Micro-continuity

2007-12-03T06:16:45Z

58.106.145.112: /* When is a micro-continuity not a micro-continuity? */

[[Image:Decepticonhideout.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Wrecking balls really push his buttons.]]

Since the dawn of the ''Transformers'' brand, a variety of unconnected media has conspired to create multiple [[Continuity|continuities]], even within individual franchises. The most famous such continuity split is the divergence of the original [[Generation 1 (cartoon)|cartoon]] and [[Generation 1 (Marvel comic)|comic]], which contributed sometimes similar but ultimately irreconcilable versions of ''[[Generation 1]]''. While the most prominent continuities are well known, there exist many '''"micro-continuities"''': continuities about which only very limited information is available, yet which manage in that small space to be incompatible with the major continuities.

Although all officially produced fiction is [[canon]] for some continuity or another, the significance of these "micro-continuities" is a matter of individual fans' tastes and [[personal canon]]s.

== Limited fictions ==

Continuities that exist in a very small number of works that may share an apparent single continuity, such as the [[Ladybird Books|Ladybird]] or [[Find Your Fate]] books. Some continuities may even appear in only a single isolated work, such as the ''[[Transformers Beast Wars: Transmetals]]'' video game.

Although usually small and insignificant in the wider scheme of things, such tales can contain interesting or unique takes on certain characters or situations—for example, providing actual stories in which [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]] and [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] spent a prolonged period as opposing leaders, a status quo hinted at by much of the lead-in and post-movie product advertising but which was ultimately never realized in the major fictions.

===Prose stories===
Probably the most underdeveloped medium in Transformers fiction, prose stories are considered to be offshoots from their parent continuities (as is often the case with the expanded universes of even prolifically novelized franchises like ''Star Trek''). However, the prose stories that were included in the [[Marvel UK]] annuals are a notable exception, as they are usually treated as part of UK continuity.

[[Image:TFLegendscover.jpg|thumb|left|190px|Mmmm...lucky dip.]]
The Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books are, by their very nature, micro-continuities (or, if you want to be pedantic, they contain ''multiple'' "nano"-continuities within them), since the various outcomes frequently involve the deaths of major characters.

The success of [[Dreamwave]] inspired a small, short-lived boom in ''Transformers'' prose fiction. The [[Keepers Trilogy]] was [[author intent|intended]] to be set in the Dreamwave continuity, but as Dreamwave was not really involved in their publication and subsequent Dreamwave comics made no explicit reference to them, it is a matter of [[personal canon|taste]] whether the trilogy is part of the Dreamwave-verse proper or is a micro-continuity offshoot.

The prose anthology book ''[[Transformers Legends]]'' is more cut-and-dried at first glance. The foreword by editor David Cian explicitly states that the short stories in the anthology do ''not'' have canonical status in their respective continuities, and are "what-if" tales. For some of the stories, such as "[[Paddles]]", "[[Fire in the Dark]]", and "[[Lonesome Diesel]]", it is quite clear from their inconsistency with pre-existing continuities that they are micro-continuities.

However, other stories in the volume (such as "[[Singularity Ablyss]]", "[[Parts]]", "[[A Meeting of Minds]]", and "[[Redemption Centre]]") fit nicely into their respective continuities and (were it not for the editor's caveat) could easily be canon. [[Personal canon|It is thus debatable]] whether these stories are also mere micro-continuity offshoots or something more.

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== Implied continuities ==

While never truly represented by any narrative fiction, some micro-continuities arise as the result of discrepancies between the toy lines and characters' portrayals elsewhere. In ''Generation 1'' this was often limited to individual characters' appearances varying drastically between toy and cartoon (and, by extension, most other media). Prominent examples of this are [[Jetfire (G1)|Jetfire]] and [[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]].

Implied continuities can also include discrepancies in tech specs bios, such as [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] being described as merely "Decepticon City Commander" and possessing a lower rank than his unspecified superiors (not to mention his being the reformatted [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] is not even alluded to, likely to avoid spoiling the movie). A more striking example of such differences implying whole continuities into existence occurs in ''[[Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines]]'' (see below.)

===Bio-only continuities===
Some toys exist in a complete continuity vacuum; the only indications as to the nature of the universe they inhabit that can be gleaned are from their short bios/tech specs.
[[Image:NikemusPrime.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Corporate endorsements are the right of all variant Primes.]]
====Promotional toys====
Japanese [[exclusives]] are particularly prone to this, especially some of their more bizarre cross-promotion toys in recent years such as [[Pepsi Convoy]], the Takara Sport Label [[Optimus Prime (G1) toys|Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (G1) toys|Megatron]] figures, who transform into miniature Nike sneakers, or Takara Music Label's [[Optimus Prime (G1) toys|iPodimus Prime]] or MP3 player [[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]]. Is one seriously to consider these characters can fit into a mainstream version of [[Generation 1|G1 continuity]] as their bios imply, or does one relegate them to weird little micro-continuities in which Optimus has an insatiable desire for signing endorsement deals? [[Personal canon|YOU decide.]]

