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'''''Beast Wars'' continuity''' is, like every other continuity in ''Transformers'', a fractured, multi-directional mess.
{{Nav-bw}}
{{merge|Beast Era|Very little info on the Beast Era page that is not here.}}
[[File:Beastwarsmaxgroup.jpg|thumb|upright=2.0]]
Amidst the sprawling ''Transformers'' [[multiverse]], the television shows, prose stories, and comics that make up the loosely amalgamated "'''Beast Wars continuity'''" are something of an oddity. Although most "[[Beast Era]]" fiction is technically an offshoot of the much larger [[Generation 1 continuity family]], its unique position in the wider ''Transformers'' brand—revolving around the exploits of various time-tossed descendants of the original [[Autobot]]s and [[Decepticon]]s—means that it is essentially a small [[continuity family]] unto itself nested within the wider Generation 1 universe. However, the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon is not a direct sequel to any specific version of the Generation 1 storyline; instead, it borrows facets from both the [[The Transformers (cartoon)|Sunbow cartoon]] cartoon and [[The Transformers (Marvel comic)|Marvel comic]] and composites them into a vague "mythology" that informs the universe.


Most ''Beast Wars'' storylines begin with the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, holding it as sacrosanct and building on its universe. But right from the start, there were contradictory storylines, as the cartoon went in a completely different direction than the bios given on toy packages. Later storylines built on the cartoon's story, but in mutually-exclusive fashions.
Compared to the larger Generation 1 continuity family, which offers similar but fundamentally irreconcilable versions of the same core story, almost all stories in the ''Beast Wars'' continuity treat the [[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|1996 ''Beast Wars'']] cartoon and [[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|its followup]] as the sacrosanct foundation for various side stories, spinoffs, prequels, and sequels. Although most of these branching canons are mutually irreconcilable with one another, very few of these tales deviate from the original cartoon in any meaningful way, and the vast majority fall under the all-encompassing umbrella that is the "Beast Wars cartoon continuity".


''Beast Wars'' storylines are, in general, a subsection of the [[Generation 1|Generation 1]] [[Continuity family|continuity family]]. But the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon does not adhere to any particular version of Generation 1 continuity that has been seen; instead it borrows facets from many and composites them into a sort of vague "mythology" that forms the ''Beast Wars'' characters'  past.
==Major continuities==
====Beast Wars cartoon continuity====
=====English cartoons=====
[[File:Beast Era Compilation.jpg|thumb|upright=2.3]]


''Beast Wars'' continuity is made up of the following facets:
* ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars: Transformers]]'' (1996–1998)
* ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines: Transformers]]'' (1999–2000)
The original ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon tells the story of the [[Maximal]]s and [[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]]s, time-travelling future Transformers who crash-land on a strange, primitive world. What begins as a simple struggle for [[energon]] becomes a desperate battle to protect the future when the planet is revealed to be prehistoric [[Earth]], and the Predacons attempt to change history.


The ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' cartoon carries over all of the surviving characters to [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], where they find the planet overrun with mindless drones controlled by their old foe [[Megatron (BW)/Beast Wars cartoon continuity|Megatron]]. After a protracted war against these "[[Vehicon (BM)|Vehicon]]s", they succeed in reformatting Cybertron into a [[technorganic]] world, a balance of the organic and mechanical. ''Beast Machines'' continues to play fast and loose with Generation 1 history, although it eschews any explicit comic-based elements and used only cartoon-specific concepts like the [[Key to Vector Sigma]], the [[Plasma Energy Chamber]], and a variant of the [[Hate Plague]].


*A [[Micro-continuity|Micro-continuity]] consisting of the early toy bios and one [[Optimus Primal vs Megatron!|pack-in comic]].
Hints of a complex universe beyond the cartoon's limited scope meant that most subsequent ''Beast Wars'' stories used the cartoon as a springboard. Unlike the pick-and-choose approach common to many Generation 1 reinventions, the two cartoons serve as a concrete, largely immutable springboard for the rest of the continuity, with no less than four separate publishers building separate stories around its events.
{{--}}


*The [[Beast Wars (cartoon)|''Beast Wars'' cartoon]], which most subsequent storylines have held as sacrosanct.
=====Japanese cartoons=====
[[File:BWNeoPoster1.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]


