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| A '''continuity''' is a fictional universe or timeline that is characterized by recurring characters and settings and an internal consistency with regards to characterization and depicted events. Typically, stories that are produced by a particular licensor (such as [[IDW]]) in a particular form of media (such as [[comics|comic books]]) are ''in continuity'' with each other, meaning that they are meant to all take place in the same "world".
| | <div id="wikia-credits"><br /><br /><small>From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</small></div> |
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| This is not, however, always the case -- for example, the IDW comic ''[[Transformers: Evolutions]]'' consists of stories that are explicitly set in different universes than the other IDW comics. The various [[coloring books]] published by [[Marvel]] in the 1980s might all take place in the same universe, but there are no direct ties between them, and they could easily each be "in their own little world".
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| Still, even in cases such as these, there are important similarities. Even though ''Evolutions''' first story, "[[Hearts of Steel]]" can't fit in the same world as ''[[Transformers: Infiltration]]'', they are alternate worlds in a relatively minor sense -- the same Transformers characters are present in both, they just interact with humanity at a different point in time. Marvel's coloring books disagree on many points with the Marvel comic books, but they agree on many points as well. Thus, although the coloring books and the comics are not in continuity with each other, their similarities allow both to be categorized as being [[Generation 1]] continuities.
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| ==Multiverse==
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| Moreso than most science-fiction franchises, ''Transformers'' has been, from the very start, a collection of many varied continuities. Even before the [[Generation 1 (cartoon)|G1 cartoon]] premiered, there was the Marvel comic series and an array of Marvel-produced storybooks which cannot be reconciled with each other. A truly exhaustive list of Transformers continuities would be nearly impossible to complete. However, it is relatively easy to list the major continuity "families".
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| There is a subjective component to all of this, and each fan decides for themself how "fine-grained" they want their own personal list of continuities to be. Ultimately, it could be argued that almost every story exists in its own exclusive continuity -- even different stories that were intended to be set in the same universe. For example, two episodes of the G1 cartoon series that make no explicit references to events in each other, but are both "descendants" of the episode "[[More Than Meets the Eye]]", could arguably exist in different universes. There may be no particular reason to assert that they don't share continuity, but there is also no clear evidence that the events of one affected the world of the other. They may be set in different branches of a timeline that started with MTMTE.
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| The most inclusive perspective is to consider all Transformers stories as existing within a multiverse which contains all possible alternate universes. Some of these universes are more closely related to each other than others, but they are all part of the same whole.
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| ==Major continuities==
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| At this time, there are three primary continuity families in the Transformers multiverse. These are: '''[[Generation 1]]/[[Beast Era]]''', '''[[Robots in Disguise]]''', and '''[[Unicron Trilogy]]'''. Every (or nearly every) Transformers story can be easily fit into one of these three.
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| The '''G1/Beast''' continuity covers all Transformers stories from the beginning in 1984 until the end of ''[[Beast Machines]]'' in 2001. The [[Beast Wars (cartoon)|BW cartoon]] soundly established itself as a successor to earlier work, and further, the [[Beast Machines (cartoon)|BM cartoon]] is a direct followup to BW, as well as having many of its own explicit ties to G1. Even though there are some glitches in trying to reconcile BM with various flavors of G1, they are too well-connected to totally dismiss. At worst, one can say that ''Beast Machines'' is set in a version of ''Generation 1'' continuity which has never been depicted in fiction, but which is, nonetheless, similar in most respects to the G1 cartoon.
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| The G1/Beast continuity is the largest and richest Transformers continuity, spanning 17 exclusive years of stories and four incarnations of the Transformers brand. Further, even after other major continuities have been established, G1 and Beast Era stories continue to be published at a rate almost equal to that of wholly new material.
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| The second major continuity is also the smallest, with its fiction (outside of Japan, at least) consisting of just a single television series and one short comic story: '''Robots in Disguise'''. This was the first complete reboot of the Transformers universe, telling an all-new story about Earth's first contact with Transformers.
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| Finally, the '''Unicron Trilogy''' is a second reboot. It spans three Transformers franchises (''Armada'', ''Energon'', and ''Cybertron'') and includes three animated series and two comic book series, plus an array of licensed storybooks and supplemental material. The inclusion of ''Cybertron'' in this continuity is somewhat problematic, however, as the [[Cybertron (cartoon)|''Cybertron'' cartoon]] is a localization of the Japanese [[Galaxy Force (cartoon)|Galaxy Force]] cartoon. Although ''Cybertron''/''Galaxy Force'' was originally planned to be a continuation of the previous two series, this plan was changed somewhere in the chain of command in Japan, and ''Galaxy Force'' started anew as another continuity, albeit one with some strange similarities to that of the previous two shows. Hasbro decided to stick with their original intent for their adaptation, and as such the ''Cybertron'' cartoon is -- clumsily, at times -- still officially considered part of the UT story.
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| ==Prominant G1 continuities==
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| Within G1 there are an almost uncountable number of established alternate universes. Some of these continuities are extremely obscure, such the timeline which houses the second Transformers video game for the Commodore 64 home computer. On the other hand, the G1 cartoon is so widely-known that many members of the general public (i.e., not fans) would be familiar with it, and quite possibly unaware that there even ''are'' other Transformers stories.
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| Following is an ''incomplete'' list of some of the prominant G1 continuities and their relationships to each other. For the purposes of this list, only G1-proper will be considered, and not the extended-G1 that includes G2, MW, and the Beast series.
