Binder of Revelation

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Fusion canon.

The "Binder of Revelation" is the informal name used by Hasbro creatives for the 354-page production bible that undergirds fiction in the Aligned continuity family.[1] Co-written by Aaron Archer, Rik Alvarez, and other Transformers experts from Hasbro (with help from outside partners Fabian Nicieza and the fandom), it charts billions of years of history, combining concepts from all previous "generations" of Transformers lore.

Didn't quite turn out as planned.

“ cost over $250k to produce - lives in the bottom of drawer ”

—Rik Alvarez's 2015 slideshow at TFcon Charlotte[2]

Published material

As an internal publication ostensibly covering years of future plans, the Binder of Revelation was strictly confidential, meaning for many years the public understanding of its contents was limited to brief glimpses or secondhand sources. Transformers Vault contains three scans of the Binder:

Many individual pieces of artwork commissioned for the Binder have also been released separately over time, either in official publications or via the artists themselves.

Continuity

The Binder of Revelation charts the history of the Transformers from the beginning to the end of the universe.

Which universe, you might ask? Well, that's the thing.

It's clear that the Binder of Revelation was produced at a very specific point in the franchise's history: after the release of the 2007 Transformers movie, Transformers Animated, and Revenge of the Fallen, but before work was done on Transformers: Prime (whose showrunners were handed a copy of the production bible). While much of the Cybertronian history covered in the document is more-or-less what was depicted in The Covenant of Primus, the Exodus novel, and the War for Cybertron video games, the sections concerned with the Transformers' time on Earth directly pull from the first two live-action movies—and indeed, Transformers: Prime itself would start from a status quo which assumes events similar to those in the first live-action film to have already taken place. Artist Ken Christiansen was clearly directed to merge the G1 and movie styles for the character designs he produced for the book, resulting in an Optimus Prime who turns into a long-nose truck, an Ironhide with arm-mounted cannons, a green Ratchet, and a Sideswipe with sword-arms, among others. Characters are expressly ranked across several tiers of notability, with many B- or C-tier characters not deemed significant enough for new artwork typically recycling artwork from Dreamwave Productions' More than Meets the Eye profile series. Although the Constructicons are depicted with Dreamwave's G1-accurate art, Bonecrusher and Hook are renamed Rampage and Hightower respectively, as a compromise with the team's depiction in Revenge of the Fallen. Similarly, of the Primes listed, only seven actually have the word "Prime" in their names, possibly to fit with dialogue from that film. The document sidesteps Slag's controversial name by omitting him altogether, conflating many of his traits with Snarl. Bafflingly, maybe a third of every single character profile is given over to discussion of "Polarity"—effectively Transformers astrology based on the Thirteen Primes—to say which Primes each character is spiritually descended from. As this concept never appeared in any published media, you can see for yourself how little this helped any writer who ever worked on the franchise.

The book's later sections on human characters and worldbuilding concepts takes a far more encyclopedic, scattershot approach, jumbling together elements of the G1 cartoon, comics, Transformers Animated, and the live-action movies. Again, the Binder's focus on the franchise as it existed at that specific moment in time leads to Transformers: The Veiled Threat, an otherwise practically-forgotten tie-in novel to Revenge of the Fallen, getting a shocking amount of airtime alongside these more-prominent pieces of media.

It seems that the Binder was left untouched until 2015, another hyperspecific point in history, when a few pages were updated and new ones added. The replaced pages are mostly those concerned with the Transformers' time on Earth; rather than summarising the events of Transformers: Prime, as one might expect, the new versions summarise the events of Dark of the Moon and the then-recent Age of Extinction—despite the vast number of incongruities this introduces with the rest of the character profiles. New profiles are added for all of the Autobots from Age of Extinction, a few characters from Robots in Disguise (notably doubling the number of female Transformers mentioned in the document), the remaining three major combiners from Combiner Wars, and Fortress Maximus from the then-upcoming Titans Return. The ordering of pages was reshuffled slightly; again, speaking to the fact that nobody cared about "polarity", the explanation of this concept was buried towards the back of the book.