*Various later toy bios that do not jibe with that cartoon and may constitute their own micro-continuities.
* ''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers]]'' (1998–1999)
* ''[[Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo (cartoon)|Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo]]'' (1999)
When the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon was imported to Japan, a significant gap between seasons one and two led to the creation of two animated series to fill the gap until these later series could be dubbed into Japanese. 1998's ''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Wars II]]'' cartoon follows the adventures of [[Lio Convoy (BW)|Lio Convoy]] and a team of rookie Maximals who battle [[Galvatron (BW)|Galvatron]] on the planet [[Gaia]]. A year later, ''[[Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo (cartoon)|Beast Wars Neo]]'' took the conflict into outer space as [[Big Convoy (BW)|Big Convoy]] and his team race [[Magmatron (BW)|Magmatron]]'s Predacons to claim powerful [[Angolmois Energy|Angolmois Capsules]] scattered across the galaxy.


*The Japanese adaptation of that cartoon and 2 original Japanese sequels (''[[Beast Wars II|Beast Wars II]]'' and ''[[Beast Wars Neo|Beast Wars Neo]]'') as well as the various manga associated with those series.
Though it was not initially clear where these two shows fit into the timeline relative to the American cartoon, the end of ''Beast Wars II'' reveals that the series takes place on a post-apocalyptic [[Earth]] many thousands of years in the future, long after the end of the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon, which is set a mere three centuries after the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war. Despite this disconnect, the cast of ''II'' briefly cross paths with a time-travelling [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]] in a [[Lio Convoy in Imminent Danger!|theatrical OVA]].


*The [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|''Beast Machines'' cartoon]]
Relatedly, the 2000 ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001 cartoon)|Transformers: Car Robots]]'' anime is set in the modern era but features time-traveling characters implicitly from the setting of ''Beast Wars II'' and ''Beast Wars Neo''.


*One Dreamwave story, "[[Ain't No Rat|Ain't No Rat]]".
Minor Japanese stories, including ''[[Robotmasters (franchise)|Robotmasters]]'', ''[[Beast Wars Reborn]]'', and ''[[Transformers Legends (comic)|Legends]]'' cover the further adventures of Optimus Primal and Megatron as they cross time and space and clarify where all four of these television shows fit within the vast and often-confusing [[Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity]].
{{--}}


*Several IDW Beast Wars miniseries:
=====3H Productions=====
* ''[[The Gathering|The Gathering]]''
[[File:Wreckers3hlineup.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
* ''[[The Ascending|The Ascending]]''
* ''[[Beast Wars Sourcebook|Beast Wars Sourcebook]]'' profile book series


* "[[Ground Zero]]" (1997)
* ''[[Reaching the Omega Point]]'' (1998–2000)
* ''[[Primeval Dawn]]'' (2001–2004)
* ''[[Transformers: The Wreckers]]'' (2001–2007)
* ''[[Transformers: Universe (comic)|Transformers: Universe]]'' (2003–2004)


*Various [[3H|3H]] storylines:
[[3H Productions]] produced a number of stories set in the Beast Era, with the vast majority occurring after the end of the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon series and parallel to the events of ''Beast Machines''. [[Transformers: The Wreckers|''The Wreckers'']] runs alongside ''Beast Machines'', though its contributions to the mythos proved controversial, while the [[Transformers: Universe (comic)|''Universe'' comic series]] builds on the ending of ''Beast Machines'' as heroes and villains from across the [[multiverse]] are abducted by [[Unicron/Generation 1|Unicron]]. Ultimately, however, 3H lost the license before they could wrap up any of their plotlines, but [[Fun Publications]] concluded the stories in "[[Wreckers: Finale Part II]]" and "[[Revelations Part 2]]".
* "[[Ground Zero|Ground Zero]]"
{{--}}
* "[[Reaching the Omega Point|Reaching the Omega Point]]"
* "[[Primeval Dawn|Primeval Dawn]]"
* [[Universe (2003 comic)|''The Wreckers'' comic series]]
* The [[Universe (2003 comic)|''Universe'' comic series]]


=====2006 IDW Publishing comics=====
[[File:TheGathering04-breaksomeheads.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]


