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[Sabrblade]

Fall of Cybertron is not going to be easy to reconcile at all with the Prime cartoon, given its very G1-ish conclusion when both the Ark and Nemesis travel through the Space Bridge towards Earth,

They don't go to Earth through that space bridge. Recall that it was made unstable and had to have the ships get through it ASAP. It ultimately doesn't take them to Earth.

with Starscream completely unaccounted for and Grimlock possibly ahead of them following his apparent transport through the space bridge from Shockwave's duplicate tower; which has already been contradicted by Rage of the Dinobots, but I digress.

Starscream probably got back at some point off screen.

And as for Grimlock, I never got the impression that he got sent through the space bridge. His fate was rather ambiguous to the nth degree, leaving plenty open room for him to still be on Cybertron after the game. He's running away, there's a blinding light, and then the scene cuts away. for all we know, he could have fallen off the platform he was on and plummeted far to the ground below, away from the space bridge's reach (though he'd be in for some serious repairs after a fall form that height).

The characters were all en route to Earth,

Which we aren't shown or told that they ever made it to.

with damaged but still functional ships. Barring some event knocking them all into stasis lock, there should've been some remaining crew members to pilot the ships. I understand the ending is meant to be ambiguous, even a bit cliffhanger-y, but it doesn't reconcile with what we know from the backstories in Prime and Exodus.

How exactly?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the developers at High Moon didn't get copies of the Binder of Revelation to work from, and while they clearly followed Hasbro mandates, Hasbro didn't have much involvement in the story besides approving its content.

Matt Tieger mentions having worked from the Binder in several interviews about BOTH games. They wouldn't have come up with the games' stories that they did had they not worked from the Binder.

Thus I'd posit Fall of Cybertron as a continuation of War for Cybertron in a splinter timeline, creating a new micro-continuity. Relatively little is needed to reconcile War for Cybertron with Exodus, but a lot more work would be needed with its sequel.

We've got multiple universes and splinter timelines of said universes already: let's put 'em to use.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Aligned_timeline

[Henry921]

I concede that the fiction is open ended and doesn't contradict things that might've happened between FOC and the Prime cartoon, but there are discrepancies, and other things that need some elaboration. These are the events from Fall of Cybertron I'm referring to.


Starscream stranded on Cybertron: did he regain consciousness in time to reach escape velocity and follow the ships through the rapidly closing space bridge?

Grimlock sent through the space bridge: and apparently back on Cybertron in time for the Rage of the Dinobots comic.

The Ark and Nemesis intact: The Autobot ship was already damaged; maybe the Nemesis finished it upon arrival in the Sol System. Which brings us to:

Arrival in the Sol System: or we decided to wait for another few million years to invade the planet with raw energy we needed to revitalize our homeworld and hang out with the Star Seekers for a while instead. This latter point actively contradicts the Prime episode Out of the Past, where Shockwave and Starscream become aware of Earth from Prime's broadcast, despite Shockwave being the guy who selected the planet and built the space bridge to get there

Hence my conclusion that instead of trying to explain these differences, we consider Fall of Cybertron and any subsequent sequels a splinter timeline. Hasbro may want it all to be connected in their glorious Aligned continuity, but the hiccups increase in number when trying to tie all the media together. Before Fall of Cybertron I had no problem accepting its predecessor as a prequel to the events of Prime, because the discrepancies were comparatively minor.

[Sabrblade]

I think they should just make one 5-10 issue prequel comic to Prime to fit everything together. This is getting ridiculous. Why hasbro had to coin the aligned continuity right as Prime came out or before, is beyond my comprehension.

Did they make any WFC prequel comics that make more sense? Or was there just one?
Well, thanks for helping me understand...I think.

The creation of the Aligned continuity predates WFC and Prime by a few years. The folks at Hasbro first started putting it together around 2007, when the first movie came out. The stories of both WFC and Prime were adapted from the Binder of Revelation, the core essence and backbone of the Aligned continuity.

As for why they don't just go ahead and bridge the gap between the ancient past of the games/books and the present of cartoons, they want to tell that middle story in graduation. When asked at NYCC 2012 about any possible sequels or follow up material for Exiles, they gave the ever-suspicious answer of "stay tuned" (the very same answer that was given to other questions that were later made reality at Toy Fair this year).

The only WFC comic out there is the one adapting chapters 12-15 of Exodus.

[Sabrblade]

Starscream stranded on Cybertron: did he regain consciousness in time to reach escape velocity and follow the ships through the rapidly closing space bridge?

Megatron could have had him arrested and brought back to him just before the launch. Recall that neither ship launched until some decent amount of time after Grimlock knocked him out.

