Editing Beast Wars: Uprising

[[File:BWUprising logo.jpg|510px|center]]
[[File:Brkw titlepage.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|''You say you want a revolution'' <br> ''Well, you know'' <br> ''We all want to change the world'']]
'''''Beast Wars: Uprising''''' is a [[The Transformers (franchise)|Generation 1]] [[continuity]] based on the [[Beast Era]] and featured in various comics and prose stories from [[Fun Publications]].

{{chapters|title=''Beast Wars: Uprising''|align=left|content=
<div class="list-header">''[[Alone Together]]'':</div>
*[[Alone Together: Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Paranoia|Chapter 1]]
*[[Perception|Chapter 2]]
*[[Kindred|Chapter 3]]
*[[Delirious|Chapter 4]]
*[[Clarity|Chapter 5]]
<br/><div class="list-header">''Timelines'':</div>
*"[[Broken Windshields]]"
*"[[Head Games]]"
*"[[Burning Bridges]]"
*"[[Micro-Aggressions]]"
*"[[Intersectionality]]"
*"[[Trigger Warnings]]"
*"[[Identity Politics]]"
*"[[Not All Megatrons]]" (Finale Part 1)
*"[[Cultural Appropriation]]" (Finale Part 2)
*"[[Safe Spaces]]" (Finale Part 3)
*"[[Derailment]]" (Finale Part 4)
*"[[The Inexorable March]]" (Coda)
<br/><div class="list-header">''Timelines'' bonus content:</div>
*"[[A Brush With Infamy–Prologue]]"
*"[[The Predacon Manifesto]]"
*"[[Book of Logos]]"
*"[[Lio Convoy: Unity Through Tyranny]]"
<br/><div class="list-header">Other:</div>
*"[[A Change to the Agenda]]"
}}

{{TOCclear}}

==Overview==
[[File:AloneTogetherP-Dynobot.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Evolutionary Revolutionaries]]
''Beast Wars: Uprising'' focuses on a dystopian, late 24th century [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], years after the conclusion of the [[Great War (G1)|Great War]]. Forcibly disarmed and exiled to their homeworld by the vastly superior [[Human Confederacy]], the decrepit [[Autobot]]s and [[Decepticon]]s have become the immobile [[Builder of Cybertron|Builders of Cybertron]], constructing the [[Maximal]]s and [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]]s as their successors. In addition to maintaining most of the essential functions of society, the Maximals and Predacons also provide entertainment and preserve the devolved Autobot-Decepticon conflict via [[Games (competition)|gladiatorial matches]]. [[Cybertronian Civil Wars|Unsurprisingly]], however, the planet descends into war as [[Lio Convoy]] launches the [[Grand Uprising]] against the Builders. His [[Resistance]] battles [[Micromaster]] troops and [[Maximal Command Security Force|Maximal]] and [[Predacon Secret Police|Predacon]] loyalists for control of their homeworld.

The ''Beast Wars: Uprising'' universe was first glimpsed as the backstory for two characters who played significant roles in other ''Timelines'' stories: the profiles for [[Blackarachnia (BW)#Beast Wars: Uprising|"''TransTech''" Blackarachnia]] and [[Depth Charge (BW)|Depth Charge]] released in Collectors' Club magazine issues [[Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 25|#25]] and [[Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 49|#49]] (the writers sought to explain why Blackarachnia might side with Alpha "steal people's souls and hang 'em from the ceiling" Trion).<ref>[https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/133737-beast-wars-uprising-ama/?p=3360144 NightViper on the Allspark Forums, 2015/10/15]</ref> The actual name ''Beast Wars: Uprising'' was first given in a Collectors' Club tweet on 14 February 2014<ref>[https://twitter.com/The_TF_Club/status/434375769330958337 The_TF_Club on twitter, 2014/02/14]</ref> and the setting was finally seen in full in that year's magazine comic arc ''[[Alone Together]]'', which promoted their new toys for [[Rampage (BW)#Timelines 2|Rampage]] and [[Transmutate (BW)#Timelines|Trans-Mutate]].

[[Jim Sorenson]] was approached by Fun Publications to develop the world further in a 2015 prose story promoting their [[Eject (G1)#Timelines|Eject]] and [[Lio Convoy#Timelines 2|Lio Convoy]] figures—one which would also serve to continue Blackarachnia's storyline. At first he found the "''Beast Wars'' meets ''{{w|The Hunger Games|The Hunger Games}}''" conceit unappealing, but was inspired by contemporary social movements such as 2014's {{w|Ferguson unrest|Ferguson protests}} to craft a story about a marginalized people rising up against a corrupt authority (and to name individual entries after social phenomena).<ref>[http://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/133737-beast-wars-uprising-ama/?p=3360155 Jim S on the Allspark Forums, 2015/10/15]</ref> Over the next two years, he and co-writer [[David Bishop]] produced eleven more prose stories, which together cemented the world as one of the darkest interpretations of the ''Transformers'' story.