* Various [[Fun Publications|Fun Publications]] stories:
* ''[[Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering|The Gathering]]'' (2006)
* "[[Dawn of Future's Past|Dawn of Future's Past]]"
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending|The Ascending]]'' (2007)
* "[[Theft of the Golden Disk|Theft of the Golden Disk]]"
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars: The Revisiting|The Revisiting]]'' (unreleased)
* "[[The Razor's Edge|The Razor's Edge]]"
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars Sourcebook|Beast Wars Sourcebook]]'' (2007)
* "[[Dawn of the Predacus]]" (2016)
* "[[The Hot Rod]]" (2016)
* ''See also: [[Beast Wars timeline (IDW)]]''


When [[Simon Furman]] took the reins at [[IDW Publishing|IDW]] in 2006, he adapted his pitch for the aborted ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars — Shell Game|Shell Game]]'' miniseries into what became ''[[Transformers, Beast Wars: The Gathering|The Gathering]]''. Set during the third season of the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, this four-issue miniseries returns to prehistoric Earth, pitting [[Razorbeast]] against [[Magmatron (BW)|Magmatron]] and featuring almost every character from the ''Beast Wars'' toyline in some capacity. 2007's ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars: The Ascending|The Ascending]]'' includes the return of 3H-original character [[Shokaract]] and many more Japanese-exclusive ''Beast Wars'' characters, while the ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars Sourcebook|Beast Wars Sourcebook]]'' fleshes out some background lore—most notably, it establishes that, in this particular reality, events similar to the ''Beast Wars II'' and ''Neo'' cartoons took place in the ''past'' at some point before the ratification of the [[Pax Cybertronia]].


* A completely obscure micro-continuity within the [[Devil's Due|Devil's Due]] [[G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers continuity|''G.I. Joe'' crossover continuity]].
The continuity lay fallow for almost a decade until 2016's "[[Dawn of the Predacus]]", which details the [[Tripredacus Council]]'s rise to power in the twilight of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict.


==Toyline==
{{stub|What was in ''Revisiting''}}
Early waves of the ''Beast Wars'' toyline featured bios that placed the characters on modern-day Earth.  In this purple prose-laden "storyline", Optimus Primal and Megatron are the original characters from Generation 1, Tarantulas is a ninja who kidnaps humans, Blackarachnia pretends to be a double agent, tusks of unknown ownership gleam in the night,  {{storylink|Optimus Primal vs Megatron!|Optimus Primal vs Megatron!}} and turbo-charged tires [[Retrax|scream across the desert]].
{{--}}


All of this "continuity", such as it was, would be swept under the carpet with the coming of the highly successful ''Beast Wars'' cartoon.
=====Fun Publications=====
[[File:Timelines2-01.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]


* "[[Dawn of Future's Past]]" (2006)
* "[[Theft of the Golden Disk]]" (2007)
* "[[The Razor's Edge]]" (2007)
For [[BotCon 2006]], Fun Publications released "[[Dawn of Future's Past]]", a short prequel comic to the original ''Beast Wars'' cartoon; the following year, "[[Theft of the Golden Disk]]" and "[[The Razor's Edge]]" provided Megatron and [[Airazor (BW)|Airazor]] with some extra backstory.


==English Beast Wars cartoon==
Several other convention comics—"[[Descent into Evil]]" and "[[A Common Foe]]"—foreshadow the ascent of the [[Tripredacus Council]] and some version of the Beast Wars to come, although neither of these comics lead into any concrete ''Beast Wars'' story.
The ''[[Beast Wars (cartoon)|Beast Wars]]'' cartoon told the story of two small groups of Transformers, a team of Maximals and a team of Predacons, who become stranded on prehistoric Earth.  What begins as a war over energon eventually becomes a desperate battle to preserve the continuity of time itself, as the Predacons attempt to change the future by destroying the Maximals' ancestors.


