Did they ever explain who these statues are?

Decepticon leaders from history

>>15109825
They're a holdover from earlier drafts of the movie. In at least one draft, Megatron, wounded but still alive, makes it to Cybertron and demands to be enshrined here- his spirit preserved in an urn, or it would just dissipate into space or something. It is HERE that the Decepticon fight for leadership happens, and during the scuffle, Megatron is finished off completely, as well as the statues getting destroyed, releasing their essences (the glowing flames at the foot of the statues). These spirits would fly through space until discovered by the planet Unicron, who would then give them new bodies.

The background details were drawn up and animated before other scenes. You can tell because in particular establishing shots you'll see Thundercracker or the Insecticons, who in earlier drafts were scripted to die much later in the film.

>>15109825
There are supposedly names from the designer, but that's about it.
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hall_of_Heroes

>>15111863

Oh wow. Probably would have been the first appearance of "Sparks".

>>15111863
Deaths's were also hilarious. Most make no sense, or are impossible to animate with the directions given, plus names for characers killed are almost never uttered. There's that entire sequence where Hound, Sunstreaker, and a few others hold off some Decepticons through an opening in the city, and they start cutting/shooting legs off to impede their advance.

>>15111863

How did Starscream manage to win out in that free for all anyways.

>>15112863

He stays away from the fight until everyone is weakened.

He also is a very strong fighter despite being a coward.

>>15112896

Yeah but he'd also likely be one of the first decepticons everyone should be gunning for. It's not like his treachery and duplicity are secrets.

Fuck with she being as bad as they where Im shocked there weren't more cons who where just all "Well this shit is over and if we're fighting it out might as well take out that cunt"

Plus there wasn't really anywhere to hide. If I where Astrotrain Id have dumped the lot of them.

>>15112863

Astrotrain probably told them to stop fighting and go with Starscream or he'd dump them all.

From a command standpoint, only his leutenants had any right to claim leadership: Shockwave, Starscream, or Soundwave.

>>15112914
>Plus there wasn't really anywhere to hide.

Astrotrain is fucking huge despite being just a normal guy in robot mode.

btw, were they screweed if Astrotrain got killed? He was their only way out of there it seems. Unless they hijacked an Autobot shuttle.

>>15112957
Pretty much. The fun thing is that an earlier draft had Astrotrain stay behind to attack any reinforcements that came from Cybertron. He gets a sequence fighting Optimus Shuttle, then breaks off and meets up with the Decepticons in the city.

So in the original script, the Decepticons had no escape route if things went south, and were extremely lucky Astrotrain decided to link up with them.

>>15112971

Megatron was banking on victory. Or at least Optimus not taking out 5 guys in a few seconds.

>>15112957
>Astrotrain is fucking huge despite being just a normal guy in robot mode.

Size isn't really the issue when he's still generally an empty cargo hold