Editing Transformers Legends (book)

{{disambig3|Legends}}
{{Comicstory|
|seriesissue=
|title=''Transformers Legends''
|image=TFLegendsCover.jpg
|caption=Ceci n'est pas canonique.
|publisher=[[ibooks]]
|date=[[November 30]], [[2004]]
|editor=[[David Cian]]
|continuity=Various
|ISBN=ISBN 0743497910<br>ISBN 978-0743497916
|pagecount=304
}}

'''''Transformers Legends''''' is an anthology of [[Transformer]]s short stories published in November 2004 by [[ibooks]].  It was edited by [[David Cian]], who had previously written the second half of the [[Keepers Trilogy]].

The book went out of print almost immediately, and for years commanded at ''least'' 4–5 times the original cover price on the secondary market.

==Table of Contents==
* Introduction by David Cian
* '''[[A Meeting of Minds]]''' by [[Simon Furman]]
:[[Maximal]] fights Maximal as [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]] fights [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] over a body.
* '''[[Collect and Save]]''' by [[Tim Waggoner]]
:Welcome to the [[Junkion (planet)|Planet of Junk]]. You check in, but you don't check out.
* '''[[Paddles (story)|Paddles]]''' by [[Jean Rabe]]
:The lost [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobot]].
* '''[[Redemption Center]]''' by [[Alexander B. Potter]]
:[[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] gets to be a nice guy for a little while.
* '''[[Something Robotic This Way Comes]]''' by [[John J. Miller]]
:Trick or... treat? Yeah. Treat. Beep.
* '''[[Two for the Price of One]]''' by [[Brandie Tarvin]]
:Political intrigue in [[Socialist Democratic Federated Republic of Carbombya|Carbombya]].
* '''[[Joyride (story)|Joyride]]''' by [[Jenifer A. Ruth]]
:[[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] gets carjacked. ''Again''. Dude needs to install Lojack or something.
* '''[[Lonesome Diesel]]''' by [[David Bischoff]]
:A [[Mini-Con]] schtupps a truck.
* '''[[Prime Spark (story)|Prime Spark]]''' by [[Sean P. Fodera]]
:Four Optimuses walk into a bar...
* '''[[Parts]]''' by [[Donald J. Bingle]]
:[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] is an insensitive prick. Also, meet [[Geosensus]].
* '''[[Healers, Fighters, and Transformers]]''' by [[J. Steven York]]
:[[Ratchet (G1)|Ratchet]] helps a hurtin' human.
* '''[[Fire in the Dark]]''' by [[John Helfers]]
:Beast Armada?
* '''[[Singularity Ablyss]]''' by [[Bob Skir|Robert N. Skir]]
:Why ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (franchise)|Beast Machines]]''-era Megatron is frickin' ''hardcore''.

==Continuity==
David Cian's 2 page foreword to the anthology includes contradictory statements about the standing of the stories found within. He first let us know what the ground-rules to the authors were:
{{quote|The rules, as the saying goes, were simple. Write a ''Transformers'' story set in any of the various timelines or universes. Don't break things, but have fun. Optimus Prime can't show up with a heretofore unknown short-range tactical nuke in his helmet, but he ''can'' have an adventure that no one has ever heard before.|Cian tells writers to write in existing continuities and be careful not mess anything up.}}

He then concluded the introduction by explaining:
{{quote|But remember, none of the stories in this volume are part of continuity. In other words they don't count for future "facts" in the ''Transformers'' universe except as they should: these stories are for fun, giving us the chance to read about characters we've come to love. Enjoy the journey!|Cian "reminds" readers that none of these stories count.}}

To even further confuse the issue, the book's back cover states that its stories are guided by "no hard and fast rules [and] no themes."  

Cian's odd "future facts" phrasing suggests he was doing some [[wikipedia:Cover_your_ass|CYA]], since at least one of the stories ("[[Two for the Price of One]]") was set in the future of the then-ongoing [[Transformers: Generation 1 (Dreamwave) |Dreamwave G1 comic]], with no guarantee that the events of the short story would 'fit' when the comic caught up to it.  As it happened, there was no conflict.

Readers considering Cian's credo may, as always, make up their own minds on the matter of [[authorial intent]].  Many of the stories are easily identifiable as fitting within specific continuities and events already established in other fiction; one of them, "[[Singularity Ablyss]]", occurs seamlessly within a single episode of ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' and was written by [[Bob Skir|that series' editor]]. Though [[Personal canon|perspectives differ]], the area of overlap on nearly all of these stories is negligible—that is, they would have no impact on broader continuity even if they had been inserted without any proviso.  

Some believe Cian may have been speaking from the perspective that there is a set and specific number of continuities into which all stories had to fit somewhere, similar to the [[wikipedia:Crisis_on_Infinite_Earths|pre-"Crisis" DC comics]].  This would leave ''Legends'' stories as "imaginary tales," to be enjoyed but not made to fit in, and not "counting" as TF stories — almost as though they were examples of [[pseudocanon]].  This is difficult to reconcile with [[Hasbro]]'s earlier published policy of creating [[Transformers: Universe (comic)|an all-encompassing multiversal metastory]] in which all TF material from any media are [[Axiom Nexus|legitimized]], every single one of them recognized as having "happened" somewhere.  One ''Legends'' story, "[[Prime Spark (story)|Prime Spark]]", depicts deceased characters from two of those universes dimension-hopping to visit each other and [[Primus]], a [[multiversal singularity]] of precisely this nature.

For the sake of practicality and consistency, TFWiki generally ignores the whole "does not count" claim, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions as to whether the stories from the anthology belong in [[Micro-continuity|micro-continuities]] or applicable parent continuities.

==Notes==
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=P20FAAAACAAJ&dq=transformers+legends&ei=oEUwSvziDoioM-nK6IQP Online listings] give ibooks editor [[Steven A. Roman]] a co-author/editor credit alongside Cian.  The extent of his contribution to the book is unclear, and Cian himself has said this is an error which probably originated on Amazon <ref>[http://www.donmurphy.net/board/showpost.php?p=767149&postcount=98 Post on Don Murphy Message Board]</ref>.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legends}}
[[Category:Armada media]]
[[Category:Beast Machines media]]
[[Category:Beast Wars books]]
[[Category:Novels]]
[[Category:Generation 1 books]]