Though the entire show takes place millions of years ago, the characters originated from a point 300 years into the ''future'' of Generation 1.  ''Which'' Generation 1 is never made clear; the cartoon draws elements from both the original G1 comics and cartoons, and the writers stated that in the context of the cartoon, the events of the various Generation 1 stories should be regarded as something akin to Arthurian legend, rather than an exact history.
===''Beast Wars: Uprising''===
* "[[Alone Together]]" (2014)
* ''[[Beast Wars: Uprising]]'' online prose stories (2015–16)
* "[[A Change to the Agenda]]" (2016)


The cartoon (especially in conjunction with various comments by the story editors) hinted at a complex universe beyond the limited scope of what was shown on the cartoon, but little of this was actually fleshed out within the cartoon itself.  Perhaps because of this, or perhaps due to the show's enduring popularity and high production values, most subsequent ''Beast Wars'' stories have used the cartoon as a springboard.  Unlike the pick-and-choose approach common to many Generation 1 reinventions, the cartoon has generally been regarded as "what actually happened" in the past of various other stories, with no less than four separate publishers building stories around it.  Even some of the aforementioned Generation 1 reinventions hint at having the Beast Wars as part of their back story.
By far the darkest and most radical take on the ''Beast Wars'' premise and the first to truly break away from the original cartoon, [[Fun Publications]]' ''Beast Wars Uprising'' depicts a dystopian Cybertron where the Maximals and Predacons originated as second-class citizens created by the decrepit "[[Builder of Cybertron|Builders]]" to carry on their conflict. When [[Lio Convoy (BW)|Lio Convoy]] defies his creators, he sparks the [[Grand Uprising]], a bloody, protracted rebellion that will reshape Cybertron for generations to come.


There is no ironclad consensus on ''which'' of these successive stories is the "real" story, though all either include or do not contradict the events of the ''Beast Machines'' cartoon.  Each storyline essentially forms its own microcontinuity, with all of them sharing the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon as their back story.
Fun Publications would later publish "[[A Change to the Agenda]]", which ostensibly ties the entire universe to a "what-if" version of the original ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, though this [[retcon]] was generally not well received.
{{--}}


===2021 IDW Publishing comics===
[[File:BW21 1 cvrA.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]


==English Beast Wars comics==
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars]]'' (2021)
==Japanese Beast continuity==
==Beast Machines==
The ''[[Beast Machines (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' cartoon is a direct sequel to the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, carrying over all of the surviving characters and referencing many specific events from the prior show.  A radical shift in tone and storytelling focus caused many fans to find ''Beast Machines'' difficult to accept as a sequel; however, the only notable contradictions between the series are debatable matters of characterization.


The cartoon follows the core ''Beast Wars'' cast after they have returned to Cybertron and to their own time, only to find the planet overrun with mindless drones controlled by their old foe Megatron. After a protracted war against these "Vehicons", they succeed in reformatting Cybertron into a techo-organic sphere, a balance of the organic and mechanical.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ''Beast Wars'' cartoon series, IDW Publishing released an all-new ''Beast Wars'' comic entirely divorced from its previous continuity. This all-new comic reimagines the core premise of the original television show along the lines of [[Marvel Comics]]' "{{w|Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate Marvel}}" universe and adds new characters like [[Nyx]] and [[Skold]] to the show's core cast.
{{--}}


Like its predecessor, ''Beast Machines'' continued to play fast and loose with Generation 1 history.  It brought in such cartoon-specific elements as the [[Key to Vector Sigma|Key to Vector Sigma]], the [[Plasma Energy Chamber|Plasma Energy Chamber]], and a variant of the [[Hate Plague|Hate Plague]].  At the same time it showed the remains of the city of [[Iacon|Iacon]] (only named in the comics), and showed a Cybertron that differed in appearance from any prior continuity.
==Minor continuities==
===Toy bios===
[[File:Optimusprimalvsmegatronsplash.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
* "[[Optimus Primal vs Megatron!]]" (1996)
Early waves of the ''Beast Wars'' toyline feature bios that place the characters on modern-day Earth, with the assumption that [[Optimus Primal (BW)|Optimus Primal]] and [[Megatron (BW)|Megatron]] are merely the latest forms of the original [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] and [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]]. This continuity would be swept under the carpet with the coming of the highly successful ''Beast Wars'' cartoon, and future toy bios would hew closer to the show's premise.
{{--}}


The ''[[Universe (2003 comic)|Universe]]'' comic series built directly on the story of ''Beast Machines'', while ''[[The Ascending|The Ascending]]'' provides some lead-in to Megatron's planetary conquest.
===Manga===
[[File:BWIITradeCover2.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]
* ''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (manga)|Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers]]'' (1998)
* ''[[Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo (manga)|Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Neo]]'' (1999)
* ''[[Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals (manga)|Super Lifeform Transformers: Beast Wars Metals]]'' (1999–2000)
The [[Shōji Imaki]]-penned manga series seem to be based on a version of the first season of the cartoon, but form their own distinct continuity.


