Transformers/Fridge

Transformers Series

General

Fridge Brilliance

• In most, if not all Transformers series - particularly the Japanese series, the live-action movies and Transformers Prime, the Transformers move with impossible grace and agility despite being Humongous Mecha. However, this can be seen as Fridge Brilliance since, in the movies and the Marvel G1 continuity, Cybertron is MUCH larger than Earth - in Marvel G1, it's stated to be the size of Saturn, while in the movies, it appears to be more the size of a Super-Earth. Logically, Cybertron must have a MUCH higher gravity than Earth due to its greater mass, and so, Transformers are Heavy Worlders - on their home planet, they'd probably have an agility more like a human's, meaning non-rocket-assisted jumps wouldn't be too high. On the much smaller Earth, though, they can run faster, jump higher, and are generally more agile - much like Silver Age Superman.

Fridge Horror

• Transformers: The war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Depending on the source material, this war may or may not have been going on for millions of years. Just to clarify, the Human race is maybe a couple hundred thousand years old. Not to mention that the body count both sides would be completely insane, the race is pretty much doomed to extinction (again, depends on the adaptation), and the fact that the Decepticons are still determined to win even though it's obvious that the whole conflict is basically glorified genocide. Suddenly makes Megatron and his army a lot less likable...
  • Also, short of completely destroying a Transformer's spark, it's fairly simple to put one back together and be in fighting order in a few days. Talk about eternal warfare.
  • Why not an even more basic aspect of the premise? Specifically, the "robots in disguise" part? You know, the part where they can pretty much pick anything they want to turn into, and you'd never know? Look really carefully at the parked cars in your neighborhood, kids. That Decepticon symbol on the fender might not have come from Hot Topic.
  • The entire idea of combiners is pretty horrifying once you think about it. You're joining your body with at least one other person, using specific unfolding connectors. Then you're stuck in this gigantic behemoth's mind. If you're lucky, you get along fairly well with your team and the combined mode is stable (Defensor, Computron) and usually stupid (Superion, Bruticus, Abominus, Predaking, Piranhacon). Then, sometimes you're with a bunch of people you disagree with, causing your merged mind to be completely berserk (Devastator). But oh, it gets worse. What if your components are a psychotic tyrant, a self-obsessed glory hog, a paranoid wreck, a suicidal weirdo and a batshit insane rampager who can't stay quiet for three seconds? Then you're Menasor, who has enough mental problems to warrant his own asylum. Have fun getting in that head.
  • The hate plague episode(s) should be put into account we see transformers vs transformers fighting each other regardless of their side. And the plague later infects humans world wide. The infected individual will attack just about anyone in arms reach. So we can imagine humans killing each other in the millions, or worst transformers blasting and possibly stomping on Puny Earthlings with their weapons and feet.

Transformers Animated Series

Transformers Animated

Fridge Horror

• Transformers Animated: In the episode "S.U.V.: Society Of Ultimate Villainy," Swindle creates and activates a device capable of stopping anything and everything mechanical in its proverbial tracks - and, unlike the Ocean's Eleven example, this really did affect the entire city. Obvious Nightmare Fuel aside, consider the impact this event had on humans. Think about it. Anyone who had a pacemaker or respirator, or who was on life support, or who was being operated on at that time... in short, anyone who was relying on machines for survival. And let's not forget the airport. Or any number of other things. You really have to wonder how many people Swindle maimed or killed in that episode.
  • The character Lockdown is a big bag of Fridge Horror - he's a bounty hunter who has a penchant for taking weapons and upgrades from his targets as trophies. Parts that are more often than not, part of said robot's body. He's a serial maimer, one who takes pleasure in mutilating others, and keeping (and often times, using) his 'trophies' to acquire more. "I'm not good with names and faces, but I never forget a trophy." And this guy has fangirls just piling up at his feet.
    • Emphasis on serial maimer. It's shown throughout Transformers Animated that transformers feel pain. Optimus waking up strapped to a surgical table with his grappler removed and attached to Lockdown is less like Bruce Wayne getting his Grappling Hook Pistol stolen and more like Movieverse Peter Parker waking up with his web-shooting glands surgically removed and stitched and fully functional on his tormentor.
  • Don't forget Blitzwing tearing off Ratchet's arm to get Sari's Key. In the next scene he shows up, he's still got the Key, but there's no sign of the arm. Probably just left it around somewhere, right? Except in a later episode, Blitzwing just happens to mention how much he loves servo salad...
  • Cyclonus' few minutes on the show and his entry in Allspark Almanac II all but confirm that Megatron will become Galvatron someday. Everything the Autobots did in this series will ultimately be undone and Megatron will be reborn as an even greater threat. And because the series is over, we'll never get to see if it turns out okay in the end.
  • In the name of creating an "organic transformer," human villain Meltdown mutated at least two humans (his lawyer and stock broker, for those curious) into horrifying Biological Mashups, and out of petty revenge was dangerously close to doing the same exact same thing to his business rival Professor Sumdac's eight-year-old child Sari. Consider Sari's part-cybertronian heritage and the end results wouldn't have been pretty.
• Most Decepticons in Cybertron keep their Cybertronian alt-mode, with the exception of Thundercracker; all the Autobots, on the other hand, adopt Earth-modes. Keeping in mind that Thundercracker eventually becomes disenchanted with the Decepticon cause, one can say that Planet Cybertron has the hat of robotic self-interest, while Planet Earth has the hat of protecting and caring for others, the Autobots' prime motivation. Vector Prime even fits in this categorization, with his initial motivation safeguarding Cybertron, arguably coming from a form of self-interest.
• It kind of makes you wonder just what exactly goes on in the Stockade to drive Wasp insane...
  • The Timeline comics shows that the prisoners are kept in small cramped up cells that leave no room for them to transform to vehicle mode. Go Mad From the Isolation maybe?

