The death toll is one of the interesting parts about the movie's plot. Sure these character's had to be moved out to make room for the introductions of new characters to sell new toys, but it doesn't change the fact that the movie did in some ways approach the death toll of the TF comic series.

In the Autobot shuttle we witness the deaths of Brawn, Prowl, Ironhide, and Ratchet.

At Autobot City we see the corpses of Wheeljack and Windcharger as well as the final battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron.

Not only that, but several Decepticons end up leaving this plane of existence, most notably Megatron (who is reborn as Galvatron) and Starscream.

Late in Season 3 we learn that Huffer was killed, but how many others?

I must have cried when I saw my heroes die so easily. I then went on to watch the movie over and over. Never owned the movie back in the day. Movies were super expensive back then. Had to rent. Thank gawd for dvd.

It's funny though. It didn't hit me until years later, that Hot Rod was not part of the original cast. So glad Bumble' didn't fall in the pit. That would have had me for another few weeks. Only thing to rival my sadness back then was when Duke died in the GI JOE movie. (then magically came back to life in the series)

Heh, in Transformers: Victory we see Wheeljack alive and well. Problem is though, Victory was one of the later Japanese G1 animated series and the movie was not part of the continuity of the animated series in Japan. They had Scramble City instead, and in this area we came out well ahead of Japan when it comes to Transformers.

There's also a whole mess of deaths that we don't see in their full glory like those onboard the Autobot shuttle toward the beginning of the film. What deaths? Oh, just those of every single inhabitant of Lithone for starters. What's Lithone, you ask? It's the planet Unicron had for breakfast in the scene just before the opening credits.

Then there are the poor slobs that get melted in Unicrons's acid pit... among others.

Actually Duke didn't die in the G.I.Joe movie. He was hit by Serpentors snake and put in a comma. Then at the end of the movie after they defeated Cobrala you hear that Duke has recovered and will be ok.

I wouldn't have minded the death toll so much if it hadn't been just autobots. During the whole battle you don't see one decepticon fall. As usual the bots are terible shots and couldn't hit the side of a barn at 5 paces. While the cons seem to have spent considerable time on the shooting range between 85 and 05.

Lol. Then again, decepto's were the military grade, while autobots were having fun in the sun, morphing into beach balls, radios, and brollys.

AND BIG ARSE MACK TRUCKS THAT LOOK GREAT RUNNING OVER GIANT BUGS. Hells yeah.


Reminded me... "Get to the ships! It's out only chance!"
*Unicron eats that foo'*

I think they might have edited the GIJoe movie from the theatrical release to vhs/dvd. I coulda sworn Duke bought it, then came back in the series like magic. Then again, I could only find the VHS version, released in...hmmm...1998 i think.

Well I don't see how they could have or would have edited it. I mean they said he went into a coma then the medics said they would take care of him. I didn't get to see the theatrical release, but I don't see what would be the point to changing it. Also if Duke wasn't better at the end of the movie what were they all shouting about?

Hell if they were going to edit that to make sense wouldn't they have to fix Cobra Commander and Serpentor and basically all of what happens to Cobra to make sense. I just see it as alot of editting with no real purpose since the damage would have already been done.

When Brawn, Prowl, and Ironhide died I almost cried (I was 9) and it was so sad for me because they were all my favorite characters. If anything Bumblebee should of died! But no! The people who are actually useful are the ones who get killed.

But that was nothing compared to the sadness I felt when Optimus died. Thank the Lord he came back to life later on in the show.

This message was edited by Darknet on Jul 07 2004.

Yeah, it was great to see Optimus back even though he didn't do much of anything in all three episodes of Season 4 (Rebirth), but then his figure had been off the shelves for a while, and the Headmasters and Targetmasters were the current transforming flavors of the month.

I'm sure you'll be sad too know that Optimus was killed off yet again in the Headmasters series which Japan had as opposed to out paltry 3 episode season 4. I think it was episode 4 of Headmasters where Optimus met his demise for the second time. Of course, the Japanese series is a different contininuity...

Heh, Ultra Magnus died in Headmasters as well.

As for characters who should have been killed off in the film, Reflector, for starters, should have been just to provide some more corpses at Autobot City if nothing else.

They should have just used some more thow away Cons. So that it didn't seem like they were killing off every Bot in sight with out a single Con death. In fact I don't think any Cons except Starscream were actually killed in the movie. About half a dozen were damaged and reformatted but none actually died.

True, the Insecticons, Thundercracker, and Skywarp were reformatted and changed. I tend to view that they did indeed die for two reasons. Of the Decepticons that were jettisoned only Megatron showed any signs of life during the meeting with Unicron. The other reason is when their bodies were changed their personalities and voices were also different. In a sense they were completely different individuals having been reincarnated for lack of a better term. Obviously there had to be some access to the memories of the previous incarnations. Other than that it's hard to say as their exact nature really wasn't expressly stated in the show or movie.

And it has been theorized and scrutinized from possibly every available angle in numerous fanfictions.

quote Mister MacPhisto

Yeah, it was great to see Optimus back even though he didn't do much of anything in all three episodes of Season 4 (Rebirth)

But didn't he save the world from that red virus? (thats the cartoon I know but I don't know the comics)

quote

I'm sure you'll be sad too know that Optimus was killed off yet again in the Headmasters series which Japan had as opposed to out paltry 3 episode season 4. I think it was episode 4 of Headmasters where Optimus met his demise for the second time. Of course, the Japanese series is a different contininuity...

Japan....

quote

Heh, Ultra Magnus died in Headmasters as well.

I never liked him. I don't know why. He never connected with me.

The virus thing was the last 2 episodes of season 3 "Return of Optimus Prime". And Prime wasn't even alive until the second episode. Rebirth was season 4 (all of season 4) and it featured mainly the Headmasters. Prime got very little screen time after his resurection.

Still Macphisto even if TC SW and the Insecticons were dead that is only 5 cons down. To the Bots what 20 or so. And they weren't even really lost to the decepticons since they were reformatted. The bots didn't come back at all.

Prime
Ironhide
Ratchet
Brawn
Bluestreak
Wheeljack
Huffer

Just to name a few off the top of my head.

It wasn't Bluestreak we saw killed on the shuttle but Prowl. Windcharger is also the only other corpse we actually see or hear mention of being dead during either the movie or season 3 (at least that I recall).

I've often considered the possibility that if the character isn't seen in the show after the movie, said character is dead.

Well you see how large the death ship is. So certainly alot of bots were killed in the great war.I don't know if we can consider them unquestionably dead. But MIA isn't much better. Typical if someone is MIA you might as well consider them dead becuase in all likelyhood they will never be seen alive again.

Sorry but I always mix up Prowl and Bluestreak. They are damn near identical.

Yeah, Prowl and Bluestreak are pretty close. The major distinction in the animated version of G1 is that Bluestreak had his shoulder mounted weapons and Prowl did not.

Kup does say that the mausoleum was constructed as a final resting place for the heroes lost in the Great War. One would think this means the Third Cybertronian War, but it could (and probably does) just mean the battle at Autobot City.

Good point with the MIA statement. As it is we really don't know which means everybody will have their own hope as to the fate of their favorite characters that were, as you said, MIA.