What is with all the bladed weapons, they make no sense

[JediTricks]

I think knives are extremely cool, swords too, any bladed weapon generally catches my attention. But they make NO sense in the Transformers universe, especially the movieverse. These are METAL creatures, they don't have easily-pierced flesh or fragile organs. You know what happens when you stab your car? You scratch the paint. The amount of force needed to pierce just the outer body panel would be extreme, and likely ruin the blade in the process, and all you would have achieved is making a small cut in sheet metal.

Look, I know it's cool that Drift and Bludgeon run around all samurai'd up, but that's more comic book style and gimmick. The movieverse specifically tries to get away from that, aside from Prime's stabby stabs. The movieverse is trying to be "realistic" in the mechanics of Transformers (despite them firing hard ammo from guns that appear out of nowhere, neither of which make a lick of sense). Yet in the DotM line, almost every figure I've seen so far has a weapon that is bladed or converts to a blade, and at that point it's just ridiculous. None of these blades should work at all unless our heroic Autobots start chopping down animals for fun.

This has been bugging me for a few days now, no one figure set it off but they're nearly all like that.

[Gomess]

Metal CAN cut metal. That's how we get metal. Presumably their blades are Made of Sterner Stuff than they are.

also: METALLIKATO =p

[138 Scourge]

Well, in the DOTM line, every weapon turning into a blade, I think that's just because of the Mechtech gimmick. "Gun turns into Sword!" is a more impressive visual thing than "Gun turns into different gun!" I mean, they can do that, but unless it's something like Megatron's gun, where "Piece of kibble turns into something that kind of looks like a gun!" it doesn't have the same impact, I don't think.

I'm certainly not gonna be the guy that argues that things in the movieverse make impeccable sense, but in-context we've seen that the swords are pretty effective. Ask Sideways if using a bladed weapon on a robot only leaves a small cut in sheet metal.

You know what weapons are really kind of silly in the movieverse? Electro-whips. Like, what? So, you hit a dude with your whip, and his skin's made of metal, well, congrats, maybe you scuffed the paint, but since it's electric, you delivered an electric shock to the guy for the instant the whip was touching him. Yeah, Jolt, that's way better than a gun.

[Gomess]

BWprowl has made it more than clear what Jolt's "whips" are for. =p

[annhell]

The way I see it, the movieverse has to portray melee weaponry in order to really have that "realistic" feel. It would make no tactical sense to only rely on ranged weapons and overlook close contact engagements.

What i'd have liked to see though, is more "realistic" use of the melee weaponry portrayed. Bot has a gun arm? Hack it off. Weapon morphing out from somewhere in the torso? Smash it in mid-transformation. Heck, dismember the legs and then execute 'im with a shot to the head while it's self-repairing.

Of course, that would probably be considered too violent for the kiddie audience.
On the other hand, I kinda fail to see how dismembering a humanoid is unacceptable, compared to slicing a bot in half when it's in car mode. But maybe that's just me and my culturally different mindset.

[Gomess]

I think that's the reason they got away with Megatron tearing robot mode Jazz in half With His Bare Hands in the first movie; like the Mortal Kombat Fatalities, it's an unrealistic death. But maiming a robot's legs and the executing it while it's crawling along... that's the kind of thing that nutjobs can imitate.

That said, bladed weapons are inherently more visceral than firearms, so it's clear to me at least that the reason we have so many now is to make Transformers seem totally grown up and kewl. And, in all honesty, I'll take melée over firearms any day.

[Onslaught Six]

You know what weapons are really kind of silly in the movieverse? Electro-whips. Like, what? So, you hit a dude with your whip, and his skin's made of metal, well, congrats, maybe you scuffed the paint, but since it's electric, you delivered an electric shock to the guy for the instant the whip was touching him. Yeah, Jolt, that's way better than a gun.

Apparently you never played any of the sidescrolling early 90s TMNT games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mMq8j6QNzc

Wait for the wheely robot cyclops guys to show up, they'll show you exactly how electro whips work. (I think there were at least a couple enemies in Scott Pilgrim that did a similar attack.)

That said, bladed weapons are inherently more visceral than firearms, so it's clear to me at least that the reason we have so many now is to make Transformers seem totally grown up and kewl. And, in all honesty, I'll take melée over firearms any day.

This is why I liked Energon and the Energon Weapons, they were very much implied (if not outright stated) to be 'made out of Energon,' which would give them an excuse to work. In fact, I think most, if not all, bladed weapons in G1 were implied to be made of Energon somehow.

Anyway, Movie Prime's swords and hooks and crap tend to have a glowy thing going on which makes me think they're actually heated or give off some kind of energy that makes them go through opponents. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's burn marks left wherever Prime punctures them. Also, Movie TFs aren't like regular TFs--they actually have all kinds of parts exposed and hanging out around them. (It's a poor design but I'm going to use it as justification anyway.) A bladed weapon might not necessarily split right into an opponent but it *could* lodge into vital gears and systems and grind shit to a halt.

[Dominic]

Skirmish weapons also have the advantage of not having to draw on a source for power/ammo.

[BWprowl]

Anyway, Movie Prime's swords and hooks and crap tend to have a glowy thing going on which makes me think they're actually heated or give off some kind of energy that makes them go through opponents. In fact, I'm pretty sure there's burn marks left wherever Prime punctures them.

I was gonna say this too. It's the same reason Heat Hawks are allowed to work in the Gundam universe (wait, no it's not. Zakus never kill anything!). Prime's hooks, too, are more focused on tearing bits off, which would be an effective strategy.

You know what might make more sense for melée weapons here that we never see enough of in the movies (or in TF in general, really)? Blunt force/concussive weapons, like hammers and clubs and the like. Smash a robot's bits in from the outside, and you don't need to worry about whether your sword can cut through him or not. Plus more TFs with hammers would be awesome.

(Seriously, why aren't there more of those in TF? Animated had Magnus's hammer and Snarlag's club, but those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head).

[annhell]

G1 Megs had his energy chained mace/morning star, which I always thought was more effective than Prime's axe.