Beast Wars

Beast Wars

Fridge Brilliance

• I was personally bugged that in Beast Wars, at least three characters - Inferno, Blackarachnia, and Rhinox - are reprogrammed, yet Megatron puts up with Waspinator's laziness and arrogance, Tarantulas' insanity, and Terrorsaur's Starscreaminess. Why didn't he just reprogram them? Then it clicked. Until Beast Machines (which, frankly, may as well not even have the same Megatron thanks to Character Derailment), there was only one hint that Megatron even had programming skills - the Transmuter, and that one backfired when Rhinox utterly wtfpwned pretty much the entire Predacon ship, and demonstrated that a fully-active Cybertronian is very very hard to truly reprogram. The only one to semi-permanently reprogram anyone was Tarantulas, and unless you're actively suicidal, you don't want to trust Tarantulas to reprogram all your henchmen. And even then, he was hotwiring protoforms rather than "adults" like Waspinator and Terrorsaur! No less than three reasons why he didn't try it until he was grotesquely misusing Sparks in Beast Machines! - User:Count Dorku
  • And note that in Beast Machines, he had to effectively wipe all but the basic functions from said sparks to reprogram them. Two of the three that he didn't reprogram ended up rebelling while the third was Waspinator, who didn't exactly need much coercing. The last two he "reprogrammed" turned out to be doing it out of their own free will (the need to protect Cybertron as a whole, even if it's no longer the Cybertron they knew).
• Megatron's motivation in Beast Machines. Okay, so it's pretty impressive, much more creative and ambitious than generic 'take over the world/galaxy/universe', but I didn't fully appreciate it until some time after I saw Beast Wars (yeah, we didn't get Beast Wars until several years after Beast Machines had already aired). Anyway, look at how much his minions betray him - only two remain loyal, and one of those is just barely competent. Is it any wonder he would come to consider free will itself to be the problem? - User:Vampire Buddha

Fridge Horror

• Beast Wars is full of Fantastic Racism on both sides of the conflict but what is especially worrying is that there is a possibility that the racism might actually be downloaded into every robot that comes online. Throughout Season 3 Blackarachnia makes it clear that she likes being a Predacon and she does not want her shell programming removed. She makes plenty of snide comments about the Maximal faction, but none about the Predacon faction as a whole (making fun of individual Predacons? Yes, she most definitely did that. But she never says anything like Rattrap's "stinkin' Pred" comments). However, she is finally forced to remove her Predacon programming out of necessity and the very next episode she makes a very ethnocentric comment against the Predacons ("There's nothing worse than a pushy Pred."). She didn't feel that way about Predacons before her programming, only when her Maximal programming became dominant.
  • Rattrap wasn't the only anti-Predicon Maximal, either; Cheetor was also known to make remarks, though not as venomous as Rattrap's. Interesting how Silverbolt is a Fuzor, and he doesn't show this "racism;" he gives everyone, Maximal or Predacon, the benefit of the doubt. Why? Remember when his pod landed and was damaged? The same damage that made him a Fuzor likely erased the "racist" programming. Quickstrike wasn't necessarily different, either; he was a Predacon because Megatron gave him the better deal, but he just wants to shoot things. Dinobot almost becomes an exception, but though he was a Maximal, he never totally gave up his Predacon heritage. How many times did he say things about what the Predacons would do in a particular situation?

