Ahem

Hello there, class. Welcome to my seminar on Transformers and the reasoning behind them. You all bright and alert? Good.

As I'm sure you're well aware, the G1 Universe is contrived, controversial and down-right poorly constructed. Thus, we have taken creative steps to rectify this problem, and tried to come up with plausible explanations for some of the more poor aspects of the Universe. IE- Most of them.

Sitting tight? This is going to be a VERY long post.

First off- ask yourselves this question: Why is there a war on Cybertron?

You'll more than likely come to these two answers, depending on where your loyalties lie:

The war began, when flying Transformers considered themselves better than those who can't, and thus decided to take over Cybertron, as they're inherently 'evil'.

The influence of an evil demi-god caused half the planet to lust for conquest, and thus people complained, and for the next couple of million years, they bicker about it. With guns.

… anyone notice a trend? That's right, they don't really hold-up. We didn't have the World War merely because Germany decided to take over the world. It is also crude and childish to assume that there is such a clear boundary between good and evil.

So; cast your minds back to Cybertron. The Golden Age, to be precise. There is no war, no Autobots or Decepticons: only Cybertronians. Everything runs sweet as a nut, and has that healthy golden glow to it (Not literally, of course).

It is run, as we already know, by the Cybertron Council, overshadowed by the Council of Elders. Cybertron is run like one giant country; with various sub-states/constituencies all linking back to the elected council. For those of you who are Star Wars fans think of the Galactic Empire. It has one, central command, but seeing as it's so large, regional Governments control various sectors and states and other planets in the Cybertronian Empire, and answer straight back to the Council via their representatives known as 'Emirates'.

And that's how Cybertron is ruled and governed in a nutshell. So what do we actually know about Cybertron? Well, we know it is very similar to Coruscant from Star Wars (And is also possibly Primus in disguise. coughs) IE- It is entirely mechanical. There may indeed be inorganic, non-metallic parts as shown in the cartoon and Beast Machines. Any of this material, however, is likely to be useless for energy. So how would Cybertron power itself? At the size of Saturn, we can't be talking about solar power stations, here, nor can we be talking about any naturally occurring energy deposits- Cybertron, being a mechanical planet, surely can't have any of its own. (It may have had some in the past, but right now, they are either depleted, or dangerously close to being so.)

Now, far away from the planet lie the border worlds, which are- according to newsreels back on glorious Cybertron- under fair occupation; diplomacy and commerce are strong, and everybody is happy.

… no-one questions why outbound flights and space-bridge gates refuse to access nearly 80 of the known Cybertron controlled worlds. And why would they question it? Cybertron is the pinnacle of refined culture and society- some even claim it to be a Utopia. It's perfect, isn't it?

Let's move away from Cybertron now and take a look at these so called 'Border-worlds': those planets which are in the Cybertronian Empire. Let's give it a name: Elan. So let's say that Cybertron has only just recently began to acquire Elan and make it part of the 'Empire'. It is here, on the planet, that you find the Cybertronian Military. Depending on the evolutionary stage of the planet's inhabitants, the military has taken over. For example: in the new IDW comics, we now know they have a protocol divided into phases for taking over other worlds. Once taken, the inhabitants are forced into slavery, exterminated, experimented on- their welfare is not top priority. The planet is then raped by Cybertronian Machinery, provided by Recepticon- a company specialised in energy extraction, as well various other shady science departments. (Think the Umbrella Corporation, here.)

Cybertron is in a Golden Age because of these dealings behind the Council's back. Perhaps the actual council knows; perhaps not. Either way, it's happening, and the Cybertronian public are blissfully unaware that their appliances and bodies are powered by off-world labour.

Already, we've explained why Transformers can be found in so many places around the galaxy. (Note: Galaxy Spanning adventures of the Transformers.)

Now, say someone finds out about this and gets evidence to support. For example, Grandlslam, being the nosy git that he is. He finds out- what happens? People get told: TV, Newspapers, everyone. "Shit. What have we done?" is your average reply. "How could we have been so blind!" Whilst other lips tremble with the obvious: "Without our energy, we'll die."

Two camps already- Planet-wide is weeks. People begin to riot in the streets. Protestors march on their Governments. But the Governments didn't know!

In the meantime, the Recepticon company is slandered by newspapers, with their name being twisted 'The deceiving DECEPticons have fooled us all!'

So the crisis escalates- the council doesn't know what to do. The Cybertronian Military have no choice but to recall themselves from the outer worlds and stop the hysteria. The army, however, is not welcome. The Supreme Allied Commander of the Cybertronian Military, realising the loss of control, calls for martial law. The 'Decepticon' company, no longer welcome, is shunned. The company has no option but to run back to the military for protection- very quickly, the two are labeled under the same title.

Megatron, supreme allied commander of the military, coupled with Shockwave, the head of the Recepticon company, followed by Starscream, their chief Scientist. Logical Empire building! (Character development as well- now we see why Starscream and Shockwave want to take over! Also note that Screamer is in charge of biological study, including some pretty lurid experiments- this not only makes him a wily barstard, but it adds to his character as he's now very sick.).

The public who haven't yet rioted are left with two options: they either join the blokes running around trying to stop this from happening, or they remain true to their planet, and remain patriotic. Thus the war isn't about good versus evil, it's a war of opinion, pride and patriotism.

They all eventually band into camps, with a few remaining neutrals left stranded in between the two new sides. The old regime of the 'Decepticon Empire' versus those who disagree, who gain their name from the Cybertronian Local Police force: the Automatic Response 'bots, or 'Autobots' for short.

The Decepticons have the upper-hand, of course- access to energy reserves, superior war-technology thanks to their combat experience.

Democracy is swept aside. The factions, each consisting of billions, are out of control. The war escalates, the Autobots emulate Decepticon infiltration technology and configure themselves to transform, and the Golden Age spirals downhill.

(It also explains characters like Grimlock: In Dreamwave, he was once a Decepticon. People always go 'Why?'. People always reply 'because he's a little bit evil. Duh!' But now it's because he felt his loyalty belonged with his planet, but later defected. This also explains his initial dislike for 'fleshlings'.)