For the most part, each prose story focused on new sets of cast members drawn not just from the Beast Era but from all across the franchise's history. Many [[Mini-Con]]s appeared as [[Micromaster]]s. Characters with [[beast mode]]s or [[Thunderhoof (RID)|animalistic robot modes]] were [[Repurposing|repurposed]] as new, analogous Maximals and Predacons. As the majority of the stories were set before any characters obtained their more recognisable beast forms, various vehicular figures were given "virtual redecoes" to create Cybertronian forms for most of the cast.

In keeping with the intent of the original 1996 [[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|''Beast Wars'' cartoon]], ''Beast Wars: Uprising'' uses an ambiguous mishmash of the [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel comic]] and the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Sunbow cartoon]] for its version of the Great War (for instance, [[Grimlock (G1)#Beast Wars: Uprising|Grimlock]] takes his speech patterns from the cartoon but his personality from the comic) — though it throws in a number of elements from the [[2005 IDW continuity|contemporaneous IDW comics]] (such as [[Conjunx Endura]]e and [[functionism]]) for good measure.

A comic cobbled together out of screenshots from the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, "[[A Change to the Agenda]]", was published in [[Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 70|the seventieth issue of the magazine]]. It was intended to provide an "origin story" for the ''Beast Wars: Uprising'' universe, but as it was written after the fact many of its details didn't really match up with the lore established by Sorenson and Bishop.

The prose stories are chock-full of geeky minutiae on just about every page — obscure characters and locations from all across the mythos, hidden [[cybertronix]] messages (and even full-blown secret stories), [[GoBot]]s, and numerous pop-culture homages... but when you hire the [[Jim Sorenson|guy]] who penned the [[Transformers Animated: The AllSpark Almanac|nerdiest thing ever to nerd]], what do you expect?

Sorenson and Bishop have expressed interest in producing revised versions of their prose stories, but—with Fun Publications having lost the ''Transformers'' license and with ''Beast Wars: Uprising'' being arguably one of the least accessible ''Transformers'' stories to date—the future of the continuity remains uncertain.

==Creative team==
''Alone Together'' was written by [[Trent Troop|S. Trent Troop]] and [[Greg Sepelak]], with [[Jesse Wittenrich]] and [[Pete Sinclair]] writing the prologue. Art duties were handled by [[Naoto Tsushima]], with [[Evan Gauntt]] on colors and letters by Jesse Wittenrich.

The prose stories were written by [[Jim Sorenson]] and [[David Bishop]] (starting with "Head Games"), with Jesse Wittenrich, [[Will Mangin|William Mangin]], [[Josh Burcham]], [[Tomoya Hosono|Hosono Tomoya]], [[Christopher Colgin]], [[Dan Perico]], and [[Robby Musso]] providing illustrations.

==Toys==
{| style="margin-left:1em;" width="99%"
|width="100%" valign="top" colspan="8"|
The prose story authors described the ''Uprising'' universe as being populated by characters primarily using toy designs, whether physical figures or "virtual redecoes". As such a list of figures would be farcically long, the below list merely includes Collectors' Club figures appearing contemporaneously in ''Uprising'' stories.
|
|width="20%" valign="top" rowspan=3|[[File:TFCC-Lio-Convoy.jpg|200px|thumb|Lio Convoy]]
|-

|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Transformers Collectors' Club]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">

{{Bp-m1|[[Depth Charge (BW)#Timelines|Depth Charge]]}}
{{Bp-m1|[[Transmutate (BW)#Timelines|Trans-Mutate]]}}
*[[Rampage (BW)#Timelines 2|Rampage]]
{{Bp-m1|[[Lio Convoy#Timelines 2|Lio Convoy]]}}
{{Bp-a1|[[Eject (G1)#Timelines|Eject]]}}
{{Bp-p1|[[Waspinator (BW)/toys#Thrustinator|Thrustinator]]}}
{{Bp-p1|[[Scorponok (BW)#Generations|Scorponok]]}}

|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[BotCon 2015]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{Bp-m1|[[Galva Convoy#Toys|Galva Convoy]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[BotCon 2016]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{Bp-p1|[[Megatron (BW)/toys#Generations|Megatron]]}}
{{Bp-p1|[[Terrorsaur (BW)#Generations|Terrorsaur]]}}
{{Bp-p1|[[Tarantulas (BW)/toys#Generations|Tarantulas]]}}
|
|width="20%" valign="top"|<u>'''[[Transformers Legends (franchise)|Legends]]'''</u>
<ul class="iconlist">
{{Bp-m1|[[Lio Convoy#Legends|Leo Prime]]}}
|}

