series though. Although Beast Machines felt pretty hopeless at times and we only don't think of it like that so much now because we know how it ends. If BayFormers ends with fully defeated Decepticons, a rebuilt Cybertron and lots of robot babies running about then in the end it won't be remembered for being that bleak at all.

 

I think it's slightly different, given that even if your country is outright destroyed as in erased from physical existence, you're probably at least moving to a country inhabited by the same species, with the same basic composition and needs, and as such, you know you don't have to worry about, say, your new home country not being able to produce something you need for life (like Energon in this case). You don't have any worry about your race going extinct, either.
And there's no awkward concerns about stepping on anyone.

The degree of implied culture shock alone is staggering. Even among human beings, who share a same basic appearance and set of needs, things like prejudice, fear, hate, and cultural gaps can be debilitating. Throw in the 'completely alien in every conceivable way' factor, and it goes up a few notches.

And I don't think we should underestimate how incredibly bleak your initial comparison actually is in a real world situation to begin with. A country being destroyed is not 'sad' and neither is a (once) inhabited planet.

 

Yeah, the movieverse is pretty depressing. The Autobots and Decepticons have essentially made a history of destroying eachother, with even the earliest of the Allspark's children resorting to warring on eachother over ideological differences. In the films, the most recent conflict has crippled their world, robbed them of their brightest minds, and made the conflict seemingly the entirety of their culture. Then the Autobots (or at least Optimus) make a choice that it is better for their world (and their race) to die a slow death of starvation and attrition than for their adversaries (formerly their brothers and comrades) to gain a tactical advantage (and possibly win the war). So after that, what remains of their leadership castes (as both sides appear to run off a feudal system) leave the world to chase the Allspark, eventually being embroiled in the ongoing cold war on earth, that may have been going on since Ancient Egypt, and certainly for the last 100 years.

So after spying on minors and assaulting government agents, the Autobots decide to side with a group of humans (who it should be noted have been monitoring, imprisoning, experimenting on, and killing cybertronians for decades) against their most hated foes, the Decepticon. Well, the Decepticons (through their own clandestine activities, such as murdering US military and government personnel in order to steal data, infiltrating military and police departments, compromising communications and information networks, etc.) find out about the location of something that can save their world and their race, attack first, kill some humans, etc. Optimus' plan at this point becomes to up the ante, to not only deny his foes the artifact, but to destroy it, and with it any hope of restoring their world (or if you want to go into conspiracy-theory territory, taking it's power into himself). This is what happens.

So after this incident, the Autobots devote themselves to their new alliance, prosecuting a campaign of finding and killing the Decepticons, whether they're a threat or not, which might not be the smartest idea for an species effectively in decline. So then we find out that even death isn't really a guarantee, and that you can be brought back to die again in another excrutiating manner. It's also revealed that the Autobot/Decepticon divide is a purely ideological one, and that at least some of the combatants aren't even aware that their faction is a choice, which adds another level of pointlessness and tragedy to the conflict. Another near-supernatural relic is discovered, and it turns out the entire "vision quest" to attain it can be circumvented by just taking the artifact from someone who earned it. The artifact is used to ressurrect once, then is held by Optimus who uses it's supposedly unimaginable knowledge and power to wake up his mentor, and nothing else.

It's about this time that the Autobots start becoming more directly involved in earth geopolitics (despite Optimus espousing how important it is for humanity to manage its own affairs earlier in the franchise), and where it's revealed that their allies have been withholding information from them (which I guess shouldn't really surprise them, given they were more or less dissecting and reverse engineering a member of their species when they formed the alliance). After a pretty spectacular heelturn of a "trusted" Autobot with some pretty serious speciesism issues, the remaining Autobots allow a heavily populated Earth city to be razed so they can fake their own death, and sneak behind Decepticon lines to carry out a plan of "we will kill them all". This ends up destroying their homeworld (and presumably, most of the remaining cybertronians).

So in short, it's pretty depressing. Sucks pretty hard to be a cybertronian, and it seems like it gets worse every movie. It's a universe where even the good guys are dishonest and unwilling to accept anything but the complete annihilation of their enemies, no matter the cost. It's much less a conflict about who's right, than one to determine who's left.



