Binal Time (preproduction)
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| "Binal Time" バイナル・タイム
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| Published in | Transformers Generations 2019 | ||||||||||||
| First published | December 10, 2018 (see #Notes) | ||||||||||||
| Story | Hirofumi Ichikawa | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity (planned) | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2005 | ||||||||||||
| Packaged with | BT-17 Ginrai (cancelled) | ||||||||||||
A mysterious visitor from the future steps into the midst of the chaos the Autobots face as the Binaltech conflict reaches a crescendo. Hey, wait...
Synopsis
[edit]In the assault against Unicron, Optimus Prime is badly damaged, and, fearing his own death, passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus. Despite recognizing the fact that he is not the Chosen One of legend, Magnus bravely penetrates Unicron's body, and, shedding his outer armor, petitions the wisdom of the Matrix to allow him to wield its power. Magnus unleashes the energy of the Matrix, and Unicron is destroyed, but Prowl refuses to let the Autobots relax even for a second, as he knows that the currently-in-hiding Shockwave will be poised to summon Megatron and the full might of the Decepticon army back from the limbo to which Ravage displaced them.
On Dinobot Island, Skids's team manages to hold off the attacking Decepticons, and Skids launches the probe containing Wheeljack's memory data back in time in hopes of undoing the changes wrought upon the timeline by Ravage. Alas, rather than restore their universe to the way it should originally have been, the plan causes the destabilization of the space-time continuum, and time warps begin appear all across Earth. But a mysterious figure resembling Optimus Prime teleports to Dinobot Island, where he uses his incredible powers over time and space to stop the chronal warps and repair the fabric of reality.
The stranger, who introduces himself as Ginrai, calmly informs the Autobots that their mission was a success: the probe sent into the past was successfully used by the Autobots of the past to prevent Ravage from changing the timeline. Skids questions why they're still around in this altered history, so Ginrai explains that he used the spacetime energy of the warp to preserve the altered version of the timeline as its own distinct parallel universe. This timeline is important, Ginrai claims, because it will eventually result in great beings. Skids is apprehensive at the idea that they'll be replaced by said beings, but Ginrai reassures him—the Binaltech Transformers are who will evolve into those beings.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Others |
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Notes
[edit]- This cancelled chapter of the Binaltech story was planned to go with a planned release of the Alternators Optimus Prime mold as Ginrai. However, this release was cancelled after Hirofumi Ichikawa had already written up this story and the accompanying profile for Ginrai. The basics of this story would eventually be recycled for a proper chapter with the same title, included with the aforementioned mold's use as BT-17 Black Convoy. That version of the story replaces Ginrai with the enigmatic "Protector" (later confirmed to be an offshoot Optimus Primal) and incorporates more detail in general (thanks to Black Convoy's prose material having more space to work in).
- This version of "Binal Time" was published in The Transformers: Binaltech Stories, an unofficial compilation of Binaltech material by Ichikawa, before seeing official release in Transformers Generations 2019 (which concludes the Binaltech story and also includes full text of all published chapters). Likewise, those books also include the cancelled (but still canon) "Widow's Edge".