==Naming conventions==
''Beast Wars: Uprising'' made a point of drawing from characters throughout the ''Transformers'' franchise, not just the presumed G1/BW setting. In order to deal with the prolific name reuse in ''Transformers'', a Cybertronian social convention was invented by the creative team that discouraged Cybertronians from having the same name as a previous Cybertronian.
*Minor differences in spelling were deemed acceptable to distinguish citizens from each other, allowing the existence of [[Blackout (G1)|Blackout]] (based on the G1 Micromaster), [[Black Out]] (based on the [[Blackout (Armada)|''Armada'' Mini-Con]]), and [[Black-Out]] (based on the [[Blackout (Movie)|movieverse Decepticon]]) in ''Uprising''.
*The rule about name reuse was apparently developed as the ''Uprising'' story went on, first mentioned and elaborated upon in "[[Micro-Aggressions]]". Therefore, while it was typical for G1 characters to have the traditional spelling and BW characters to be spelled differently, proto-formers mentioned or introduced early on managed to snag the traditional spelling sometimes, leading to the classic [[Seeker (body-type)|Seeker]] "[[Skywarp (G1)|Sky Warp]]" and the classic [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicon]] "[[Scavenger (G1)|Skavenger]]" getting alternate spellings.
*On other occasions, proto-formers were given completely different names based on foreign releases. The Beast Warriors [[Snarl (BW)|Snarl]] and [[Inferno (BW)|Inferno]] therefore became "Diablo" and "Formikon" after their Italian toy names, in deference to [[Snarl (G1)|the G1 characters]] [[Inferno (G1)|of the same name]].
*In some instances, a character was split into two distinct versions of themselves when name reuse was not an issue. [[Botanica (BM)|Botanica]] and her preliminary name "[[Binary]]" became separate characters to serve story purposes. A number of Unicron Trilogy Mini-Cons with multiple decoes were split as well (e.g. the aforementioned Black Out is based on ''Armada'' Blackout's [[Blackout (Armada)#Powerlinx|Powerlinx deco]] while Black Out's partner [[Search (BWU)|Search]] takes on ''Armada'' Blackout's [[Blackout (Armada)#Armada|regular deco]] and Japanese market name). The same occurred for some contemporary ''[[Titans Return (toyline)|Titans Return]]'' toys (e.g. [[Apex (BWU)|Apex]], based on the revamped ''[[Titans Return (toyline)|Titans Return]]'' form of [[Hi-Q#Generations|Hi-Q]] was characterized as a separate individual from Hi-Q himself).
*And in a few instances, characters with the same name were merged. Thus, [[Deluge (G1)|Deluge]] the G1 Autobot and [[Deluge (G2)|Deluge]] the G2 Decepticon are the same individual, [[Wideload (G1)|Wideload]] the G1 Autobot and [[Wideload (Classics)|Wideload]] the ''Classics'' Decepticon are as well, and [[Crazybolt (BW)|Crazybolt]] the ''Beast Wars Neo'' Predacon takes on some elements of his [[Crazybolt (RID)|''Robots in Disguise'' counterpart]].
*Only 3 intentional exceptions to this rule are known: [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]], who is vainglorious and sees himself as worthy of [[Megatron (G1)|the original Megatron]]'s name; [[Galvatron (BW)|Galvatron]], who is a reincarnation of [[Galvatron (G1)|the original Galvatron]]; and [[Rampage (BW)|Rampage]], who has a general disregard for societal norms.

==Notes==
*Being set in the late 24th century, ''Uprising'' contains a number of references to ''[[Star Trek]]: {{w|Star Trek: The Next Generation|The Next Generation}}''.
*Jim Sorenson revealed the titles of three more prose stories which he might have written had he had more time: "False Equivalencies", featuring [[Immorticon (BW)|Immorticon]], "Virtue Signaling", featuring [[Maxima]],<ref>[http://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/133737-beast-wars-uprising-ama/?p=3360052 Jim S on the Allspark Forums, 2015/10/15]</ref> and "Other Victims", featuring the [[Vok]].<ref>[http://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/133737-beast-wars-uprising-ama/?p=3361191 Jim S on the Allspark Forums, 2015/10/16]</ref>
*An early idea for [[Dawn of the Predacus|2016's BotCon comic]] would have involved the ''Uprising'' storyline, depicting [[Magnaboss (BW)|Magnaboss]] as an antagonistic Builder creation.<ref>[https://www.allspark.com/forums/topic/140167-ama-bish-jesse-jim/?p=3516969 Jim S on the Allspark Forums, 28 May 2017]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Beast Wars: Uprising| ]]
[[Category:Continuities]]