====Machine Wars====
The ''[[Machine Wars]]'' toy line is the best example of bio-only implied continuity as, fairly uniquely, it represents an entire line (albeit a ''very'' small one) which possesses no official fiction in any form save for the toy bios, in which story hints are limited mainly to the existence of [[Megaplex]] and a few peculiarities about [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]]. Given the lack of any other story material, whether the differences/character development with Thundercracker imply a whole new micro-continuity or are viewed as new developments within an existing continuity falls solely to personal preference.

{{picsneeded}}
=== Beast Toylines vs. Shows ===
Unlike G1, the [[Beast Era]] has not featured major divergent continuities, leading (at least for most of its existence) to a fairly unified canon.

However, due to the high cost and time constraints of a fully CG-animated series, both [[Mainframe]] ''Beast'' shows were limited in the number of characters that could be included. They are fairly unique amongst the Transformers franchises in ''not'' featuring an encyclopedic inclusion of nearly every available toy as a character in the show. As a result, the main ''[[Beast Wars]]'' and ''[[Beast Machines]]'' fiction-depicted continuities feature only a limited portion of the overall number of toys/characters created, and furthermore the tight storytelling and premises of the shows leave little room for their inclusion in an "off camera" capacity (although see below: "When is a micro-continuity not a micro-continuity?"). An additional problem in ''[[Beast Wars]]'' is that several characters, such as [[Waspinator]] and [[Rhinox]], were featured as Transmetal toys, while in the cartoon they did not receive these upgrades, thus creating further discrepancy.

One can either presuppose that the toy line ''itself'' implies a micro-continuity in which the full number of toy characters coexisted, or one could attempt to reconcile these characters with an already existent micro-continuity: that of the pre-cartoon series tech specs and mini-comic...

==== The "G1 Beast Wars" ====
Tech Specs for the first waves of ''Beast Wars'' indicated that the Beast Wars took place on modern-day, human-inhabited, industrialized Earth, and that [[Optimus Primal]] and [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] were just G1 [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] in the latest of their long series of reformatted bodies. This storyline was showcased in one installment of "limited fiction," a comic which was included with the bat Optimus and alligator Megatron 2-pack.

Although later tech specs were changed to reflect the universe established by the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, these first-series materials create a micro-continuity that features a bat-mode Optimus Prime(al) leading troops that include the likes of both [[Rattrap]] and [[Armordillo]] against an alligator-mode Megatron and his minions, such as [[Tarantulas]] and [[Iguanus]], stalking their secret genetic labs and duking it out for the fate of modern, urban Earth. Whether one presumes that Optimus and Megatron subsequently "upgraded" to their gorilla and T-Rex modes (the comic certainly implies that Megatron plans to), or if one chooses to then include later waves of show, non-show, and even Transmetal characters is open to debate.

==== Crawling with Maximals ====
By the same token, the ''[[Beast Machines (toyline)|Beast Machines toyline]]'' contained many toy-only characters—[[Maximal]], [[Vehicon]], and "[[Dinobots (BM)|other]]"—who were again fairly incompatible with the tightly plotted continuity of the cartoon that presents the dominant canon. A similar "implied continuity" can be postulated that would include these extra characters in an alternate version of events that supported a larger cast.

== When is a micro-continuity not a micro-continuity? ==

There are some continuities which have attempted to explain retroactively the presence (or rather absence) of the non-show characters in both ''Beast Wars'' and ''Beast Machines''. [[3H Productions|3H]]'s ''[[Universe (comic)|Wreckers]]'' comics and associated projects attempted to fill out much of the ''Beast Machines'' gaps in an arguably workable fashion, while more recently [[IDW Publishing|IDW]] has tackled virtually every toy-only ''[[Beast Wars (toyline)|Beast Wars]]'' character in ''[[Beast Wars]]'': ''[[The Gathering]]''. However, these two approaches contradict each other, and neither have (as yet) provided expansive storylines. Whether one deems these stories to be part of the larger show-based canon (despite contradictions), individual "complimentary" continuities, or indeed just larger-than-usual micro-continuities themselves is, like most things, up to the individual fan's taste and [[personal canon]].

By the same token, the comic-book fictions for [[Generation 2 (Marvel Comics)|Generation 2]] and [[Classics (2006)|Transformers Classics]] present divergent timelines from the U.S./U.K. [[Generation 1 (comic)|Marvel comic]], each representing full toy lines. [[Machine Wars]] is apparently a continuation of G1 but may or may not exist (later) in the same timeline as G2. Again, whether examples such as these of divergent offshoots of larger continuities should be classed as micro-continuities (in spite of toylines and many issues of fiction) or be included with their "parent" continuities as branched extensions is, again, a matter of taste and [[personal canon]].

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Micro-continuity