Grimlock sent through the space bridge: and apparently back on Cybertron in time for the Rage of the Dinobots comic.

Already covered this but I'll repeat myself.

I never got the impression that he got sent through the space bridge. His fate was rather ambiguous to the nth degree, leaving plenty open room for him to still be on Cybertron after the game. He's running away, there's a blinding light, and then the scene cuts away. for all we know, he could have fallen off the platform he was on and plummeted far to the ground below, away from the space bridge's reach (though he'd be in for some serious repairs after a fall form that height).

The Ark and Nemesis intact: The Autobot ship was already damaged; maybe the Nemesis finished it upon arrival in the Sol System. Which brings us to:

Arrival in the Sol System: or we decided to wait for another few million years to invade the planet with raw energy we needed to revitalize our homeworld and hang out with the Star Seekers for a while instead. This latter point actively contradicts the Prime episode Out of the Past, where Shockwave and Starscream become aware of Earth from Prime's broadcast, despite Shockwave being the guy who selected the planet and built the space bridge to get there

Again, THEY DID NOT REACH EARTH THROUGH THAT SPACE BRIDGE!

Hence my conclusion that instead of trying to explain these differences, we consider Fall of Cybertron and any subsequent sequels a splinter timeline. Hasbro may want it all to be connected in their glorious Aligned continuity, but the hiccups increase in number when trying to tie all the media together. Before Fall of Cybertron I had no problem accepting its predecessor as a prequel to the events of Prime, because the discrepancies were comparatively minor.

You do realize that the game's designer intentionally put more Prime-based stuff into the FOC to make it fit more in line with Prime, right?

[Henry921]

Starscream stranded on Cybertron: did he regain consciousness in time to reach escape velocity and follow the ships through the rapidly closing space bridge?

Megatron could have had him arrested and brought back to him just before the launch. Recall that neither ship launched until some decent amount of time after Grimlock knocked him out.

Grimlock sent through the space bridge: and apparently back on Cybertron in time for the Rage of the Dinobots comic.

Already covered this but I'll repeat myself.

I never got the impression that he got sent through the space bridge. His fate was rather ambiguous to the nth degree, leaving plenty open room for him to still be on Cybertron after the game. He's running away, there's a blinding light, and then the scene cuts away. for all we know, he could have fallen off the platform he was on and plummeted far to the ground below, away from the space bridge's reach (though he'd be in for some serious repairs after a fall form that height).

The Ark and Nemesis intact: The Autobot ship was already damaged; maybe the Nemesis finished it upon arrival in the Sol System. Which brings us to:

Arrival in the Sol System: or we decided to wait for another few million years to invade the planet with raw energy we needed to revitalize our homeworld and hang out with the Star Seekers for a while instead. This latter point actively contradicts the Prime episode Out of the Past, where Shockwave and Starscream become aware of Earth from Prime's broadcast, despite Shockwave being the guy who selected the planet and built the space bridge to get there

Again, THEY DID NOT REACH EARTH THROUGH THAT SPACE BRIDGE!

Hence my conclusion that instead of trying to explain these differences, we consider Fall of Cybertron and any subsequent sequels a splinter timeline. Hasbro may want it all to be connected in their glorious Aligned continuity, but the hiccups increase in number when trying to tie all the media together. Before Fall of Cybertron I had no problem accepting its predecessor as a prequel to the events of Prime, because the discrepancies were comparatively minor.

You do realize that the game's designer intentionally put more Prime-based stuff into the FOC to make it fit more in line with Prime, right?

Because my reply to Shadowman was being written at roughly the same time you posted, I missed your initial rebuttal. Sorry to make you repeat yourself.


Anyway, I wasn't aware the guys at High Moon had a Binder of Revelation. Which interview did they mention that in?


Moving on to points of contention: the ambiguity of Starscream's fate is a pretty big offender, especially if we need to go through the trouble of coming up with the explanation ourselves. Even if sufficient time had passed for the Decepticons to recover and re-arrest Starscream before they left, why would they bother? Megatron had already dismissed him as "not worth the time", and even if they had gone back to get him, both Megatron and Onslaught would've been inclined to execute him instead of imprison him, as Megatron was already shown attempting in game.

When Grimlock flees the exploding station, we fade to white as everything blows up, and then cut to something being transported through the space bridge itself. What significance does this serve, if it's just debris or one of the fleeing Decepticon generics? I agree it's ambiguous, but it seems like a back door to send Grimlock to Earth with the others.


