william-james88 wrote:And yet, the show must have been a hit for them going all out on those MP figures.
The first season was, at least.
Beast Wars Metals tanked in Japan, despite being given the same treatment as the first season. Whereas in the West, Seasons 2-3 are hailed as some of the best (if not the best) animated Transformers fiction of all time.
Skritz wrote:It might be convoluted but at least its an actual backstory and one tied to all three major fragments of Generation 1 Cartoon Continuity: US Toon, JP Anime and Beast Wars. Not only that but Dark Nova's only identity was 'generic discount Unicron' who just sort of existed and was oh-so-mysterous because no one bothered to give him an origin. Now we know how to explain this because there is a precedent in BW for the Vok using the imagery of the chaos-bringer. Fanwanky explanation? Oh hell yes. But I find its a rather well thought-out and it connect two parts of the franchise you'd normally not expect to end up connect.
Oh, I absolutely understand what Sakamoto was doing, here. My only issue with connecting Dark Nova to the Vok is that it doesn't feel like the kind origin that Dark Nova would have been given had he been given one back when he was created, as it relies entirely on a concept that wouldn't have existed for a good number of years later. As such, it kinda makes the idea of "Dark Nova's TRUE origin that he had all along" feel a bit disingenuous.
For a different example of Sakamoto giving a new origin to an old villain whose backstory was always vague, when he created Devil Z's origin, he mostly stuck to information that did exist at the time that Masterforce was being made, and ended up tying Devil Z into the both the Matrix of Leadership and the Quintessons in a way that felt both very plausible and fit seamlessly into the established G1 cartoon lore. The only things he added into this backstory from later series were things that didn't directly affect Devil Z's origin (Beast Machines's originally organic Cybertron) and things that came from a series that was from only two years after Masterforce and which was still building upon the same growing lore that Masterforce was a part of (the Zodiac from Zone).
By contrast, tying Dark Nova to the Vok, while a doable retcon that fits in a functional sense, felt more jarring like an idea that came from left field rather than from something rooted in the preset lore that the Return of Convoy fiction was building upon.
I'm not against the notion. I'm just pointing out how awkward it is in concept.
Skritz wrote:I gotta say I'm increasingly liking how the Legends Manga seem intent to connect all the dots but doesn't try to do with as much of a straight face as Aligned did as it engage in the absurd and the fawanky seemingly not from the stupid fan writer need to make sure everything fit so much as the sheer fun of taking together bits and pieces of lore and TF history that nobody would care about otherwise.
It also helps that the pornographic "humor" pretty much died off after it had, er, ahem, peaked with Octane's pack-in comic.
However, I cannot agree with the notion that this manga isn't "trying to make everything fit", as it absolutely is doing exactly that, by placing numerous particular events into specific years set in and around other Japanese G1 fictions. The two Big Powered prologues alone show us flashbacks set during Return of Convoy, Train Wars, Beast Wars, the G1 cartoon, the G2 fiction, and more.