But even then, I think there's a continuity that's even MORE depressing for cybertronians: The Headmasters/Masterforce universe (though victory somewhat lightens things). In these shows, it's much as in G1 and the movieverse (an entrenched, endless conflict, dwindling numbers, cybertron damaged, etc.), but with one even-more depressing twist: The Great War is effectively endless, inescapable, and unchangable. Neither righteousness nor mercilessness are guarantees of victory. Every technological advancement will be matched, with the conflict remaining more or less symmetrical. Any foe you defeat is almost certain to reappear sooner or later, stronger and even more intractable. Cybertron has been ruined, restored, destroyed again and restored again, as have it's people. The events of Masterforce drive this home. Two factions, empowered and emboldened by alien allies and overseers, incapable of gaining an edge in the overall conflict (even with minor regional victories) or changing their ways. While the human characters grow, sympathize with eachother, and eventually make peace, the cybertronians are completely obsessed on a basic level with the conflict, such that even the pleasures of the times of "peace" are abandoned the moment their foes reappear supposedly hundreds of years later. The first act of the transtector-transformers, upon becoming sentient, is to rejoin the greater conflict between Autobots and Decepticons in space. For cybertronians, there is only the war. Forever.

 

I'm going to have to say second most depressing universe. Beast Machines was about as bleak it gets with a dead planet and characters being reformatted into minions with no free will of their own. The optimism of Primal was about the only ray of hope in that series, but at least the good guys never gave up on their planet or their species.

But ouch the movie universe is bleak as hell when the bot who should be the beacon of hope for all of Cybertron is okay with killing himself with the McGuffin the species needs to survive leaving everyone at the mercy of a really pissed off Megatron. Rejects offers of peace to end the war. And just generally seems to have totally given up on his home planet and species so screw it as long as he can crash on Earth's couch until he dies of old age.

Perhaps it's just something in my personality but I like the Autobots better when they haven't given up on their home planet or species. When Megatron can put Prime into a bad choice and somehow Prime finds a way to save both Earth and Cybertron. When the Transformers have that spirit that one day they will rebuild their home world.

 

I agree with this completely, also in my eyes Cybertron remaining a lifeless husk is now seen as a symbol of what war will ultimately cost you. That is why the Autobots fight so hard to defend Earth, to make sure it doesn't receive the same fate.

 

this. It is VERY depressing.

 

I believe war is depressing no matter how you look at it, the books were better in my opinion; mainly because I feel Optimus handled things better in the book. The movie depicted him as turning into what he was fighting, I probably will be passing on the four movie as well as the other ones which will will probably bring in what's his face Hot Rod and I do not like Hot Rod..... But then again I am done with Transformers prime as well it has gotten way too depressing, I bought the first season and will probably buy the second one as well.
But not really interested in Beast hunters unless I see something better come of it, I am waiting to see what others say about it whether I bother with it or not. I definitely won't if Optimus is killed off, though it does look like he will be back in an upgraded look.

 

Perhaps a movie that depicts the Cybertronian War as depressing is more honorable in it's intent than a cartoon series that makes it seem like the good guys will always win in war.

Also, I think that when Optimus Prime chose to defend Earth over Cybertron, he was doing the right thing. War was so entrenched in the very sparks of both Autobots and Decepticons, that neither were worth saving and both were dangerous. Perhaps someday, human leaders will be faced with the same decision. But I digress.

It is a shame that making war seem depressing makes us less apt to buy product. Right now My primary collection is the Bayverse toys, and I may start a collection of Prime, but the figures look too cartoony for me.

 

It's depressing to me because this universe just makes the rest of the franchise look like a toilet joke.

 

Yes, I agree that the Bayverse is the most depressing. Quite frankly, I find TFP to be the least depressing. Probably cause of the crap writing, and the upholding of the status quo; I guess I need to see Cybertron be atomized to get an emotion. : P

Actually I was thrilled by the visuals of destruction to even care. sorry.

It's like the Dark Knight movie. That was pretty depressing.

Most comprehensive ! Well done sir !

Sound, as usual. : )

well put.

 

The Autobots believe Cybertron can only be a waste land now. They care more about defeating the Decepticons.

 

I think that's mainly because TFP took a lot of cues from the movie verse.

 

I don't know, that sounds worse than the ending the movie had. Megatron just says time out and Optimus lets him and all the Decepticons go back to Cybertron where they will absolutely not regroup and reload, because Megatron pinky swore that he'd be nice, and you can always trust genocidal dictators to be honest.

Poor gullible Optimus.