Transformers G1: “The God Gambit”, When Bots Influence The Cultural Development of Other Civilisations
This is one of the G1 episodes where I wish we’d see the concept re-visited in a modern series at some point.
Keep in mind this was the 80s, so the idea of a “primitive humanoid culture” isn’t handled with any particular degree of cultural sensitivity as it relates to real world references here and there, but it’s an extremely interesting idea.
The Episode Plot, Summarised Below:
Cosmos, Starscream, Astrotrain, and Trust end up on Titan, Saturn’s moon, and find a developing humanoid civilisation.
It is a Theocracy, ruled by an astrologer Priest named Jero.
Now, things get interesting when we see a figure of the Sky God they worship:
Jazz and Perceptor eventually arrive to prevent the Decepticons from taking advantage of the local population, and the episode closes out with a victory for the Autobots as the humanoids on Titan thank them for their intervention.
Why This Concept is Interesting:
We see a character, Talaria, is rebelling against the Theocracy. She sees that Jero is corrupt, and is using the influence of religious cultural control to manipulate their society and citizenry for ill purposes.
The religion is in place before the bots arrive, which implies earlier contact with Cybertronians, or at the very least some other mechanoid lifeforms, at some point in the past.
There is so much potential in the idea of Cybertronians travelling the universe, unintentionally or otherwise impacting the spiritual/cultural development of other lifeforms around the galaxy.
In Legends, the Sky God is Metrotitan:
According to the Metroplex Legends comic, Metrotitan was in stasis under the surface of Titan; When he awoke, he rose from the surface, and the people of Titan believed him to be a Sky God.
The below panel is from here, but is a good visual representation for the above as well:
Revisiting the Sky God Concept: Aligned Continuity Lore; Unicron at the Core of the Earth + How it Relates to Real World Science and Culture
I think this idea could be done again, as it’s fascinating to think about.
I wrote about the Aligned Continuity timescale here, comparing Cybertron to Earth.
It would have been cool to see this as a TFP episode, given that it’s established in that continuity that Earth itself is made of space debris accumulated over centuries around the slumbering energy form of Unicron.
Surely, that would have some kind of impact on humanity?
We see that when Unicron is disturbed, he causes natural disasters and weather pattern changes on Earth’s surface and atmosphere.
Paleotempestology is a real-world science, based on using the remaining physical evidence of past storms to determine geological and meteorological information.
In Mexico, there is evidence that suggests severe climate events may have impacted the development/collapse of certain early Mesoamerican civilisations.
We know that Unicron doesn’t like humans; He doesn’t see us as his children, as unique organic lifeforms that only exist due to the conditions created by the environment provided by his slumbering form.
He sees us as an infestation, similar to fleas on a dog.
It would make sense that Unicron, as civilisations developed on Earth and humanity became more prevalent and widespread across the planet, would then attempt to shake us off, so to speak.
There are real world cave paintings that feature terrain and suggest weather conditions; Below is an example, with brown used to depict earthen or natural features like ground and mountains, and dashes of brown at the top are used to depict clouds in the sky in a kind of negative space effect:
It’s reasonable to think that early human civilisations may have experienced Unicron’s weather control based wrath, possibly repeatedly, before Unicron decided to spare his remaining energy for more calculated plans later on.
They also visit a museum in TFP, and it would have been cool to maybe see reference to a Sky God type figure in a glass display case, or a statue in the background, to hint at what may be Cybertronian influence on ancient humanity.
Even if the influence wasn’t Unicron related, which would make the most sense if using real world comparisons to add legitimacy to the concept, we know that Cybertron and Cybertronians are far older than humanity and Earth.
It’s an idea that has a lot of potential, if any future Transformers series ever revisits it.
