Robots in Disguise !

With all this new movie Hype I have been reminiscing of the good old days of the classic 1st gen cartoon. And it hit me, Why are the transformers fighting. I don't know, did I ever know. Was all my bot vs. con excitement based on such thin plot that it wasn't even note worthy of my memories? The answer is still inconclusive. Netflix has 1st gen season 1 on the dreaded "availability unknown" list. After a web dive of various site I have assembled a frame work of the motivations behind such an epic battle to span generations, and I am truly impressed.

Back in 84 the plot was quite simple, Decepticons want to conquer the world and frivolously expend our planets resources. Autobots with to share their technology for the good of all humankind in exchange for a launching point to re-take Cybertron. From a collection of various TV series, comic books, and the movie we piece together the full story. The Transformers are pitted in a Civil war.

Their story begins with an original race for framework. Much like the Ancients of StarGate, The Robotech Masters of Macross, our robots in disguise started as slaves from their creator race. The Quintessons twelve million years ago were the original natives of Cybertron, and they liked to build intelligent robots to do everything for them. Robots to labor, robots to protect, robots to entertain. Eventually the Quintessons evolved into cyborgs. Their sentient slaves revolted in a massive war. Eventually a rebel leader arose, A-3. A-3, or Alpha Trion, created a Coda-Remote to shut down the loyalist robot military, The Dark Guardians. The Quintessons retreated across space, and are forever no longer major players in this dimension. After some internal fighting order was established, but the golden age of Cybertron would be brief though. The military and gladiator bots dissatisfied with equality started the Third Cybertronian War, subjecting the labor bots to the lowest of class. A-3 seeing a need to again fight tyranny re-forged a fallen comrade, Orion Pax, into Optimus prime and creating the Autobots.

The Autobots fled Cybertron, found earth, and created a way to transform into native technologies not to disturb the locals. The Decepticons were left with only the most rudimentary understanding of Cybertrons' legendary infrastructure, and energy reserves already spent on nearly endless fighting. Knowing full well that the Autobots if left with some resources and time would easily overtake Cybertron, The Decepticons establish dominance by invading earth.

After all these years I am intrigued by the super-science of this setting, the principles and dynamics of the characters. It has the audacity of 70s' pulp sci-fi, and the vision of late 80s' digital revolution.