When Did One Continuity 'Drop The Ball' While Another One 'Caught' It?

[kup]

I personally retconed it in this way in an attempt to bring reason to the whole event:

Since the Spark is basically mostly energy encased in a kind of physical transluscent but volitile bubble, Ethan Zachary was able to store the 'energy' in a Double Density 5.25" 360kb () Floppy disc. The capacity of the Floppy disc became irrelevant as the magnetic disc was enough to sustain the Energies of Prime's spark in the same way that the transluscent bubble is able to do.

Note: Please keep in mind that:

a) I am taking Scientific Liberties like all good Sci-Fi universes do.
b) There is a lot about what constitutes a spark and Transformers data storage capabilities that we don't know. They could have perfected some super advanced way to compress data in order to store huge amounts of it in as little 'space' as possible. Kinda like a super advanced pkzip (winzip now).

[GoktimusPrime]

What, he couldn't substitute Hi-Q?

What do you mean? Are you asking why Hi-Q's soul doesn't count for Powermaster Prime? Hi-Q and Optimus Prime, at the time of their binary bonding - were two separate entities... much like Spike and Fortress Maximus. One unexpected side-effect of binary-bonding appears to be the merging of the minds between the Nebulan/human and Transformer (e.g.: Spike and Fortress Maximus were able to commune telepathically to each other, even from vast distances and Zarak and Scorponok's minds became one (within Zarak)).

Story time!
In the case of Optimus Prime, he and Hi-Q were separate entities, but during the events leading up to and during the Matrix Quest their minds began to merge - although unbeknownst to both parties. The merger manifested itself in a series of random painful fits for Optimus Prime. Just before Prime sacrificed himself to destroy Unicron, he released Hi-Q. Prime's death then suddenly sped up the merger with Optimus Prime's mind becoming one with Hi-Q's shortly after Prime's death. The Last Autobot then took Hi-Q/Prime and recreated him (them?) into Action Master Optimus Prime.
(/storytime)

I personally retconed it in this way in an attempt to bring reason to the whole event:

Since the Spark is basically mostly energy encased in a kind of physical transluscent but volitile bubble, Ethan Zachary was able to store the 'energy' in a Double Density 5.25" 360kb () Floppy disc drive. The capacity of the Floppy disc became irrelevant as the magnetic disc was enough to sustain the Energies of Prime's spark in the same way that the transluscent bubble is able to do.

Note: Please keep in mind that:

a) I am taking Scientific Liberties like all good Sci-Fi universes do.
b) There is a lot about what constitutes a spark and Transformers data storage capabilities that we don't know. They could have perfected some super advanced way to compress data in order to store huge amounts of it in as little 'space' as possible. Kinda like a super advanced pkzip (winzip now).

A Spark is something which has no physical form and is intangible - not made of any matter. Although Mainframe animators gave Sparks a visual avatar, Beast Wars writers have stated that it is formless. Seeing a Spark is like seeing a ghost.

No Cyber-Ectoplasm please.

[kup]

A Spark is something which has no physical form and is intangible - not made of any matter. Although Mainframe animators gave Sparks a visual avatar, Beast Wars writers have stated that it is formless. Seeing a Spark is like seeing a ghost.

Megatron managed to cut Rampage's in half with a refined energon blade so there has to be a physical element to it.

On a typical spark that would have caused it to exploded but because it was based on Starscream's 'immortal' spark, he was able to successfully split it in two.

[GoktimusPrime]

Okay... maybe there is some cyber-ectoplasm after all! Well... ghosts are weird... they're supposedly formless and devoid of matter, yet they can sometimes physically interact with the universe (e.g. poltergeists). So perhaps a Spark is like that - formless yet somehow still able to be physically interactive. Yeah, it makes no sense... but let's face it, we're talking about freakin' spirits and Transformer spirituality here. Trying to apply logic here is like bashing your head against a brick wall. You just have to suspend disbelief and accept it really (remembering that spiritual beliefs are based on faith rather than empirical logic).

