Great Upgrade
| This article is about the planetwide restructuring of Cybertron's surface. For the downsizing process that evolves Autobots/Decepticons into Maximals/Predacons, see Maximal Upgrade{{#switch:{{#sub:Maximal Upgrade|-1}} | != | .= | ?= | .
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- The Great Upgrade is an events from the Beast Wars and Beast Machines portions of the Generation 1 continuity family.
While little is truly known about the so-called "Great Upgrade", what is known is that it involved a worldwide geographical restructuring of the planet Cybertron following the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons, due to the rise in prominence of their diminutive descendants, the Maximals and Predacons. As these smaller Cybertronians came into power, they essentially replaced their ancestral predecessors as the planet's new dominant peoples, which necessitated a full overhaul of the planet's surface cities to better suit the more miniscule scale of Cybertron's new main inhabitants.
{{#if:Nightscream and Optimus Primal"Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search"|| “ | "This city was lost eons ago after the Great War between the Autobots and the Decepticons." "Not lost, merely replaced, during the great upgrade from Autobot to Maximal." |
” |
| {{#if:Nightscream and Optimus Primal| —Nightscream and Optimus Primal{{#if:"Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search"|, "Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search"}} }}}} | ||
Fiction
[edit]Beast Machines cartoon
[edit]During the "great upgrade from Autobot to Maximal," Cybertron's main population centers were replaced, with new cities scaled down to the smaller size of the Maximals built over the larger Autobot cities of old. The Autobot city of Iacon, for example, was replaced by the city of Cybertropolis as the planet's new capital. Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search Master of the House
During the Spark War, the Maximals Optimus Primal and Nightscream paid a visit to the ruins of Iacon, where Optimus mentioned the city's replacement by Cybertropolis back during "the great upgrade from Autobot to Maximal." Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search
2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity
[edit]For ages, Cybertronians had added newer and newer layers of planetary strata to Cybertron, constructing each one over the last. Beast Wars Glossary: Cybertron (1) entry But, following the decisive end of the Great War, Cybertron underwent the "Great Upgrade" in preparation of coming age of the Maximals and Predacons. Beast Wars Glossary: Great War (1) entry This involved the planet's surface being converted to better suit the smaller scale of the new Maximal and Predacon population. Beast Wars Glossary: Cybertron (1) entry
Notes
[edit]- Across the Beast Wars and Beast Machines animated series, the existence of "the great upgrade from Autobot to Maximal" was only ever mentioned once, in an exchange between Optimus Primal and Nightscream (quoted at the top of this article) in the 2000 Beast Machines episode "Sparkwar Pt. II: The Search". Since it was only mentioned in passing, what exactly the "great upgrade" entailed was left completely vague and ambiguous. Later, the "Great Upgrade" was briefly mentioned again in two entries of the Glossary section first printed in the 2008 trade paperback release of the Beast Wars Sourcebook, in which was indicated to refer to the physical changes made to Cybertron's planetary surface in preparation for the coming of the smaller-scaled Maximals and Predacons.<ref>"Over the ages, the Cybertronians have constructed more and more layers of planetary strata. Most recently, the "Great Upgrade" saw the planet converted to suit the downsized Maximal and Predacon population."(Beast Wars Sourcebook, "Beast Wars Glossary", Cybertron (1) entry</ref><ref>"In general, it is accepted that this conflict ended after the Decepticons surrendered to the Autobots and before Cybertron underwent its "Great Upgrade" to prepare for the age of the Maximals and Predacons." (Beast Wars Sourcebook, "Beast Wars Glossary", Great War (1) entry</ref>
- An extremely widespread misconception is that the Great Upgrade refers to a biological reconstruction process that allows Autobots and Decepticons to physically downsize themselves and become Maximals and Predacons, but this was never actually a thing in the Beast Wars cartoon, instead originating from tie-in media external to the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons, in which said process was referred to not as the "Great Upgrade" but instead as the "Maximal Upgrade" (see that article for more).
- Nightscream's statement about Iacon having been lost "eons ago" after the Great War is rather at odds with Blackarachnia's original statement in the Beast Wars episode "Dark Designs" about the Great War itself having been a mere "three centuries ago". When asked directly about this, Beast Machines story editor Bob Skir admitted that this was a contradiction and reiterated the 300-year time gap previously established in Beast Wars<ref>{{#if: 5) What *is* the time gap between G1 and BW/BM? We were told 300 years in Beast Wars, which seems like an awfully short period for all of the changes we've seen. Now in "Spark War Part 2," Iacon has been lost for "eons". It's wonderful to finally be getting some background information on Old Cybertron, but it's a bit confusing as well.
Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little confused myself on the issue. I think a LOT of time passed between G1 and BW, and so that's how it is in Beast Machines. (However, in BW itself, 300 years have passed, since that's how Larry and Bob portrayed it there.) Yeah, I know it creates a sense of contradiction, but all you REALLY need to know is that the entire civilization turned over between G1 and the later series. |"5) What *is* the time gap between G1 and BW/BM? We were told 300 years in Beast Wars, which seems like an awfully short period for all of the changes we've seen. Now in "Spark War Part 2," Iacon has been lost for "eons". It's wonderful to finally be getting some background information on Old Cybertron, but it's a bit confusing as well.
Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little confused myself on the issue. I think a LOT of time passed between G1 and BW, and so that's how it is in Beast Machines. (However, in BW itself, 300 years have passed, since that's how Larry and Bob portrayed it there.) Yeah, I know it creates a sense of contradiction, but all you REALLY need to know is that the entire civilization turned over between G1 and the later series."—|}}{{#if: https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html |Bob Skir|Bob Skir}}{{#if: BobSkir.com |, BobSkir.com|}}{{#if: Transformers: Beast Machines Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |, "Transformers: Beast Machines Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)"|}}{{#if: 2000 |, 2000{{#if: 04 |/{{#switch:{{#len:04}}|1=004|04}}{{#if: 14|/{{#switch:{{#len:14}}|1=014|14}}|}}}}|}}{{#if: https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html ||}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html%7C7%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html%7C8%7C11}}%7Cweb.archive= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html%7C7%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#switch:{{#sub:https://web.archive.org/web/20060617111200/http://bobskir.com/Beast-Machines-FAQ/Fri_14_Apr_2000.html%7C8%7C10}}%7Carchive.is= (archive link)|}}{{#if: | (dead link)}}</ref> - Though both Beast Wars: Uprising and the War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon saw Maximals and Predacons come to exist on a future Cybertron in direct homage to the Beast Wars cartoon, there was seemingly no event comparable to the Great Upgrade in either of those two continuities:
- In Uprising, the Maximals and Predacons initially came about as proxies to continue the Autobot/Decepticon war while those two factions became the "Builders of Cybertron". However, since the smaller "Proto-formers" (as Uprising called them) didn't fully replace the Builders as Cybertron's main inhabitants, Cybertron's surface wasn't completely rebuilt to accommodate the smaller size of the Proto-formers; only some (but not all) of its cities were built to their scale.
- In the War for Cybertron Trilogy's third season, Kingdom, the Maximals and Predacons were depicted as being the same size as their Autobot and Decepticon ancestors, rather than smaller-scaled Transformers, so there was no need for Cybertron to be altered to a new scale.