===Video games===
* ''[[Beast Wars: Transformers (video game)|Beast Wars: Transformers]]'' (1997)
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (N64)|Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals]]'' (Nintendo 64, 1999)
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (PS)|Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals]]'' (PlayStation, 1999)
* ''[[Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle]]'' (1999)


==Universe==
The first [[Beast Wars: Transformers (video game)|''Beast Wars'' video game]] is a very loose adaptation of the first season of the original cartoon, which featured the Maximals and Predacons contending with one another and the alien [[Skriix]]. The [[Nintendo 64]] and [[PlayStation]] ''Transmetals'' games are set in alternate timelines to the cartoon, in which all of the Cybertronians had become [[Transmetal]]s as a result of Megatron altering the past by warning himself of his own defeat; each character's campaign in the Nintendo 64 game featured its own ending, while the PlayStation version only featured two different endings that depended on the faction. Finally, ''[[Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle]]'' features characters from across the ''Beast Wars'' mythos battling for the mysterious [[Energon Quartz]], but doesn't feature much of a plot beyond that.
<center>
{{--}}
<table cellspacing="0" style="width:90%;">


<tr>
===''Shell Game''===
<td style="padding:0 1em 0 1em;text-align:right;"><div class="tti_messageboxdiv" style="width:100%;padding:.5em; background-color:#efefff; border:solid 1px #9f9fff;text-align:center;margin:auto;">[[Image:Kup_piece.gif|left|125px|Kup piece.gif]]
[[File:Wolfang optimus minor bonecrusher aint no rat.jpg|thumb|right|250px]]
<span style="font-size:125%;font-weight:900;">You left a piece out!</span><hr />
''This article is a [[:Category:Stub|stub]] and is missing information. You can help '''Transformers Wiki''' by <span class="plainlinks">[http://tfwiki.net/w2/index.php?title=Beast_Wars_continuity&action=edit expanding it]</span>.''


* "[[Ain't No Rat]]" (2004)
* ''[[Transformers: Beast Wars — Shell Game|Shell Game]]'' was a planned miniseries that would've taken place in the primary cartoon continuity. A teaser for the story saw released in the 2004 ''[[20th Anniversary Transformers Summer Special|Summer Special]]'' anthology, but [[Dreamwave Productions]] shuttered production before the miniseries began. All was not lost, however, as author [[Simon Furman]] would recycle the script into ''The Gathering'' for IDW.


</div>
===Ask Vector Prime===
</td></tr></table>
2015's [[Ask Vector Prime]] feature name-drops several parallel-universe versions of the ''Beast Wars'' stories based on pre-existing media: [[Aurex 1104.30-JH Zeta|a reality]] where the Maximals and Predacons come to Earth in search of [[Mini-Con]]s, and encounter [[Natiltec|a primitive Central American civilization]], {{storylink|Fire in the Dark}} {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/13}}, [[Aurex 615.03 Epsilon|another]] where the Beast Wars take place in [[Alpha Quintesson|Alpha Q]]'s universe, {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/03}} and [[Primax 208.06 Zeta|another]] where [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] fights Megatron's Vehicons. {{storylink|Ask Vector Prime#Facebook|Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16}}
</center>


[[Category:Stub]]
[[Category:Continuities]]

Latest revision as of 18:04, 9 April 2026

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It has been suggested this article should be merged with Beast Era.
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Amidst the sprawling Transformers multiverse, the television shows, prose stories, and comics that make up the loosely amalgamated "Beast Wars continuity" are something of an oddity. Although most "Beast Era" fiction is technically an offshoot of the much larger Generation 1 continuity family, its unique position in the wider Transformers brand—revolving around the exploits of various time-tossed descendants of the original Autobots and Decepticons—means that it is essentially a small continuity family unto itself nested within the wider Generation 1 universe. However, the Beast Wars cartoon is not a direct sequel to any specific version of the Generation 1 storyline; instead, it borrows facets from both the Sunbow cartoon cartoon and Marvel comic and composites them into a vague "mythology" that informs the universe.

