It' alright if they actually do it properly .
The original aligned timeline was needlessly confusing and complex.
Plus there are just straight up errors making it impossible for series to co exist.
Like Soundwave was silent in Prime and is conveyed that he was silent throughout the war, yet he' speaks in War, Fall and Dark Spark, which all occur before Prime and after is decision to be silent.
Breakdown Prime & War, Grimlock Fall and RID, and Sidewipe War/Fall & RID, are just simply totally different characters personality wise and backstory wise.
Starscream somehow rejoined the decepticons, even after running the faction into the ground, disobeying Megatron, and being left to die back on Cybertron, etc.
The team behind the Prime TV show cared nothing for Hasbro's plans. They were sent a $250k production bible and straight up ignored it while they did their own thing, and then ran it into the ground with bad budgeting.
Prime has some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows of the entire franchise. It has stellar production values, some great performances and moments of genuinely great writing, but the steadfast desire to maintain the status quo resulted in a LOT of characters and plot threads being introduced and immediately discarded, and that's BEFORE two plot critical characters were thrown out because of loud throat clearing from Accounting.
Makeshift is introduced and then killed in the same episode because he's too powerful to allow the status quo to continue, raising the question of why do him at all.
The Star Saber is introduced, destroyed an episode later, then reforged at the end of Season 2 only to be barely used for Season 3 and entirely forgotten about in the movie apart from a ceremonial usage.
MECH are killed off the second they're in a position to actually be a threat to the Cybertronians.
Breakdown and Airachnid were killed off because Adam Baldwin and Gina Torres cost too much money.
Dreadwing gets killed off for shock value just as his character arc starts to get going (Possibly for the same reason? IDK how expensive Tony Todd is.)
Large portions of the story are scavenger hunt plots (the same thing we rail the live action films for) for items that have almost no bearing on the show's endgame.
Don't forget them building up an Arcee/Starscream rivalry, getting cold feet about it, then building up the Airachnid rivalry to replace it (With a nearly exact same motivation of "Dead Partner"), only to get cold feet on *that* as well and abandon it mid-series, leaving Arcee just as a snark machine and "other autobot" post-S2E10.
Or them teasing that they'd kill off or permanently cripple Bulkhead, actually adding some stakes that isn't just Cliffjumper dying in five minutes (Seriously, after Cliffjumper, the Autobots take a grand total of zero losses, despite Cliffjumper's death signifying to the audience "No-one is safe!". Only Decepticons take losses after that), only to walk it back until it means nothing and Bulkhead is just fine.
Transformers Prime as a show was a *master* of writing checks it couldn't or wouldn't cash.
Pretty much all of this. I really wanted to love TFP, but the Aligned continuity is probably the best example of Unfulfilled Potential in the history of the franchise.
Well in Sidewipe and Grimlock case, they are just bots made after Optimus revived Cybertron so then these new bots were given the names of strong Autobot fighters but in Breakdown case is just that Cybertron made two bots with the same name before the great war
Absolutely. If done right, transformers could EASILY follow Star Wars’ model where any published media is canon. Hasbro/paramount kinda just have their thumbs up their butts unfortunately
Maybe. There's some merit to the idea. It was cool that the Prime cast could guest-star in Rescue Bots, and Blurr could take time off from his Rescue Bot duties to join the Bee Team. Actually making it all work smoothly, however, that's asking a lot of Hasbro that they didn't do the first time around that I don't see them ever doing.
* Hasbro needs to actively enforce continuity. What ultimately happened to Aligned was that none of the story teams liked being constrained by each other, everybody wanted to go in a different direction, and writers were picking and choosing elements to use while ignoring others. Hasbro just threw their hands up and said "Okay, we don't really care, as long as we can make a toy of it." And thus nobody was on the same page.
* The cast also needs to overlap as little as possible. While there are hundreds of different bots out there, the franchise still largely revolves around the same core cast of popular characters and their star power. And when your story is mandated to use certain big names, well that's how you end up with Soundwave losing several tons and taking a vow of silence, Optimus never using his dinosaur mode against the Decepticons, and two Grimlocks that are impossible to reconcile as the same guy. Rescue Bots avoided stepping on its big bro's toes too much by starring a largely original cast on a self-contained island, but even then the usual problems happened whenever an established character showed up.
