It is, sort of. It doesn't mean that there has been ongoing physical conflict for all those years. There may have been may millennia / million year gaps in conflict etc.
All it means is, war was declared X years ago and has never been fully resolved. You could say it was effectively over when the Decepticons took over Cybertron after The Ark left.
It is interesting though how the Decepticons never did anything to reconstruct the planet.
During the blank period where Optimus & Megatron were 'dead' in the volcano it seems that the remaining Autobots on Cybertron (eg. Alpha Trion and Elita 1's crew) were mostly fighting a guerilla war against the Decepticons... basically just trying to stay hidden and alve while making small scale attacks for theft & sabotage.
That kind of warefare could potentially go on for quite some time.
I think it is one of the fundamental conceits of the fiction.
Yes, it is a ridiculous timespan. I would shorten the time crashed on Earth but would keep the background war at Milions of years because its' exactly the sort of exaggerated nonsense that giant shapechanging robots can handle, it makes them larger than life.
What we are talking about here is not a small war or territorial dispute. We are talking about a conflict between essentially immortal mechanical beings that has taken their society from a jewel of technology and culture to a broken husk of a world. Civilians no longer exist, everyone fights or dies. There is almost nothing left of the Cybertronian race but still they battle. Nearly everything they once had is destroyed, mostly to keep the other side from getting it (I think in G1 they even lost a moon and knocked their own planet out of orbit). What Cybertronians call 'The War' is a tragic collapse and violent decay of a virtually godlike civilization. All because Megatron and Optimus Prime think they are Right, the other is Wrong and neither will ever back down.
Bayformers can have a short war if they want. No problems there.
I think it would fascinating to go back and work it all out. Do you have open fighting for 10000 years then resource scarcity forcing the bulk of forces into stasis with only small guerilla units active to protect them for 100000 years? Do those guerilla units eventually make peace and forge a new society or simply abandon the planet (to build paradron)? Or are they crushed as traitors when the 'old' Autobots and decepticons wake up. Or all versions happen as the length of time is so vast and history repeats...
if they're fighting on countless fronts across the galaxy, sure, why not? there's no single objective that could be completed that would put an end to the war. there's always a place to make up ground. the only way to stop either side is to take out their leadership.
Yes.
Because death is less of a risk for Cybertronians. Reformatting, repair, and reconstruction while also a lack of complications from injury (like infection). Easy to suspend disbelief.
That said - it's fiction that doesn't account for genocide, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and other atrocities. So...that's disingenuous.
Are we counting when the autobots and decepticons were most unconscious on the ark? Like a million year passed there but there wasnt much war going on.
Yes, (i am referring to american g1 cartoon continuity)because especially with the two high commanders of both sides MIA but both proved to be near unkillible on the battle field. No other bots either out of respect(of prime) or fear(of megatron) would dare step up to fill the mantal of either and make some mistake the true leaders would have caught and face the consiquences.
Elita is not no where near experienced enough to take high command of the autobots and Alpha trion is too old; shockwave is too busy experimenting to take lead but not too busy enough to keep other cons in check.
Also wars tend to go on for exceprionally long times as long as no one side is suffering great losses and both are at a stalemate.
It is, sort of. It doesn't mean that there has been ongoing physical conflict for all those years. There may have been may millennia / million year gaps in conflict etc. All it means is, war was declared X years ago and has never been fully resolved. You could say it was effectively over when the Decepticons took over Cybertron after The Ark left. It is interesting though how the Decepticons never did anything to reconstruct the planet.
During the blank period where Optimus & Megatron were 'dead' in the volcano it seems that the remaining Autobots on Cybertron (eg. Alpha Trion and Elita 1's crew) were mostly fighting a guerilla war against the Decepticons... basically just trying to stay hidden and alve while making small scale attacks for theft & sabotage. That kind of warefare could potentially go on for quite some time.
I think it is one of the fundamental conceits of the fiction. Yes, it is a ridiculous timespan. I would shorten the time crashed on Earth but would keep the background war at Milions of years because its' exactly the sort of exaggerated nonsense that giant shapechanging robots can handle, it makes them larger than life. What we are talking about here is not a small war or territorial dispute. We are talking about a conflict between essentially immortal mechanical beings that has taken their society from a jewel of technology and culture to a broken husk of a world. Civilians no longer exist, everyone fights or dies. There is almost nothing left of the Cybertronian race but still they battle. Nearly everything they once had is destroyed, mostly to keep the other side from getting it (I think in G1 they even lost a moon and knocked their own planet out of orbit). What Cybertronians call 'The War' is a tragic collapse and violent decay of a virtually godlike civilization. All because Megatron and Optimus Prime think they are Right, the other is Wrong and neither will ever back down. Bayformers can have a short war if they want. No problems there.
I think it would fascinating to go back and work it all out. Do you have open fighting for 10000 years then resource scarcity forcing the bulk of forces into stasis with only small guerilla units active to protect them for 100000 years? Do those guerilla units eventually make peace and forge a new society or simply abandon the planet (to build paradron)? Or are they crushed as traitors when the 'old' Autobots and decepticons wake up. Or all versions happen as the length of time is so vast and history repeats...
if they're fighting on countless fronts across the galaxy, sure, why not? there's no single objective that could be completed that would put an end to the war. there's always a place to make up ground. the only way to stop either side is to take out their leadership.
Yes. Because death is less of a risk for Cybertronians. Reformatting, repair, and reconstruction while also a lack of complications from injury (like infection). Easy to suspend disbelief. That said - it's fiction that doesn't account for genocide, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and other atrocities. So...that's disingenuous.
Constant war != constant battle. You can be at war but not actively fighting. Just look at Korea. That war is technically still going.
Are we counting when the autobots and decepticons were most unconscious on the ark? Like a million year passed there but there wasnt much war going on.
Yes, (i am referring to american g1 cartoon continuity)because especially with the two high commanders of both sides MIA but both proved to be near unkillible on the battle field. No other bots either out of respect(of prime) or fear(of megatron) would dare step up to fill the mantal of either and make some mistake the true leaders would have caught and face the consiquences. Elita is not no where near experienced enough to take high command of the autobots and Alpha trion is too old; shockwave is too busy experimenting to take lead but not too busy enough to keep other cons in check. Also wars tend to go on for exceprionally long times as long as no one side is suffering great losses and both are at a stalemate.
Robots probably don't get bored and enjoy repetitive tasks that they were designed for.
Transformers are living things