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| *[[Generation 1|G1 umbrella continuity]]
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| **[[Generation 1 (anime)|Cartoons (Japanese)]] - Includes the American cartoons as well as three additional TV series an OVA and a few Mangas
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| ***[[Generation 1 (cartoon)|Cartoons (American)]] - A subset of the Japanese cartoon series.
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| **[[Generation 1 (ukcomic)|Marvel UK comics]] - Includes the American comics as well as nearly 100% more material that was published exclusively in the UK until being reprinted internationally in the 2000s.
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| ***[[Generation 1 (comic)|Marvel US comics]] - A subset of the UK comics. Includes ''[[Generation 1 (comic)|Transformers]]'', ''[[Headmasters (comic)|Transformers: Headmasters]]'', and the character profile series ''[[Transformers Universe (Marvel comic)|Transformers Universe]]''. The comic book adaptation of ''[[Transformers: The Movie]]'' is out of continuity with the other Marvel comics.
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| **[[Generation 1 (Dreamwave)|Dreamwave G1 comics]] - A new continuity with much of the flavor of the original cartoon series, but a very different history. Includes the three "G1" volumes as well as three volumes of ''The War Within'' and a ''Micromasters'' miniseries.
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| **[[Generation 1 (IDW)|IDW G1 comics]] - Begins with ''Transformers: Infiltration'', published in 2005.
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| **[[Universe|Transformers Universe]] - A meta-continuity (see below) created by [[3H Productions]] to house stories related to characters created by the convention organizers.
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| ==Meta-continuities==
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| There have been two official attempts to create an overarching structure to the Transformers multiverse: ''[[Universe|Transformers: Universe]]'' and ''[[Timelines|Transformers: Timelines]]''. Both of these attempts have been helmed by organizers of the official Transformers [[conventions|convention]], [[BotCon]].
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| The first attempt, ''Transformers: Universe'', was a project of [[3H Productions]]. Story material from the convention starting in the year 1997 was directly incorporated into TFU, although it wasn't until BotCon 2002 that the term ''Transformers: Expanded Universe'' appeared on a BotCon toy box, and the name was then shortened to just ''Transformers: Universe'' afterwards. The [[Universe (toyline)|TFU toyline]] eventually became the home of not just convention exclusive toys, but also other repaints and store exclusives that were sold in normal retail outlets. The bios for the TFU characters were primarily the responsibility of 3H.
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| The TFU meta-continuity established the idea of a Transformers Multiverse and pulled together many elements from other Transformers continuities, focusing heavily on variations of ''Beast Machines'' and ''Generation 1''. 3H's comic book series, [[Wreckers (comic)|''Wreckers'']] and [[Universe (comic)|''Universe'']] are the primary sources of information about this meta-continuity, although character bios published in convention programs, fan club newsletters, and on the 3H and Hasbro websites also contribute.
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| Among other things, the ''Universe'' universe makes some reconciliation between conflicting origins for [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] and the Transformers that were presented in the G1 comics, G1 cartoon, and BM cartoon. It also incorporates the otherwise ignored sub-toylines ''[[Beast Wars Mutants]]'' and ''[[Dinobots (toyline)|Dinobots]]'' into its fiction, and is the earliest example of a story that asserts (or implies) that there is only one [[Unicron]] who travels from one universe to another, rather than an infinite array of Unicrons in different universes.
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| The second attempt to create a meta-continuity is still very young -- it is ''Transformers: Timelines'', created by [[Fun Publications]], the new holders of the official Transformers fan club and convention license. Like 3H's ''Universe'', ''Timelines'' brings together characters from different continuities, some pre-existing and some new. The comic story being told in the pages of the fan club newsletter has this same multiversal character, although it is titled ''Transformers: Cybertron'' rather than ''Timelines'', and includes characters from the ''Unicron Trilogy'' instead of only G1 and Beast characters. It is unclear whether this comic will ultimately tie in with ''Timelines''.
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| ==Japanese continuities==
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| In Japan, every Transformers cartoon until the release of ''[[Car Robots (cartoon)|Car Robots]]'' (the original, Japanese title for ''Robots in Disguise'') can be fit into a single unified continuity, much like the American G1/Beast continuity. The difference is that Japanese fans have had five additional cartoons that were never aired in North America: ''[[Headmasters (cartoon)|Headmasters]]'', ''[[Masterforce (cartoon)|Masterforce]]'', ''[[Victory (cartoon)|Victory]]'', ''[[Beast Wars 2nd (cartoon)|Beast Wars 2nd]]'', and ''[[Beast Wars Neo (cartoon)|Beast Wars Neo]]''. Despite this additional story material, they can all be fit together.
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| In Japan, then, ''Car Robots'' was the first full reboot. Following CR, ''[[Micron Legend]]'' and ''[[Superlink]]'' are connected into a third major Japanese continuity, and then -- as noted above -- ''Galaxy Force'' starts a fourth.
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| Nearly every Japanese TF franchise has had ancillary manga published in magazines such as ''Comics Bon-Bon''. These manga series typically bear a relationship to the contemporaneous cartoons much like the comic/cartoon relationships in the West. That is, they have the same characters and roughly the same backstory, but the events of the stories and even their tone may be completely different.
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| [[Category:Continuity]]
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| [[Category:Fiction]]<div id="wikia-credits"><br /><br /><small>From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</small></div> | |