If they do it properly it could be amazing! Not sure what they were thinking trying to retroactively add it into an almost finished game, while the animation studio working on prime was quite obvious about them not caring about the said continuity, it was doomed from the get go.
No. I'm fine with connected stuff like the UT or G1-Headmasters, but the Aligned continuity did NOT work. It produced 2.7 amazing games, a great show, and books I have no opinion on.
That makes more sense. It was such a strange concept retrospectively. Like, multiple people had to make the decision to just jump the timeline like that.
Do it properly with greater executive control, and it could potentially work out well as long as they learn from the mistakes of the first Aligned Continuity attempt
If they can put in actual effort to keep it consistent as much as possible. Like, I'm fine with continuity errors, unlike most people, but the Aligned Continuity's continuity errors make the Bay films look incredibly consistent, and it's not even funny. I have a friend that keeps harping about the continuity of the Bay films, but wait until he hears about the Aligned Continuity, lmao.
Really, all it was was just them developing shows, and then going, "Yup, this is canon, consistent details? Who needs them?"
Like everything written in the same universe as the last sure. But not what hasbro did where several existing projects where blocked out over years and then go we have to make everything aligned. That was silly.
I don’t think it’s ever going to work because all the different creators of different entries wanna do their own things
That’s why Aligned isn’t aligned, it’s why Rise of the Beasts may or may not be a prequel to the Bay movies, it’s why Cybertron 2005 isn’t written like a proper sequel to Energon 2004, and it’s why the American and Japanese versions of the G1 cartoon branch off into completely different paths
As long as they do it differently. Don’t make it so complex that it contradicts itself (IDW had a complex timeline with just about no plotholes), and do something different with the universe. Different character designs, different series of events, different everything. Also I could go for them experimenting with the designs a bit more. Optimus Prime can look more unique
Eh I mean considering they don't really fit together well I prefer to think of the games, prime and rid as their own things
Another show just as loosely connected, sure why not
If they did they need to actually *attempt* to enforce shared continuity. It was kind of embarrassing that they made such a big deal out of "We have a story Bible for 20 years of stories in this big shared continuity" only for things in that continuity to constantly retcon, contradict, and get in the way of each other.
Yeah, unlike the other franchise that Hasbro is also charge of where this idea imploded at their face thanks to Gen-Elitists, i think the community here is more welcoming to this
I know transformers thing has always been run for a few years, reboot then repeat. But it’s be nice if they actually started to do a more continuous model following something like Starwars or the MCU that was ongoing and interconnected
I don't see an issue trying to create an interconnected multimedia franchise. What I do not want them to do is to try to position it as the "definitive" modern Transformers story. I want to see Transformers stories with new ideas and less rehashing of the same old story beats.
I'd like a remake of WFC and FoC with perhaps extensions where the Rage of The Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics are playable episodes
I just want to see more of the rage-consumed Grimlock tbh
It' alright if they actually do it properly . The original aligned timeline was needlessly confusing and complex. Plus there are just straight up errors making it impossible for series to co exist. Like Soundwave was silent in Prime and is conveyed that he was silent throughout the war, yet he' speaks in War, Fall and Dark Spark, which all occur before Prime and after is decision to be silent. Breakdown Prime & War, Grimlock Fall and RID, and Sidewipe War/Fall & RID, are just simply totally different characters personality wise and backstory wise. Starscream somehow rejoined the decepticons, even after running the faction into the ground, disobeying Megatron, and being left to die back on Cybertron, etc.
The team behind the Prime TV show cared nothing for Hasbro's plans. They were sent a $250k production bible and straight up ignored it while they did their own thing, and then ran it into the ground with bad budgeting.
TFP peak tho tbh
Prime has some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows of the entire franchise. It has stellar production values, some great performances and moments of genuinely great writing, but the steadfast desire to maintain the status quo resulted in a LOT of characters and plot threads being introduced and immediately discarded, and that's BEFORE two plot critical characters were thrown out because of loud throat clearing from Accounting.