Transformers Film Series

Transformers Film Series

Fridge Brilliance

• Whilst the Decepticons are mostly immune to our weapons, they can be hurt be extremely high-temperature explosive rounds. Now, some people still wonder how our weapons could effect robots with metal skin and armor far tougher than any of our alloy. And how could they be? Well, the first film explains that most modern tech, including weaponry, was produced by studying Megatron's inner-workings.
• The Fallen's death becomes this when you think about it. The Fallen was personally responsible for the entire war, a war that Optimus has seen the horrors of first hand. In that perspective, it's little suprise that Optimus went for No Kill Like Overkill in dispatching the monster who was behind everything to happen to the Transformers for centuries.
• Sentinel's use of the iconic "Needs of the many" line isn't a pointless Actor Allusion - considering what the Decepticons were planning, it shows just how Ax Crazy he'd become.
  • Wait, Sentinel, that means that Humans outnumber Transformers several million to one! Unless of course he doesn't take "insects" into account...
• Dylan comments that collecting cars helps him relieve stress. Obviously, being under the pressure of the Decepticons can be really stressful.
• Laserbeak takes on Bumblebee's form to befriend a the daughter of one of his human workers. One might find it odd that the girl isn't that started by his presence, but then remember that, by this time, Earth is fully aware of the Autobots' and Decepticons' existence. With that in mind, it's possible that this girl knows about Bumblebee and the Autobots, and assumed (or was told by Laserbeak) that this small, pink visitor was just an Autobot.
• As pointed out in the Transformers wiki, Sentinel's theme on the soundtrack is three minutes and sixteen seconds long, corresponding to the number 316 on his altmode.
• Why is Dylan so desperate for the Decepticons to win, when it's clear the Autobots are near victory? Simple: If the Autobots win, he and his associates (well, the ones that didn't get killed yet) will be labeled as war criminals for betraying the whole human race.
• Dylan and Soundwave can be seen as Evil Counterparts to Sam and Bumblebee. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense that Bumblebee would kill Soundwave, and Sam would kill Dylan.
• Why does Optimus violently destroy anything/anyone who threatens Earth? Simple: He wants to make sure Earth doesn't wind up a barren wasteland like Cybertron, with its native inhabitiants reduced to near extinction.
• People are always going on about Give Me Your Face and the whole Off with His Head thing the autobots do in the movies, but think for a minute what would be the most efficient way to kill something? remove the head or destroy the brain.
  • Plus, when you consider how small Transformer heads are in proportion their bodies, it most likely takes more effort and focus to take out the head.

Fridge Logic

• The third film has the Autobots destroy an illegal nuclear plant in the Middle East. A news report later says that no country has taken responsibility for the attacks. The problem, however, is that the soldiers in the plant clearly saw Dino transform into his robot mode, and the US is the only country that has Autobots. Wouldn't people be able to put two and two together, especially since Autobots and Decepticons are now common knowledge throughout the world?
  • Maybe they thought Dino was Italian...
  • "Taken responsibility" means no country has admitted publicly that they were behind it. Bee could've gone in waving the American flag and blaring a medley of John Philip Sousa if he wanted, and technically the US, as a country, could have still not "taken responsibility" for the attack.

Transformers G1

Transformers Generation 1

Fridge Brilliance

• Why did Galvatron finally do what he flat out refused to do as Megatron and kill Starscream. Two possible reasons: (1) Unicron's reformatting of him him may have had subtle influence on his thought patterns. He was rebuilt to find the Matrix, and this was likely prioritized in his mind, with the additional thought pattern of destroying any that obstructs this goal, and what was Starscream if not obstructive. (2) Along with his own reformatting, he also got new minions. Among them, Cyclonus. Who was all the things Starscream wasn't: Loyal, competent, and powerful. Megatron is implied to have kept Screamer around due to not having better options. That changed when Cyclonus, who is all the things Starscream is, only better. No wonder Galvatron vaporized him. Starscream had finally outlived his usefulness.
  • Nice catch; I always just thought it was because when Megatron was reformatted, Unicron's unfluence turned him into an insane and ruthless madman. Which I suppose is still likely, but a lot less brilliant.
• In the second episode, Starscream tests the energon cubes to see if they work. This may seem really stupid, but remember, before Starscream became Decepticon air commander, he was a scientist. Of course he'd want to test the cubes!

Fridge Horror

• In the G1 movie, it always seemed that the mass murder of most of the original cast was arbitrary, and just a way to make the movie darker. But as the Nostalgia Chick points out, all of the dead characters were replaced, in the movie, by new characters that had never existed before. The reason? Commerce. It was time to sell new toys, and what better way to do it than to kill everyone off and start fresh? Realizing this motivation makes it a lot easier to understand the huge divide between loving and hating Hot Rod/Rodimus; he was a character created for the sole reason to sell toys. Optimus Prime was killed because he wasn't selling enough; basically most of the original cast was euthanized.