Themes

Perhaps the aspect of the Binder of Revelation which has best stood the test of time, from a creative standpoint, is its clear aim to encourage the creation of Transformers stories which are meaningful. The ideological conflict between Optimus Prime and Megatron, whose goals are meant to appear superficially similar, is framed as one of free will ("Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.") versus determinism ("Peace through tyranny."). Certain worldbuilding concepts—such as the fragments of Unicron left embedded in Primus, which are said to have tainted the Transformers with evil; and the "Polarities" concept, which informs the present-day characters' behaviour—seem intended to raise the question of whether it is possible to overcome one's own past, to break the cycles of war, and truly change as a society.

Granted, many of these ideas are muddled at best. Optimus Prime is expressly referred to as a "libertarian", but he is appointed ruler of Cybertron by the planet's existing power structure, and is implied to be predestined to rule through divine right; meanwhile, Megatron, who ostensibly stands opposed to liberty, spends most of his backstory as a freedom fighter liberating the oppressed people of Cybertron. In the story bible's never-realised future plans, a race of "Ultimate Transformers" (implicitly the Maximals and Predacons) would set out to colonise the universe, free of the sins and imperfections of their forebears, which is certainly something.

The back end of the Binder focuses on many of these themes through the lens of marketing psychology, with discussion of archetypes like "The Ruler" (who obtains personal mastery over something, such as a child might obtain mastery over a Transformers toy by learning how to convert it), and "The Sage" (who knows lots about the Transformers, just like us here at TFWiki.net).

Contents

II. Overview of the New Universe

III. Heroes and Villains

  • 35-36: Title
  • 37: ??? (likely introduction)[3]
  • Autobot Character Profiles[5]
  • 38: Polarity: The Astrology of Transformers, The Signs, 1. Liegeians, 2. Vecorians, 3. Nexians[6]
  • 39: 4. Micronians, 5. Onyxians, 6. Megatronians, 7. Amalgians, 8. Soleans, 9. Quintessians, 10. Alphanians, 11. Alchemians, 12. Primians[6]
  • 40-43: Optimus Prime (Main)
  • 44-47: Megatron (Main)[6]
  • 48-49: Starscream (Main)[6]
  • 50-51: Bumblebee (Main)

Autobot Character Profiles

Decepticon Character Profiles

Legendary Character Profiles

Human Character Profiles

IV. Locations

  • 155-156: Title

Earth

Cybertron

Distant Planets

V. Vehicles, Weapons, Artifacts & Technolog

  • 199-200: Title

Vehicles

Weapons

Artifacts of the Primes

Technology

Transformer Culture

Human Culture: Companies

Human Artifacts

VI. The Super Science of Transformers

VII. Archetypes, Messages & Themes

  • 249-250: Title
  • 251: Introduction

The Brand Essence of Transformers

  • 252=253: What makes a Transformers Story?
  • 253-256: Brand Archetype: The Ruler
  • 256-257: Sage Archetype — New Witwicky

The Theme of Transformers

  • 258: What is Transformers about? In a universe where change is the only constant, how is peace possible?
  • 259-260: The Central Theme Explained, Fundamental Conflict

Messages of Transformers

  • 261-262: Chaos & Order, Destiny and Fate, Avatar Theory and Reincarnation, A Single Action can Change the Course of History, Transformation
  • 262-263: Achieving Success through Effort, Brotherhood, Responsibility
  • 263: More than meets the eye..., Supporting Characters as Mirrors, Once you have found your bliss you can achieve the impossible.

Aspirational Drivers

  • 264: Aspirational Drivers

Major Aspirational Drivers

  • 265-266: Mastery, Power
  • 266: Hierarchy

Seconary Aspiration Drivers

  • 267: Multiplicity, Inner Pride

Sensory Gratification

  • 268: Sensory Gratification

Fantasy Journey & Fulfillment

  • 269: Fantasy Journey & Fulfillment
  • 270: Key Art

VIII. Epic Chronology

  • 271-272: Title
  • 273-306: The Epic Chronology of Transformers[10]

IX. Distant Mountains

  • 307-308: Title
  • 309: ??? (likely introduction of this section as covering unanswered questions, to be explored in future media)[3]
  • 310: Epoch I — Origins
  • 311: Epoch II — The War of the Primes
  • 312: Epoch III — The Fall of the Primes
  • 313: Epoch IV — The Age of Wraith [sic]
  • 314: Epoch V — The Golden Age
  • 315: Epoch VI — The Rise of the Decepticons
  • 316: Epoch VII — The Civil War
  • 317: Epoch VIII — The Exodus
  • 318: Epoch IX — Earth Activation
  • 319: Epoch X — Ascension
  • 320: Epoch XI — The Return to Cybertron
  • 321: Epoch XII — Unicron
  • 322: Epoch XIII — A New Universe

