I've always thought they were similar to humans in the respect that they're the same race, but with conflicting world views (i.e., British vs. Americans in the War for Independence, North vs. South in the Civil War).

I've always thought they were similar to humans in the respect that they're the same race, but with conflicting world views (i.e., British vs. Americans in the War for Independence, North vs. South in the Civil War).

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:pfx

the great war has always been called a "Civil War"

I've always thought they were similar to humans in the respect that they're the same race, but with conflicting world views (i.e., British vs. Americans in the War for Independence, North vs. South in the Civil War).

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:pfx

the great war has always been called a "Civil War"

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has it? I'm not familiar with the comics, so maybe they called it that in there. But I don't recall such terminology in the G1 cartoon.

I've always thought they were similar to humans in the respect that they're the same race, but with conflicting world views (i.e., British vs. Americans in the War for Independence, North vs. South in the Civil War).

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:pfx

the great war has always been called a "Civil War"

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has it? I'm not familiar with the comics, so maybe they called it that in there. But I don't recall such terminology in the G1 cartoon.

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Depends on your view of Great War, but in the Episode of the Cosmic Rust, they found the Rust on a planet with Cybertronian architecture, and Cybertronian writings inscribed told about how the inhabitants of said planet fled Cybertron in the so-many-est Cybertronian Civil War.

The factions are based on their function. Autobots were the workers and Decepticons were the Army. The Decepticons are still following their original objectives and so are the Autobots.

 

And then there are the Cybertronians but they are the master of the Autobots and Decepticons. And each of these "factions" have their own subgroups, some of which become more prominant in the stories, such as the Predacons. It is just some weird twist of fate that led the Predacons to overtake the Decepticons, and why not, say, the Seacons?

 

And as for the Maximals, it is a strange thing, since before Beast Wars, the only reference to "Maximals" was in the episode "Webworld" in which the people of Torkulon used a process on Galvatron known as the "Maximal Intervention." Interesting no?

 

I try to make sense of this faction thing in my fanfic in the Fanfic forum.

I always thought of them as being a blend of race and nationality. You are born into one, and you can defect, though you are always viewed with some suspiscion over your origin. Exceptions being:

 

Starscream - At one point in the cartoon he was born a decepticon. Yet at another point, it says factions didn't even exist back in his early days of exploring with Skyfire. So either way he's fine.

 

Blackarachnia - She was a maximal protoform, which was a fact often brought up by the Axalon crew. She was only ever fully trusted after Rhinox severed most of the shell program installed by Tarantulas ie. her predacon racial trait.

 

Silverbolt - Never a real Pred to begin with

 

Quickstrike - he's insane and likes to blow things up. What's there  for Megs to complain about?

 

They never trusted Dinobot (and he never really felt like a maximal) until he died saving the tribes. Ravage was instantly disliked for his Decepticon past. The only General that stayed loyal to Megatron in BM was the one with a Predacon spark (BW continuity even has there Sparks being manufactured in different places [The Matrix and The Pit]). Also, if BW Megatron is to be believed, Predacons are ruled over by Maximals simply on account of them being born a Predacon.

 

So yeah, there's an element of nationality/ideology there, but there's also a trace of racial profiling. At least to my over examination of a kids show that has one name for good guys and one name for bad guys so you can know which toys to make fight each other  :tftongue

What Starscream ment was that the factions wern't at war, at that time, there has always been factions.