by Senator Ratbat » Sun Aug 15, 2010 3:13 am
- Motto: ""Drink deeply, Ultracons - their sparks are your victory banquet!""
- Weapon: Fusion Cannon
This is actually not impossible to do, and in fact has been done before on a much smaller scale with Cybertron: Balancing Act. You basically have one option - mirror universes, linked by a hub (Cybertron itself, in the case of Balancing Act). This is what DC has done to keep their dozens of continuities in check, and is commonly referred to as a multiverse. There might be other ways to tie this all together, but it would be very hard for any of your readers to swallow. It would obviously have to involve some extreme deus ex machina element from the mythos, like dark energon, Unicron, or Starscream's ghost. If you're trying to get every character with a shared name to function as one personality, though, you're either going to have to start dealing with aspects (like Animated Starscream's fractured clones) or introduce some wild plot element that would make them all combine into one body, with elements from each personality (or an Animated Blitzwing-esque split personality disorder, with random personalities from each namesake popping up to the surface from time to time).
Obviously, though, the easiest thing to do would be to just select your absolute favorite incarnations of each individual character name, and throw them all together in a timeline of your own creation. For instance, you need a Thrust - does your story call for a manipulative strategist (Armada), a ground-based speed demon (Beast Machines), or an elite airborne soldier (G1)? You need an Inferno - do you want a heroic rescue specialist (G1), a noble, self-sacrificing sniper (Energon), or an evil lunatic (Beast Wars)? You need a Scourge - do you want a quiet, self-serving lieutenant (G1), a Decepticon elite commander (RiD), or a violent, stubborn tyrant with a hidden soft spot (Cybertron)? You need a Mirage - does that call for a homesick pacifist with a crucial-in-battle special ability (G1), a gruff, introverted sniper with impeccable aim (RiD), or a loyal, fawning underling with immense firepower (Energon)? So on and so forth.
But even in this, you'll come to characters such as Optimus, Megatron, Starscream & Soundwave, whose characters and personalities don't really seem to change noticeably throughout the mythology (with the rare exception of Armada Starscream, of course). You've said you've already got Optimus and Megatron covered, though, so let me go to Soundwave - you can shift Soundblaster around to function as a separate entity, sure, but which Soundwave are you going to choose: obedient G1 lox, or the cunning, wise-cracking lone wolf from Cybertron? Each of these characters has a different master (Megatron and Unicron, respectively), which in itself makes them polar opposites of each other. I didn't even include the Animated incarnation here, but that's another one to consider (although he's closer to the Cybertron lone wolf archetype than his G1 counterpart). And then there's the problem with his pets - Ratbat is his own (insanely powerful, in some cases) character in various timelines, ranging from a mute spy flier, to a corrupt Autobot senator, to a violent & cunning mercenary leader, and even up to chief commander of the Decepticon army in one case. Most of that encompasses comics timelines, but I'm assuming you're not crossing into that territory here. It's still something to think through, though.
And I know how these things go - eventually, you'll want it to be as absolutely full, clean and complete as it can possibly get. This will likely lead you to want to include the aforementioned comics timelines, the untranslated Japanese Beast Wars series, and the various toyline continuities. After all, even if you manage to somehow squeeze all of the cartoon characters into one series, you're still missing out on a vast array of character incarnations from all of these extended universes.
So, to make sure you don't go insane if you're still hellbent on doing this, choose one:
Option 1) Plan out a mirror-universe scenario, and have characters interact that way.
Option 2) Try to work in split-personalities, clones, or aspects of all namesake characters.
Option 3) Create your own custom universe with all of your favorite TF incarnations in it.
Hoped that helped somewhat.
)
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