Compared to the larger Generation 1 continuity family, which offers similar but fundamentally irreconcilable versions of the same core story, almost all stories in the Beast Wars continuity treat the 1996 Beast Wars cartoon and its followup as the sacrosanct foundation for various side stories, spinoffs, prequels, and sequels. Although most of these branching canons are mutually irreconcilable with one another, very few of these tales deviate from the original cartoon in any meaningful way, and the vast majority fall under the all-encompassing umbrella that is the "Beast Wars cartoon continuity".

Major continuities

[edit]

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

[edit]
English cartoons
[edit]

The original Beast Wars cartoon tells the story of the Maximals and Predacons, time-travelling future Transformers who crash-land on a strange, primitive world. What begins as a simple struggle for energon becomes a desperate battle to protect the future when the planet is revealed to be prehistoric Earth, and the Predacons attempt to change history.

The Beast Machines cartoon carries over all of the surviving characters to Cybertron, where they find the planet overrun with mindless drones controlled by their old foe Megatron. After a protracted war against these "Vehicons", they succeed in reformatting Cybertron into a technorganic world, a balance of the organic and mechanical. Beast Machines continues to play fast and loose with Generation 1 history, although it eschews any explicit comic-based elements and used only cartoon-specific concepts like the Key to Vector Sigma, the Plasma Energy Chamber, and a variant of the Hate Plague.

Hints of a complex universe beyond the cartoon's limited scope meant that most subsequent Beast Wars stories used the cartoon as a springboard. Unlike the pick-and-choose approach common to many Generation 1 reinventions, the two cartoons serve as a concrete, largely immutable springboard for the rest of the continuity, with no less than four separate publishers building separate stories around its events.

Japanese cartoons
[edit]

When the Beast Wars cartoon was imported to Japan, a significant gap between seasons one and two led to the creation of two animated series to fill the gap until these later series could be dubbed into Japanese. 1998's Beast Wars II cartoon follows the adventures of Lio Convoy and a team of rookie Maximals who battle Galvatron on the planet Gaia. A year later, Beast Wars Neo took the conflict into outer space as Big Convoy and his team race Magmatron's Predacons to claim powerful Angolmois Capsules scattered across the galaxy.

Though it was not initially clear where these two shows fit into the timeline relative to the American cartoon, the end of Beast Wars II reveals that the series takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth many thousands of years in the future, long after the end of the Beast Machines cartoon, which is set a mere three centuries after the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war. Despite this disconnect, the cast of II briefly cross paths with a time-travelling Optimus Primal in a theatrical OVA.

Relatedly, the 2000 Transformers: Car Robots anime is set in the modern era but features time-traveling characters implicitly from the setting of Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo.

Minor Japanese stories, including Robotmasters, Beast Wars Reborn, and Legends cover the further adventures of Optimus Primal and Megatron as they cross time and space and clarify where all four of these television shows fit within the vast and often-confusing Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity.

3H Productions
[edit]

3H Productions produced a number of stories set in the Beast Era, with the vast majority occurring after the end of the Beast Wars cartoon series and parallel to the events of Beast Machines. The Wreckers runs alongside Beast Machines, though its contributions to the mythos proved controversial, while the Universe comic series builds on the ending of Beast Machines as heroes and villains from across the multiverse are abducted by Unicron. Ultimately, however, 3H lost the license before they could wrap up any of their plotlines, but Fun Publications concluded the stories in "Wreckers: Finale Part II" and "Revelations Part 2".

2006 IDW Publishing comics
[edit]

When Simon Furman took the reins at IDW in 2006, he adapted his pitch for the aborted Shell Game miniseries into what became The Gathering. Set during the third season of the Beast Wars cartoon, this four-issue miniseries returns to prehistoric Earth, pitting Razorbeast against Magmatron and featuring almost every character from the Beast Wars toyline in some capacity. 2007's The Ascending includes the return of 3H-original character Shokaract and many more Japanese-exclusive Beast Wars characters, while the Beast Wars Sourcebook fleshes out some background lore—most notably, it establishes that, in this particular reality, events similar to the Beast Wars II and Neo cartoons took place in the past at some point before the ratification of the Pax Cybertronia.

