Personal canon

2009-07-20T20:57:27Z

68.158.7.165:

{{disambig2|fans' homebrewed storylines|Generation 1 Decepticon leader Megatron's personal '''cannon'''|Fusion cannon}}

A '''personal canon''' (or a more limited '''personal continuity''') is one fan's interpretation of the Transformers mythos. This can range from picking and choosing stories and characters that he or she favors and assembling them as he or she likes, to discarding one or two distasteful properties from an otherwise accepted continuity. A personal canon can also be various events from different universes brought together into one single storyline (eg. G1 and the Unicron Trilogy in the same universe).

This is often used in [[fan fiction]], where an author will use an established continuity ''up until a certain point,'' from which he or she would start telling their own stories. Motivations for these stories can range from a desire to [[retcon]] another story that the author dislikes, or to curiously pursue a 'what if' continuity based on a key event happening in some different way.

On a more simple level, personal canon can refer to an individual fan's overall preference for certain interpretations of the ''Transformers'' mythos over multiple continuities, such as saying "[[Quintesson|Quintessons]] are cool, as long as they didn't create the Transformers", or the acceptance/assumption of the popular [[retcon]] that Transformers have [[Spark|sparks]] in all timelines.

For example, one's personal canon could be:

* The first two seasons of the Generation 1 animated series, but not including the movie or subsequent seasons.
* One's fan-favourite characters from ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'' survived their would-be fatal wounds.
* Renaming toys after pre-existing characters, such as considering ''Energon'' [[Shockblast (Energon)|Shockblast]] to be ''Generation 1'' [[Shockwave (G1)|Shockwave]].
* Renaming unnamed characters after ones who fulfill a similar role in another continuity (e.g. [[U-Haul Robot]] being named [[Sentinel Prime (G1)|Sentinel Prime]]).
* Disregarding one animated-series origin of the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]] for another (or concocting a way for them to work together somehow).
* Merging elements of the [[Dreamwave Productions|Dreamwave]] comics version of ''Armada'' with the animated cartoon's.
* Accepting Marvel's ''[[Generation 2]]'' comics as "true" except for the death of a specific character (for example, [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]]).
* Regarding Decepticons being descended from the [[Liege Maximo]] or [[Quintesson]] military hardware (and thus being ''intrinsically'' evil) as antithetical to the concept of [[Cybertronian Civil Wars|the Civil War]] being political and that wartime factions were chosen through the exercise of free will.
* Accepting everything in every known Transformers continuity having happened as a single jumbled entity, ignoring the inconsistencies as "gray areas" that one mustn't be concerned with. (This, coincidentally, appears to be [[Takara]]'s personal canon.)
* Not considering the ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]]'' series to be in the same continuity as the ''[[Armada (franchise)|Armada]]'' and ''[[Energon (franchise)|Energon]]'' series.
* Considering one's own (or somebody else's) [[fan fiction]] as a part of continuity.
*That a certin continuity's Optimus Prime never died, but was in stasis lock.
And so on. There are, of course, infinite possibilities.

[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category:Continuities]]

Kid-appeal character

2009-07-20T20:49:31Z

68.158.7.165:

[[Image:Watching SUVs.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Cue the hijinks.]]''Transformers'' is, and always has been, a franchise aimed at children. The entire point is to create one man franchises. And because most Transformers are always so [[Grimlock (G1)|broody]] and [[Optimus Prime (G1)|cool]] and all sorts of other things little kids won't get, most to all franchises have what could be called a '''kid-appeal character'''. This character often interacts with the token [[human]] character as one of their closest friends, and the two get into all sorts of wacky adventures together. They usually get pulled out by one of the older bots, completely fail to learn their lesson, and do it again. And again and again and...
{{-}}

==List of kid-appeal characters==
[[Image:Wheelietftmslingshot.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Finally, a kid-imitable weapon.]]