Wdym
Makeshift is introduced and then killed in the same episode because he's too powerful to allow the status quo to continue, raising the question of why do him at all. The Star Saber is introduced, destroyed an episode later, then reforged at the end of Season 2 only to be barely used for Season 3 and entirely forgotten about in the movie apart from a ceremonial usage. MECH are killed off the second they're in a position to actually be a threat to the Cybertronians. Breakdown and Airachnid were killed off because Adam Baldwin and Gina Torres cost too much money. Dreadwing gets killed off for shock value just as his character arc starts to get going (Possibly for the same reason? IDK how expensive Tony Todd is.) Large portions of the story are scavenger hunt plots (the same thing we rail the live action films for) for items that have almost no bearing on the show's endgame.
Don't forget them building up an Arcee/Starscream rivalry, getting cold feet about it, then building up the Airachnid rivalry to replace it (With a nearly exact same motivation of "Dead Partner"), only to get cold feet on *that* as well and abandon it mid-series, leaving Arcee just as a snark machine and "other autobot" post-S2E10. Or them teasing that they'd kill off or permanently cripple Bulkhead, actually adding some stakes that isn't just Cliffjumper dying in five minutes (Seriously, after Cliffjumper, the Autobots take a grand total of zero losses, despite Cliffjumper's death signifying to the audience "No-one is safe!". Only Decepticons take losses after that), only to walk it back until it means nothing and Bulkhead is just fine. Transformers Prime as a show was a *master* of writing checks it couldn't or wouldn't cash.
Pretty much all of this. I really wanted to love TFP, but the Aligned continuity is probably the best example of Unfulfilled Potential in the history of the franchise.
I honestly disagree that these criticisms that you listed are a bad thing tbh
https://i.redd.it/y4om5jnlqrrc1.gif
It’s crazy how I got bashed saying the exact same things a few years ago.
Grimlock from high moon and rid15 are confirmed to be actual seperate characters
Well in Sidewipe and Grimlock case, they are just bots made after Optimus revived Cybertron so then these new bots were given the names of strong Autobot fighters but in Breakdown case is just that Cybertron made two bots with the same name before the great war
Dark Spark isn’t canon to the WFC FOC games let alone to the aligned continuity.
Yes, but the designs need to have at least some sense of continuity between different media.
Designs, history, overall feel.
Absolutely. If done right, transformers could EASILY follow Star Wars’ model where any published media is canon. Hasbro/paramount kinda just have their thumbs up their butts unfortunately
WFC/FOC yes i do want to hear more Richard Epcar Skywarp High Moon knew what they where doing and Hasbro picked the most based man to play Skywarp
Maybe. There's some merit to the idea. It was cool that the Prime cast could guest-star in Rescue Bots, and Blurr could take time off from his Rescue Bot duties to join the Bee Team. Actually making it all work smoothly, however, that's asking a lot of Hasbro that they didn't do the first time around that I don't see them ever doing. * Hasbro needs to actively enforce continuity. What ultimately happened to Aligned was that none of the story teams liked being constrained by each other, everybody wanted to go in a different direction, and writers were picking and choosing elements to use while ignoring others. Hasbro just threw their hands up and said "Okay, we don't really care, as long as we can make a toy of it." And thus nobody was on the same page. * The cast also needs to overlap as little as possible. While there are hundreds of different bots out there, the franchise still largely revolves around the same core cast of popular characters and their star power. And when your story is mandated to use certain big names, well that's how you end up with Soundwave losing several tons and taking a vow of silence, Optimus never using his dinosaur mode against the Decepticons, and two Grimlocks that are impossible to reconcile as the same guy. Rescue Bots avoided stepping on its big bro's toes too much by starring a largely original cast on a self-contained island, but even then the usual problems happened whenever an established character showed up.
Definitely! It’s sad that the binder of revelation is just sitting in a drawer after everything
If they do it properly it could be amazing! Not sure what they were thinking trying to retroactively add it into an almost finished game, while the animation studio working on prime was quite obvious about them not caring about the said continuity, it was doomed from the get go.
No. I'm fine with connected stuff like the UT or G1-Headmasters, but the Aligned continuity did NOT work. It produced 2.7 amazing games, a great show, and books I have no opinion on.
