Gomess wrote:Metal CAN cut metal. That's how we get metal. Presumably their blades are Made of Sterner Stuff than they are.
also: METALLIKATO =p
Harder metals can cut softer ones. Transformers in this universe travel across the galaxy in only their birthday suits, that's got to be strong skin.
138 Scourge wrote: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.
I had forgotten about that scene, it pissed me off when I saw the film. The amount of force required to slice a regular car in half is enough to vaporize it, yet Sideswipe barely has to do anything to clean-cut Sideways in half.
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.
At least it's a melee weapon, and different. But yeah, kind of a silly, not-well-thought-out one.
annhell wrote: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.
True, close-quarters is necessary, but bladed weapons on metal beings isn't the way, it'd be like trying to stab someone wearing thick ceramic body armor with a cheap mexican switchblade, and even if you don't snap the blade right off, you'll need mountains of force to even hope to get any penetration into that armor.
Gomess wrote: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.
But it's not done in a grown up manner, they have the blades in the movieverse do the most unrealistic, over-the-top stuff of anything. Shooting energy weapons at each other in the cartoons even seemed to have some sense of strategy and honor, in the movies they just kinda smash together like angry children playing. "Grown up and extreme!" does seem to be the thinking, but grown ups don't generally run around in battle doing silly flips and spins and shooting every which way and then magically cutting enemies to smithereens.
Onslaught Six wrote: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.
Totally. And by making them out of Energon, it also gives them a limitation, the Transformers need to find more sources of energy to keep fighting, or they'll run out of weapons. And by being made of energy, it makes them potentially more viable against their metal enemies. It makes a ton more sense than the projectile weapons in movieverse, and nobody needs to even explain it, it's inherent in the concept.
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.
In movie 1, I remember them talking up the blades on Prime as an homage to his electro-axe, but then when he engaged it, the orange glow wore off, like it was from the heat of transformation, not from internal energy. I don't remember if they changed that for m2 though.
The idea that a bladed weapon is needed to hit exposed systems seems a bit thin, they could use anything - a pipe, their hands, hell, even force their own panels to cut across them. The notion is hard to buy as a major explanation IMO.
Dominic wrote:Skirmish weapons also have the advantage of not having to draw on a source for power/ammo.
Except that these are robots, so their use requires drawing power on the robot themselves. The amount of force needed to put an axe through a tree is considerable, now imagine that wielding that axe against your robot foe.
BWprowl wrote: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.
I guess, but the movie is inconsistent about what it takes to change/repair parts. Bumblebee transforms from '70s Camaro to 2011 Camaro in the blink of an eye. But then he loses his legs and can't regenerate them. Yet only moments later at the end of the film, there he is on his legs again, repairs being completed with what materials and time, exactly?
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).
Well, they require a great deal of energy to hurl/swing with enough force to damage a similarly-strong opponent, so that's a limitation. Plus, I think the idea of a lot of robots just bonking each other on the head has a bit of unintentional comedy behind it. Still, a few berserker characters with bigger bodies to denote increased strength and energy storage running around with hammers and clubs would be keen.
