O.k. here's something. And in advance, I would like to assure everyone that I am not crazy.
I'm no*t*.
Me and one of my brothers were watching "Double Dinobot" yesterday, and when Dinobot reveals that he has eaten his clone, my brother got somewhat confused.
So, my first reaction was, well, Dinobot is supposed to be a velociraptor, and animals eat. Besides, Tarantulas eats a rat in "Victory", Rattrap eats an apple in "The Web", Terrorsaur eats a bird in "Power Surge", etc.
But then, just the fact that eating is common place in this show doesn't explain how it's possible so much as that is an established fact in the fiction. But again, they are suppose to be animals, right?
I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but I don't think he was satisfied with the explanation. I think it came down to the fact that they were still machines underneath (thinking of looking at a Beast Wars toy, it might (or might not) look like an animal on the outside, but you know what's underneath.).
Secondly, we have the fact that the Maximals and Predacons had to get beast modes in order to survive the energon radiation. The logic behind this, as I've perceived it so far, though I might be misinterpreting, is that since the life forms on Earth have been able to survive the radiation, their anatomical structure, because of some feature or another, has to be unaffected. Obviously the animals would be non-existent if this weren't so. Therefore, the Maximals and Predacons wanted to borrow their anatomy and get whatever immunity was present in it.
Thirdly, when in beast modes, the beast warriors can enable internal repairs. This suggests some sort of system, and while it doesn't necessarily have to happen on a "cellular" level, that does seem more efficient than actually visible repairing tools trying to fit and move and work around inside a beast mode. Either way, in earlier series like G1, when Cybertronians needed repairs, they would head back to their base to get them. Beast Warriors have CR chambers, but it seems they don't always need them. For example, in Beast Wars Parts II, Optimus Primal manages to re-enable his damaged flight system by remaining in beast mode for long enough.
Point number 4. I was looking at some stat cards the other day, specifically Cheetor's, and was able to pull up something interesting:
Like a bolt of greased lightning, Cheetor strikes fast and strikes hard. Quiet and confidant with incredible reflexes, he is equally efficient when battling in robot mode or in his artificially enhanced organic earth form. Cheetor constantly stalks the jungle in search of Predacon enemies, daring them to challenge him and his laser-powered quasar cannon
Maybe I'm over-analyzing, but that doesn't strike me as "Cheetor's a robot underneath, so he'd wreck any normal cheetah he met". It seemed more like it sounded- an
enhanced Cheetah.
We see that stasis pods will sometimes house their protoforms as liquid metal (affirmed in "The Spark" and contradicted in "Fallen Comrades", but either way, it would make sense so that the protoform could form itself into the proper beast mode when that mode gets chosen, and even in "Fallen Comrades" it's possible a liquid metal formed itself into a hard shape by that point because it didn't have any instructions. In "The Spark", after all, when Rhinox safely gets Airazor into stasis lock to buy her spark time, her form becomes solid. Tigatron's may have been doing that... but then... how could he raise his hand into the air while in stasis lock? Either way...).
Robotically functioning liquid metal is still science fiction, so one can't exactly prove the manner of it's functions in a fictional realm where one is not explicitly told by the writers that something is the way it is.
To me though, liquid metal seems at it's most logical, a sea of microcomputers and components (like the pretender was shown to be in Revenge of the Fallen, only I'm thinking even smaller).
Here's my question. Is it possible, given all of the above information, that there was more use of liquid metal in Beast Wars than just for a stasis mode for protoforms? Specifically, when a beast warrior transforms, could their molecular structure be reformatting itself?
In light of the above points, the use of liquid metal could be an explanation. If, when the Beast Warriors acquire their alternate modes, the computer systems of both ships were able to log the entire anatomical structure of the animals the beast warriors used for their alternate mode, instead of just the skin, and shape- the animals' outward appearances- then could that information not be used to to mimic vital animals systems? So when a Beast Warrior transforms, their anatomical structure could take after the animal's- cellular functions, organization, various immune functions related to structure, etc.
This would explain how 1.) a Beast Warrior can eat something. While it is also entirely possible that their robot mode parts simply fold into some sort of efficient calorie burning oven, a molecular imitation of a digestive system could be just as efficient at supplying correct nutrients to such animal features as flesh, hair, etc. We'll probably never know which of the two methods is better. This is fiction. But, before Beast Wars, Cybertronians were never seen to have the capability of eating (as far as I know at least). It seems the connection between not eating and the sudden ability to do so is the shift to an animal alternate mode- which, again, would point to a molecular imitation of the system. It would seem more logical to be consistent with the animals than to invent an entire new system of digestion. But that is my opinion, it is theoretical, and it's debatable.
2.) A beast warrior can easily shift panels and hide its circuitry by looking like an animal, and being concealed in skin or fur, or whatever. It is certainly what the toys, and even some of the animation of the Beast Warriors transformations would at least at first suggest (although, theoretically, it is possible that they transform to get their major mass in the correct position, and then undergo an internal re-arrangement). But most radiations, it seems, aren't prevented by one thin biological layer. It seems like the animals on Earth would be immune simply because their entire anatomical structure is simply unaffected by the radiation, not blocked from it. But that is all theory. If that is true, as it does, to me, seem likely, than an imitation of the internal features of an animal would at least provide a better chance at being protected from the radiation. Of course, radiation would seem to target Cybertronians because of their elemental composition more than their molecular arrangement, but, again, imitating an animal's biological organization might also have provided a better potential for immunity to the radiation.
3.) I kinda' touched on it already, but a molecular repair system does not seem too off the wall for a Transformer. True, internal repair in the midst of blocky folded limbs is not inconceivable, and even then could occur with the help of molecular size components (such as whatever makes up mech fluid). But with a healing system already built into animals, and none mentioned in previous transformers, it again seems to have been originated with the animal alternate modes, and therefore, would far more likely have been an imitation of organic (on a side note, if the word "organic" has its foundation in the words "organism", then it seems Cybertronians, with the gift of life are actually just as much "organisms". They may be composed of foreign metals, but these are still, in the end, life-sustaining, and therefore organic compounds. I'm not sure I agree that Cybertronians can be distinguished from organics. But I suppose it doesn't really matter.) healing found in the creatures on Earth. And if so, then it would be a system of veins, cells, etc- an internal reformation.
4.) If Cheetor's bio truly refers to an enhancement and not a robot underneath skin, than this is, again, evidence, to an animal system- muscles and the like.
Anyways, that's what's been on my mind. I'm pretty certain nothing like this was ever established in the cannon, so I guess I'm checking to see if it's conceivable, and if so, then if it is at all likely.
BWAHAHA! I'm sorry that just put a really wacky mental image in my mind.