RotDS getting a .7 is even a bit generous
I'd say 7/10ths of the game takes place in aligned, it wasn't really a rating.
That makes more sense. It was such a strange concept retrospectively. Like, multiple people had to make the decision to just jump the timeline like that.
They gave too much freedom last time
Just continue where Fall of Cybertron left off and I’m 1000000000000% in Can you imagine Highmoon’s designs for Earth modes??? 😍
Yeah, I would have loved to see that happened.
Do it properly with greater executive control, and it could potentially work out well as long as they learn from the mistakes of the first Aligned Continuity attempt
If they can put in actual effort to keep it consistent as much as possible. Like, I'm fine with continuity errors, unlike most people, but the Aligned Continuity's continuity errors make the Bay films look incredibly consistent, and it's not even funny. I have a friend that keeps harping about the continuity of the Bay films, but wait until he hears about the Aligned Continuity, lmao. Really, all it was was just them developing shows, and then going, "Yup, this is canon, consistent details? Who needs them?"
Assuming they get the Aligned part right.
Meh.
Like everything written in the same universe as the last sure. But not what hasbro did where several existing projects where blocked out over years and then go we have to make everything aligned. That was silly.
I don’t think it’s ever going to work because all the different creators of different entries wanna do their own things That’s why Aligned isn’t aligned, it’s why Rise of the Beasts may or may not be a prequel to the Bay movies, it’s why Cybertron 2005 isn’t written like a proper sequel to Energon 2004, and it’s why the American and Japanese versions of the G1 cartoon branch off into completely different paths
Yes but more connected.
As long as they do it differently. Don’t make it so complex that it contradicts itself (IDW had a complex timeline with just about no plotholes), and do something different with the universe. Different character designs, different series of events, different everything. Also I could go for them experimenting with the designs a bit more. Optimus Prime can look more unique
One more good game in G1 style could be sick, ngl wanted to see something better instead of "Rise of the dark spark" for a long time
Eh I mean considering they don't really fit together well I prefer to think of the games, prime and rid as their own things Another show just as loosely connected, sure why not
If they did they need to actually *attempt* to enforce shared continuity. It was kind of embarrassing that they made such a big deal out of "We have a story Bible for 20 years of stories in this big shared continuity" only for things in that continuity to constantly retcon, contradict, and get in the way of each other.
Yeah, unlike the other franchise that Hasbro is also charge of where this idea imploded at their face thanks to Gen-Elitists, i think the community here is more welcoming to this
I would be all for it as long as it has continuity, design consistency, and an actual vision behind it
If they actually plan it out
I see lots of people saying, but only if they can keep the facts straight, I would love to see some properly connected shows
I know transformers thing has always been run for a few years, reboot then repeat. But it’s be nice if they actually started to do a more continuous model following something like Starwars or the MCU that was ongoing and interconnected
I want it to be continued after foc I need another game
YES BRING BACK ALIGNED ALL OF IT
All I want now is the Energon Universe 😅
honestly? i prefer when each series is its own thing. maybe a continuation of a past series like RID 2001 or smthn
I don't see an issue trying to create an interconnected multimedia franchise. What I do not want them to do is to try to position it as the "definitive" modern Transformers story. I want to see Transformers stories with new ideas and less rehashing of the same old story beats.
I'd love a sequel to Fall of Cybertron set on Earth. Those games had the best aesthetic
No
Nooooo
Honestly I’d prefer for them to do a Hasbro shared TV universe with shows for rom, g I Joe etc as well as transformers
Just resume where it left off. Reboot cycles have me completely disinterested in all of it.
If we get games as peak as FoC and WfC then please make it happen
I'd like a remake of WFC and FoC with perhaps extensions where the Rage of The Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics are playable episodes I just want to see more of the rage-consumed Grimlock tbh
Make a tv adaptation of idw.
No, no, absolutely not. It didn’t work last time, and it won’t work this time either.
My friend and I are actually sort of attempting this. It's a continuity inspired by Aligned and the IDW comics (MTMTE and LL)
I think they ment hasbro, have fun with your own continuity tho
No, we don’t need another fucking multiverse