Cyberstrike wrote:Bradimus wrote:I read Exodus. I have not played WFC. From what I gather here, neither meshes with Prime, which I have seen.
It looks to me like Habro is trying to do what DC did in the original Crisis On Infinite Earths series: jam everything together into one new, single mess of a continuity that in the end makes no sense at all.
I don't understand the need to mesh everything together. I understand they are trying to figure out the best way to market their toy line, but what's wrong with keeping things separate?
Why not have just a movie-verse with its own toys and media?
Why not have a G1-verse made of homage updates that relate enough to the original cartoons and comics which they are in the process of releasing again?
Why not have an IDW-verse with it's own toys?
Why not have a new cartoon every half decade or so that tells it's own story with it's own toy line, even if that line is unique? That new cartoon-verse is what's going to grab the next generation of fans.
The part they are messing up is unfortunately the cartoon line. Animated was far too short. The toy line was incomplete. The story had room to grow for another few seasons, and even a sequel series along with a movie or two or three to break up the story arcs. Like Dragon Ball and the way Japan continued G1, a story can grow over time, old characters can evolve and leave, new characters can step in and take over the story, and the lifespan of one continuity can last close to a decade before the big finale of finales. Then they can take a few years off, just show reruns, complete the toy line, and develop the next universe to retell the story in a new way to a new generation.
So now they are rebooting with Prime, and that's fine with me. However, I find it too soon to do this. Animated should still be the cartoon right now. But it was scrapped, so here's Prime. But why does Prime have to be in sync with Exodus and WFC? And if they felt the need for Prime now, why not keep rolling Animated and make Prime for teens and adults, since that seems to be what it is right now anyway?
As mentioned earlier, Exodus loosely tells the story of the war. But this is very loose, an overview, really, and not a very good one (the war, the build up was decent). I would rather have had Exodus as a series of novels that go into great detail about the war, and in the process explore and unravel the mysteries of Cybertron in its own separate universe, with the war finding its way off Cybertron to other worlds, including Earth. As is, Exodus is merely a loose framework from which all current story lines can work off of, whether they do so perfectly or not. That's the impression the book gave me, and from what I'm seeing, that's what Hasbro intended.
The fact is, the movie is its own world. IDW is its own world. G1 is its own world. What's wrong with that? The toys will sell with or without media. Media does help, but it does not have to be a TV show or a movie, a simple series of internet comics or a novelization would be fine. Even mini comics included with the toys that tell their own small stories and connect to form a larger one would be enough. Kids need to read more anyway, so how about a toy line to accompany a series of novels? Kids read Harry Potter, so if done right won't they read Transformers too?
If Hasbro wants to believe everything is the same, good for them. We all know it's not, and they are actually hurting their marketing by trying to convince us otherwise, as gamers, readers (comics and/or novels), and TV watchers are not all necessarily interested in the same things. Hasbro should embrace that, expand their product accordingly, and watch as their profit margins go through the roof.
At the time DC did
Crisis on Infinte Earths the DCU was simply next to impossible for new readers to figure out the DCU. Simply put DC needed to clean house and streamline things into a one universe. And IMHO DC made a LOT more sense from
Crisis on Infinte Earths #12 to
Infinte Crisis #1 IMHO one of the reasons that now of days DC sucks because of the revival of the multiverse.
I'm sorry but your idea of multiple lines and universes usually tends to get very confusing to casual, new, non-fans and even die hard fans and this idea can be a big turn off for them. Hasbro is trying to get into new media and are trying to attract new customers' attentions. A single unified universe is one way to that.
The problem is that Hasbro has yet to get people with tons of knowledge and some that don't and sit in a room and hammer out a single universe and that this also takes a LOT of time. In some cases years. I remember some one who worked on Bioware's
Dragon Age: Origins video game it them over 6 years to develop the
Dragon Age Universe and guess what? There still mistakes between the novels, games, and comics!
Excellent counterpoint to my comment/rant!
I agree that the stories DC told once they cleaned up the first
Crisis until they reintroduced the Multiverse in
Infinite Crisis were some of the best plot driven tales every told in the genre, but Marvel proved my point with the
Ultimate line: It
is possible to completely reintroduce the characters to a new generation without messing with the current historic line.
I think the problem with both DC and Marvel is DC could not grasp this idea for themselves because Marvel did it first, and Marvel refused to allow its older comic line to run its course and possibly die of natural causes with the
Ultimate line taking its place as the main story.
When DC pulled off
Crisis #1, that story acted as an end for some characters and continuities. But we still needed a story "Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow" to satisfy the longtime Earth One Superman fans of his fate. In different cases, some characters barely changed at all (Batman and his supporting cast), some backgrounds were updated (Superman: Man of Steel), some backgrounds had to be redefined by force (Power Girl and here many new sources of power that became an in-joke
), and some backgrounds were redefined by unnecessary choice (Wonder Woman, a great character made boring by completely altering her purpose and background
). Some worked, some didn't. Great stories were told, great crossovers were told, but this could have been accomplished in a separate reboot series which would not have required a "Crisis" and would have allowed the old line to end or be left to explore again at a later date when interest asked for it. The whole reason for the new
Crisis was that the current writers and editors wanted to bring back the Multiverse that they wished had never been destroyed. In other words, the fans took over and too many stories became FanWank (see almost everything written by Jeff Johns
).
However, fans readily accept that
Batman:TAS -
Justice League -
JLU -
Batman Beyond is a different telling than
The Batman, and both differ from
Brave and the Bold, not to mention the numerous direct to DVD releases of animated versions of popular comic arcs, primarily from the between Crises eras (go figure
).
TF fans accept that one cartoon may have nothing to do with another cartoon, one comic to another, and either to the Movies.
So while a single continuity is nice, especially for stories and toy lines being made at the same time, I believe the focus needs to be on the key generation at hand, and that's why I question forcing stories together. However, that's also why I understand the reason Hasbro wants these three particular products to be part of one continuity [family]. Like most everyone else, I would like a LOT more cohesiveness between the teams responsible for telling these stories. And if that's not possible I can accept the loose continuity, but I have no issue with books taking a slightly different direction than the games, and TV show branching off in it's own direction, as
Prime seems likely to do.
The fact is, I'd love a modern day telling of Transformers in a YA novel series that can also be enjoyed by adults like myself similar to
Harry Potter, which is why I mentioned the seven book/movie (technically
franchise as an example. This is a genre that I enjoy sometimes more than animation or live action, it's the reason I read
Exodus, and it's the reason I was not happy with half of said book. I'm don't know what I'd do with myself if there was no
Star Wars Expanded Universe to follow post
Return of the Jedi (though I'm currently holding out on the story line as I wait for paperback releases, I'm very patient).
But that's just me. This is a fun debate! And thanks for taking on my comments!
.Hate the face ,and that voice thing,in WFC he had a great head design,man Hasbro,what do we look like 
I know about the multiversal singularities and the timestream coding, which makes sense. I was referencing the whole WfC and Prime stuff. 
