In New recruit I get what the phase shifter is supposed to do so
why did the phase shiftwer allow Smokescreen to go through the Apex Armor but NOT go through Starscream himself??
Bots can go through one another as demonstrated in Tunnel Vision.
i just don't get how SMokescreens plan worked here.

 

My guess? Smokescreen has a working knowledge of the relics seeing as he spent a lot of time around them on Cybertron.

 

Seems like the Phase Shifter allows its wearer to chose what they do/don't pass through (assuming you know how it works).

 

Plot element. Duh.

 

I've been pointing this out since the ep came out and there's no logical explanation for it. The best I heard is that Smokescreen being an apprentice to A3 meant that he knew a bit more about the relics than the others that have used it and while that might make sense, it doesnt suffice.

I want a real answer for this on a season 2 DVD or something.

 

Plot.

 

I think this is the best answer and it makes perfect sense

 

Maybe Smokes has some background knowledge about the AA

 

I doubt the writers have the chops for it, but I would love for Smokescreen to not be there for why he claims to be. He's not there to join Optimus or fight the Decepticons, he's on a secret mission for Alpha Trion, to gather and use the relics for some purpose. To that end, he's gotten all sorts of extensive training on how to use all of them. (How? Who cares! Holodeck or something)

Everything in his backstory is a lie, as are some of the reasoning behind his decisions.

Kind of pulling from the G1 Smokescreen bio.

In reality? For this show and these writers? Plot hole.

 

Plot hole my ass - he knows how to use it. I mean honestly, there has to be a setting - otherwise he'd phase right through the planet.

 

Complex and confusing explanation..the shifter has a setting that allows one Transformer who touches another one to make that one phase through things too so when Smokescreen touched Starscream he became phased and passed through the armor and he was able to push Starscream through because they now shared the same density level...there that's clear as mud isn't it.

The simple explanation..the plot called for it.

 

Pretty much for the sake of the plot, but is is logical to assume the phase shifter can adapt to what it phases through. When Bumblebee used it, both the train and Arcee could go through him, but with Smokescreen, who had prior knowledge to the shifter, he was better able to control it and thus selectively phase the armour rather than Screamer.

 

Arcee did say that the Phase Shifter would be handy for passing through objects, or vice versa

 

It's a phase shifter.
You can shift your phase.

Wouldn't vice versa mean "Objects passing through you"?

 

i agree...

 

My best guess is that, the phase shifter work differently in both case:

1. Make it's wearer become penetrable: BBB made himself penetrable, so RC and the train can pass through him.

2. Make the object touched by it's wearer become penetrable: Smokescreen made the Apex Armor he touched penetrable, Smokescreen pass through the phased out armor, hit Starscream, who was still solid inside the armor, and knocked him out of it.

Hummm, hope that makes sense

 

Isn't objects passing through you or you passing through objects really the same thing?

Either way it's a cartoon so applying standard logic isn't going to work well as if such an object did exist, you'd fall into the planet's core since you would pass through the ground just like everything else.

One could argue that there's a degree of intangibility and the Apex has a specific freq that the shifter can be adjusted to and was specifically designed to counter. But again, either way it's a cartoon and they did it simply because it was cool.

 

Must...resist...Soviet Russia joke.

 

And that's the problem. Unless the phaser worked the other way this time around (where it made the armor the thing that was phasing, while Smoke and Scream stayed solid), I can't buy it. The fact that Starscream could Phase out of the back of the armor without any complications bothers me way too much.

But since we'll never get an explanation for it, most likely, guess I just gotta accept that it happened. At least a relic got used.

 

It would be PRETTY damn counter productive if you couldn't choose what to phase through with a phase shifting weapon. What kind of autobot scientist would approve a device whose sole purpose is sending you to die in the middle of a planet's core?

I mean, reasoning behind it, considering the episode's writer is Marty Isenberg? Totally plot asspull, but it makes sense if the shifter can let you choose what to pass through, if it didn't it would be a fucking suicide wristwatch.