The continuity lay fallow for almost a decade until 2016's "Dawn of the Predacus", which details the Tripredacus Council's rise to power in the twilight of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict.



{{#if: Kup piece.gif |

}} | }}

{{ #if: You left a piece out! |You left a piece out!
|}}

This article is a stub and is missing information. You can help MediaWiki by expanding it. {{ #if: |{{ #if: |  |
}} talk page.|}}

{{#if: {{#if: What was in Revisiting|What's needed: What was in Revisiting |}}|{{#if: What was in Revisiting|What's needed: What was in Revisiting |}}|}}

{{#ifeq: ||}}{{#ifeq: |File|}}

Fun Publications
[edit]

For BotCon 2006, Fun Publications released "Dawn of Future's Past", a short prequel comic to the original Beast Wars cartoon; the following year, "Theft of the Golden Disk" and "The Razor's Edge" provided Megatron and Airazor with some extra backstory.

Several other convention comics—"Descent into Evil" and "A Common Foe"—foreshadow the ascent of the Tripredacus Council and some version of the Beast Wars to come, although neither of these comics lead into any concrete Beast Wars story.

Beast Wars: Uprising

[edit]

By far the darkest and most radical take on the Beast Wars premise and the first to truly break away from the original cartoon, Fun Publications' Beast Wars Uprising depicts a dystopian Cybertron where the Maximals and Predacons originated as second-class citizens created by the decrepit "Builders" to carry on their conflict. When Lio Convoy defies his creators, he sparks the Grand Uprising, a bloody, protracted rebellion that will reshape Cybertron for generations to come.

Fun Publications would later publish "A Change to the Agenda", which ostensibly ties the entire universe to a "what-if" version of the original Beast Wars cartoon, though this retcon was generally not well received.

2021 IDW Publishing comics

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To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beast Wars cartoon series, IDW Publishing released an all-new Beast Wars comic entirely divorced from its previous continuity. This all-new comic reimagines the core premise of the original television show along the lines of Marvel Comics' "[[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Ultimate Marvel|{{#if:Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate Marvel|Ultimate Marvel}}]]" universe and adds new characters like Nyx and Skold to the show's core cast.

Minor continuities

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Toy bios

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Early waves of the Beast Wars toyline feature bios that place the characters on modern-day Earth, with the assumption that Optimus Primal and Megatron are merely the latest forms of the original Optimus Prime and Megatron. This continuity would be swept under the carpet with the coming of the highly successful Beast Wars cartoon, and future toy bios would hew closer to the show's premise.

Manga

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The Shōji Imaki-penned manga series seem to be based on a version of the first season of the cartoon, but form their own distinct continuity.

Video games

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The first Beast Wars video game is a very loose adaptation of the first season of the original cartoon, which featured the Maximals and Predacons contending with one another and the alien Skriix. The Nintendo 64 and PlayStation Transmetals games are set in alternate timelines to the cartoon, in which all of the Cybertronians had become Transmetals as a result of Megatron altering the past by warning himself of his own defeat; each character's campaign in the Nintendo 64 game featured its own ending, while the PlayStation version only featured two different endings that depended on the faction. Finally, Duel Fight Transformers Beast Wars: Beast Warriors' Strongest Decisive Battle features characters from across the Beast Wars mythos battling for the mysterious Energon Quartz, but doesn't feature much of a plot beyond that.

Shell Game

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  • "Ain't No Rat" (2004)
  • Shell Game was a planned miniseries that would've taken place in the primary cartoon continuity. A teaser for the story saw released in the 2004 Summer Special anthology, but Dreamwave Productions shuttered production before the miniseries began. All was not lost, however, as author Simon Furman would recycle the script into The Gathering for IDW.

Ask Vector Prime

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2015's Ask Vector Prime feature name-drops several parallel-universe versions of the Beast Wars stories based on pre-existing media: a reality where the Maximals and Predacons come to Earth in search of Mini-Cons, and encounter a primitive Central American civilization, Fire in the Dark Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/13, another where the Beast Wars take place in Alpha Q's universe, Ask Vector Prime, 2015/06/03 and another where Starscream fights Megatron's Vehicons. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16

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