Who ya gonna call?

[kup]

Okay... maybe there is some cyber-ectoplasm after all! Well... ghosts are weird... they're supposedly formless and devoid of matter, yet they can sometimes physically interact with the universe (e.g. poltergeists). So perhaps a Spark is like that - formless yet somehow still able to be physically interactive. Yeah, it makes no sense... but let's face it, we're talking about freakin' spirits and Transformer spirituality here. Trying to apply logic here is like bashing your head against a brick wall. You just have to suspend disbelief and accept it really (remembering that spiritual beliefs are based on faith rather than empirical logic).

Keep in mind that my 'take on it' I still maintain the spark as energy and the 'bubble' is merely a container or Prime's spark would have in no way been able to be stored in the floppy disc.

[STL]

I think Gok's comments here best sum up my opinion on the matters present.

You just have to suspend disbelief and accept it really.

As much as I love Transformers fiction there are times you just have to be willing to suspend disbelief and accept things as they are. They are a fictional universe after all and the primary purpose is to tell stories and those stories should be compelling - not the inner workings of that universe. Understanding the consciousness of a spark or how Optimus Prime's programming was stored onto a floppy may add to one's appreciation of how TFs work but at the end of the day it has no bearing on your appreciation of TFs as a whole if the story is dragged under by it.

I'm not saying that that gives licence to completely ignore matters of logic or believability but I'm saying that to focus on these matters are relatively trivial. The core purpose of fiction should be to propel the characters and the plot forward. And these types of discussions detract from that.

I think that how Transformers work or the "science" behind it is rather misleading and a negative. Especially given that the so-called science behind it is very questionable in the first place. Even more so where there is a section of the fandom that hangs desperately onto their knowledge of just how Transformers work and try to propound the argument that there is some formal logic to how it all works. There isn't. And there needs to be an acceptance of that.

I've yet to see a cohesive explanation of how Transformers work yet. The most we've come is fans drawing tenuous links between disparate lines of Transformers such as G1 comic v. G1 Cartoon v. Beast Wars v. Masterforce etc etc. And I'm not really sure I care for it either. The more obsessive "science" fans can argue all they want but fiction is sometimes a product of its time and as Gok says, you have to suspend your disbelief in the science to appreciate it rather than drowning in the details.

What my true hope is we'll get some really good TF stories. Since the War Within and War and Peace, I have yet to lay eyes on a truly cohesive Transformers story.

[kup]

We try to make sense of inconsistencies simply because its 'fun'

[jacksplatt11]

We try to make sense of inconsistencies simply because its 'fun'

You and I have different definitions of fun

[kup]

The inconsistencies themselves are not fun, they are annoying but its fun to use your imagination to try to rectify things that don't add up.

I don't understand how you immediately interpreted my comment as the inconsistency itself being fun but trying to make sense of it is once it happens as it requires imagination.

[kup]

Food for thought for those who find inconsistencies fun.

He mentions some uncanny references to Deathsaurus and stuff.

He is not making sense of inconsistencies but rather trying to force his brand of crazy into canon. What that guy is doing is different to what I was trying to make sense of the discrepancies between early Marvel G1 canon and late Marvel G1 canon which are in the same continuity.

That guy's name is Tramp in the DM.NET boards and he is a freak the likes you have never seen. He seriously has issues and I won't go into details on what his problems are because they will violate board rules.

If you are curious about what a crazy f*** he is you can read his stuff here but its not for the faint hearted:

http://www.donmurphy.net/board/showthread.php?t=26479

A bit of background: He spontaneously joined the DM.NET board and begun infesting it with his theories everywhere he could even in places where it wasn't needed. Someone was then smart enough to create a thread specifically about the subject to contain the craziness. As you read into what Tramp has to say, his argument begins to sound crazier and crazier and it becomes evident that his agenda is to force 'mammalian reproductive biology' into Transformers.

There is also some crazy stuff that he does in real life that I won't go into here but its scary as hell.