As for the space bridge not arriving on Earth immediately as a result of space bridge instability, well... okay, it's not like fiction about space bridges is ever completely consistent, but why would both Optimus and Shockwave not be aware of Earth and its supply of natural energon in the Prime cartoon when Shockwave specifically targets Earth as his destination in FOC? And if the Bots and Cons ended up in some other sector of space, how did they have sufficient energy to go on whatever other adventures they had in mind when both factions were essentially running on empty by the end of FOC? There's a lot that needs to be filled in.

I accept that maybe there's a reasonable explanation for my doubts, but thus far, I don't feel the cartoon or the novels have provided one. It requires too much explanation from the fans to fill in, rather than the creators, hence my personal canon regarding it as a splinter timeline.

[Sabrblade]

Anyway, I wasn't aware the guys at High Moon had a Binder of Revelation. Which interview did they mention that in?

Some of the FOC interviews with Matt Tieger has him talking about when High Moon first came to Hasbro about doing a Transformers game (WFC) and that when they did, Tieger said that Hasbro was in the process of putting together "the bible" for Transformers that everything new would be drawing reference from, and that it was from this that the games were put together. This video is one such example, in which he even refers to it as a "binder".

Moving on to points of contention: the ambiguity of Starscream's fate is a pretty big offender, especially if we need to go through the trouble of coming up with the explanation ourselves. Even if sufficient time had passed for the Decepticons to recover and re-arrest Starscream before they left, why would they bother? Megatron had already dismissed him as "not worth the time", and even if they had gone back to get him, both Megatron and Onslaught would've been inclined to execute him instead of imprison him, as Megatron was already shown attempting in game.

With Starscream, there's always the "You get one. More. Chance." write-in to keep his use in motion since, well, he's Starscream. It feels to me like the makers got so caught up in the "DUDEGRIMLOCKSPACETREXGAMEPLAYZOMG!" that comes after Screamer gets knocked out that they simply forgot about Starscream.

Not to mention that Starsceam was knocked out in Shockwave's lab. That's not exactly a place one could stay in unnoticed for very long. Shockwave could have easily spotted his unconscious body via a surveillance feed and had his body sent to Megatron via CybEx First Class delivery.

As to why he'd be kept alive, think about it. What greater humiliation for Screamer to suffer than to be forced back into Megatron's services, denying him the freedom that comes with death.

When Grimlock flees the exploding station, we fade to white as everything blows up, and then cut to something being transported through the space bridge itself. What significance does this serve, if it's just debris or one of the fleeing Decepticon generics? I agree it's ambiguous, but it seems like a back door to send Grimlock to Earth with the others.

Yet, all future plans for the character after the game have still stuck on Cybertron.

When I first saw that sequence in the game, my initial reaction was think that it might have been Shockwave who got sent through. Grimlock never came to mind in that scene. But since Shockwave going through didn't make sense, I took it as a surge of power launching from the damaged generator through the beam up to the portal, destabilizing it as a result. I mean, when a machine goes critical, all that excess output has to go somewhere.

As for the space bridge not arriving on Earth immediately as a result of space bridge instability, well... okay, it's not like fiction about space bridges is ever completely consistent, but why would both Optimus and Shockwave not be aware of Earth and its supply of natural energon in the Prime cartoon when Shockwave specifically targets Earth as his destination in FOC?

Now that is a continuity error that's the fault of different writers having different creative visions.

Although, the energon on Earth in Prime isn't natural (save for the Dark Energon). They're deposits that were hidden on the planet long ago when they started hiding their energon deposits on other worlds for both safekeeping and so the stuff would be readily available on those other worlds should it be needed.

And if the Bots and Cons ended up in some other sector of space, how did they have sufficient energy to go on whatever other adventures they had in mind when both factions were essentially running on empty by the end of FOC? There's a lot that needs to be filled in.

Well, the Ark didn't have to go that far when it reached its first destination.

As for the Nemesis, don't forget that it used to be an energon storage space station, so of the two ships, its the one more likely to be better prepared for long-distance travel. And *(from what we've seen thus far) it did arrive on the same places that the Ark did, so it too didn't have that far to go.

I accept that maybe there's a reasonable explanation for my doubts, but thus far, I don't feel the cartoon or the novels have provided one. It requires too much explanation from the fans to fill in, rather than the creators, hence my personal canon regarding it as a splinter timeline.

Simply put, it's because Hasbro's got a different definition of "continuity" than the fans do. But, this timeline shows how things fit in the grand scheme of things.

Though, there is also another way to view all this: "Yo dawg, none of this stuff is canon, man! Only the Binder of Revelation is the real deal and nuthin' else, dude!"

[Sabrblade]

Well, here it is. The episode many of us were anticipating has aired on Vortexx. Episode 12, "Predatory", had edits that were to be expected, and then some. 8 edits total.