'''[[Generation 1 (franchise)|Generation 1]]''':

*[[Hound (G1)|Hound]] spent a good deal of time with [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]] in the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|cartoon]]'s [[More than Meets the Eye, Part 1|first]] [[More than Meets the Eye, Part 2|three]] [[More than Meets the Eye, Part 3|episodes]], but was soon supplanted by...
*[[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]], who stayed with Spike for most of the series.
*[[Hot Rod (G1)|Hot Rod]] was [[Daniel Witwicky (G1)|Daniel Witwicky]]'s closest friend at the beginning of ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]''. This lasted for all of eighty minutes, as Hot Rod's upgrade into Rodimus Prime made him no longer "hip" enough, and he was replaced.
*[[Wheelie (G1)|Wheelie]] took over for the show's third season. Wheelie and Daniel went off on adventures like [[Surprise Party|stealing a ship to figure out when Ultra Magnus's birthday was and nearly getting killed repeatedly in the process]]. Exactly the sort of thing we want kids identifying with.
*[[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]], the girl, filled in for the Daniel's Best Friend part in the final three episodes. Hey, kids, you like hanging out with your moms, right?

{{-}}

[[Image:Nightscreambm.jpg|right|150px|thumb|Popular amongst the blind kids, maybe.]]

'''''[[Beast Wars (franchise)|Beast Wars]]'''''

*[[Cheetor (BW)|Cheetor]] was not only yellow, he had the impulsiveness and disregard for authority every kid-appeal bot needs. The only thing he lacked was a human friend, until [[Chak and Una]] showed up in the show's third season. Except for the [[Transmetal 2]] upgrade, and the whole of ''[[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]]'', he was a pretty friendly guy, annoying the others with his childish enthusiasm.

'''''[[Beast Machines (franchise)|Beast Machines]]'''''

*[[Nightscream (BM)|Nightscream]] replaced Cheetor as the youngster of the Maximals since Cheetor had matured. Hasbro had such high hopes for this kid appeal character, that they made his toy a giant Ultra class figure! Unfortunately, his character was angry and bitter, so he didn't get much love. By the way, there is no human character in ''Beast Machines'' show.

{{-}}

'''''[[Robots in Disguise (franchise)|Robots in Disguise]]'''''

*[[Wedge]] was the young, excitable hero who was hotheaded and naive, but was being primed for leadership. Sound familiar?

{{-}}

[[Image:Hotshotironhidedw.jpg|right|180px|thumb|Hot Shot passes the kid-appeal torch.]]

'''[[Unicron Trilogy]]'''

*[[Hot Shot (Armada)|Hot Shot]] was the token kid-appeal character of ''[[Armada (franchise)|Armada]]'', hot-headed, unwilling to listen to his superiors, and suddenly thrust into a leadership role that lasted all of three episodes. Unfortunately, he ''grew up'', something no kid-appeal character should ever have to do, and was shortly replaced.
*[[Ironhide (Energon)|Ironhide]] took over once ''[[Energon (franchise)|Energon]]'' rolled around. His tenure was mostly spent getting kicked by...uh...[[Kicker Jones|Kicker]]. They got along eventually, though.
* Hot Shot was young and goofy again in ''[[Cybertron (franchise)|Cybertron]],'' but the series' kids spent more time with the [[Recon Mini-Con Team]], particularly [[Jolt (Cybertron)|Jolt]] (the only one who could speak English).

'''[[Movie (franchise)|2007 Movie]]'''

*[[Bumblebee (Movie)|Bumblebee]] was the first Autobot to arrive on Earth. His mission to search for the [[All Spark]] led him to [[Sam Witwicky]], a boy whom he befriended over the course of his mission, and stayed with once it was over. Sam repaid him by making out with [[Mikaela Banes|Mikaela]] on top of him. Huh.

'''''[[Transformers Animated (franchise)|Animated]]'''''

*[[Bumblebee (Animated)|Bumblebee]] (detecting a pattern yet?) is [[Sari Sumdac]]'s closest friend, human and bot alike. Once again, he is irrational and impulsive, which has only helped endear him to his small, fleshy friend (assuming, of course, she is fleshy...).

==Trivia==
* They have an overwhelming tendency to be yellow.
* More recently, they also have an overwhelming tendency to be named [[Bumblebee (disambiguation)|Bumblebee]]. We're [[GEEWUN|not sure why]].
* ''Animated'' Bumblebee was [[Bee in the City|once transported]] into the [[Transcendent Technomorph|TransTech]] universe, where he was often mistaken for other kid-appeal characters, including Wheelie, Cheetor, and (although not really a kid-appeal character) [[Side Burn (RID)|Side Burn]].

[[Category:Fandom]]

MediaWiki - User contributions [en]

Personal canon

Kid-appeal character