Appendix I. The Language of the Primes

  • 323-324: Title
  • 325-326: Cybertronian Alphabet

Appendix II. Glossary of Terms

  • 327-328 - Title
  • 329-334 Glossary of Terms

Issues

Rik Alvarez claimed in 2015 that the "B.O.R." had been repeatedly ignored or subverted. First, the creatives behind Prime didn't want to be beholden to older material, not even other parts of Aligned, even as the B.O.R. had to flesh out the world for them; IDW Publishing had established too many backstories for the Binder to be logistically applicable for them; and Rescue Bots was not part of the Binder's plans, yet in it came![11] Then the incoming toy design director at Hasbro abruptly changed the plans for Prime season 3, swerving to Beast Hunters instead of a return to Cybertron that would have included pirates. Prime being cancelled, according to Alvarez, shot the B.O.R. in the head.[2] Andrew Hall, who had also worked on Aligned product, weighed in to confirm that this lined up with what he had heard from other people.[12]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "As overseers of the brand they work closely with all of the different internal departments as well, connecting the toys via the right looks and names to the market. As archivists they maintain the Transformers bible (currently at 354 pages), also known as the “Binder of Revelation.”"—Scott Rubin, Figures.com, "BotCon 2011 - Hasbro Panel Report", 2011
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "New Design Director at Hasbro — Archer moved to VP. [He said that] Optimus should be GREEN! Disregarded HasLab — Pred Symbol. New team new rules: Previous team [said] NO BEASTS, NO FEMALES (Battle for Airachnid — FIGHT!) New team [said] WE NEED BEASTS!!! [as a] Way to reuse existing tooling [and] Keep costs down. [Beast Hunters] was a total curve ball to HasLab and Studio team. Design [gets] mad that Beast Hunters toys [are] not in [the] show. Studio [gets] mad that season 3 [is] scrapped and Beast Hunters is the new story. This lead to different designs — Studio vs Design — Beast Hunters Optimus. HasLab [was] stuck in the middle — Prime issues killed [the Binder of Revelation] and future show plans (Pirates/Season 4-ish). [The Binder of Revelation] — cost over $250K to produce — lives in the bottom of a drawer"—Rik Alvarez, TFcon Charlotte, 2015
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Removed in 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Updated in 2015.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 New page added in 2015.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Moved later in 2015.
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 Two new pages added in 2015.
  8. ↑ No, we don't know who the hell this is either.
  9. ↑ Four new pages added.
  10. ↑ In the 2015 ed., pg 299 (Epoch X — Ascension) was replaced with three new pages expanding on this era following its depiction in media. Similarly, pg 301 (Epoch XI — The Return to Cybertron) was also updated with new information from recent media.
  11. ↑ "WHY DID THIS ALL FALL APART? 1. Hasbro never had control of Prime. Studio didn't want anything to do with [War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybetron]. Left HasLab scrambling to change everyone else's projects. Studio claimed Rescue Bots was part of Prime story... Beast Hunters (we'll get into that later...). Prime had to end after 3 seasons [as the] Budget ballooned out of control, Hasbro dropped the ball on toys, NOBODY had the HUB... 2. No IDW tie in comic book. 3. MMOG disaster — team kept changing. 4. No cross branding marker."—Rik Alvarez, TFcon Charlotte, 2015
  12. ↑ "No, the aspects of it that people are seeing as complaining was pretty much stuff I heard after he had left. So I just wanted to say that it's definitely not fabricated. [...] I'm just sympathetic because I've seen very clearly that working in a large corporation can be like being wrapped up in a massive war, where you're only in control of your own little unit (if that), and not the entire battlefield. I know plenty of really talented people who had their careers swept away with the tide, due to no fault of their own. I'm not even being slightly dramatic here."—Andrew Hall, The Allspark, "Everything that went wrong with the Transformers: Prime show panel at TFCon Charlotte", 2015/10/19
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