1. During Arcee's first flashback, there's a shot of one of Airachnid's spider limb blades raising up and striking in a quick, downward motion, followed immediately by an impalement sound effect and a splatter of dark liquid on the screen. Then whiteness, ending the flashback. In the edited version, the moment of the blade striking downward and the liquid splatter were cut, showing only the blade rising and then cutting to the whiteness.

2. During Arcee's second flashback, the first shot is of Arcee captured and struggling in her bonds as the camera zooms out to reveal Airachnid standing nearby, in front of Arcee some short distance away. The bit of Arcee struggling as the camera zoomed out was cut, leaving in only the end of the zoom out revealing Airachnid's presence.

3. At the end of Arcee's second flashback, Arcee tilts her head back in vain as Airachnid points her finger at Arcee's cheek. The screen then turns black as we hear a loud metal scraping sound and Arcee giving out an agonizing "NOOOOO!" This blackened torture scene was shortened, cutting out what it could to remove Arcee's yell while leaving in some of the scraping sound.

And yet, in spite of this, Arcee's third flashblack repeats clearer, on screen looks of what was cut in edits 2 and 3 (Arcee struggling and getting her face scratched), and was left completely untouched.

4. During Arcee's fifth flashback (her fourth was when she recalled seeing Airachnid's "trophies" inside the ship), a similar edit to the first one is made. As Airachnid walks over to Tailgate, first she hisses with sadistic glee, then there's a shot of the unconscious Tailgate hanging helplessly, then an extreme close up of Arcee looking fearful, then a shot of Airachnid's blade raising, then another extreme close of of the frightened Arcee, then a shot of the blade striking downward and a subsequent splatter of liquid on the screen with the impalement sound effect, capped off with a final extreme close up of Arcee yelling "TAILGAAAATE...!" as the camera zooms out and closes the flashback. In the edited version, everything underlined was cut.

5. The bit of Airachnid saying, "but I recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper," was cut.

6. Airachnid's line to Arcee of "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to snuff out your spark, and believe me, I will make it hurt," was reworked to remove the "snuff out your spark" part. What they did was first cut off the scene right before she would have said, "and believe me..." and then inserted the audio of her saying "make it hurt" over the video of when she says "snuff out your spark". Thus, the new line became "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to make it hurt."

7. The new commercial break played right after Airachnid saw that Jack was running to her ship, causing her to say "huh" and then hiss with predatory delight. Immediately after the hiss came the commercial break.

8. Closer to the end of the episode, as Airachnid finally catches Jack and is about to do very nasty things to him, Arcee drives up into the air from the other side of a hill, transforms in mid-air, and then kicks Airachnid square in the side of her face, causing Airachnid to tumble over a short length away. When Arcee kicked her, the impact of the kick was shown in slow motion. This slow-mo kick impact was cut, making the scene now show Arcee about to kick her, and Airachnid tumbling away after the sound of the kick is played, leaving us to assume the kick was met with her off screen.

[Shadowman]

5. The bit of Airachnid saying, "but I recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper," was cut.

...why? There's edits I can understand, then there's ones that are just unnecessary.

6. Airachnid's line to Arcee of "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to snuff out your spark, and believe me, I will make it hurt," was reworked to remove the "snuff out your spark" part. What they did was first cut off the scene right before she would have said, "and believe me..." and then inserted the audio of her saying "make it hurt" over the video of when she says "snuff out your spark". Thus, the new line became "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to make it hurt."

I ask again, why?! That made it worse!

[Autobot032]

5. The bit of Airachnid saying, "but I recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper," was cut.

...why? There's edits I can understand, then there's ones that are just unnecessary.

6. Airachnid's line to Arcee of "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to snuff out your spark, and believe me, I will make it hurt," was reworked to remove the "snuff out your spark" part. What they did was first cut off the scene right before she would have said, "and believe me..." and then inserted the audio of her saying "make it hurt" over the video of when she says "snuff out your spark". Thus, the new line became "But don't get me wrong, I fully intend to make it hurt."

I ask again, why?! That made it worse!

The phrase passing speaks of death, which they try to avoid in kids shows, at least ones shown by Saban. And Airachnid telling Arcee she's going to make her hurt? That could mean anything, doesn't have to mean death.

Might seem pointless to us, but to the censors, this might be a big deal. Sucks, but what can you do?

[Sabrblade]

Plus, this is the second time they have removed a line about having someone's spark "snuffed out". My guess is that the censors are aware of the spark being like a Transformer's heart, so the line sound to them like a threat to rip out someone's heart.