Think of it as a multiverse.

I'm a big comic fan, and the way I've accepted the comic's, the movies, the different toons, is the same way as I do in Marvel/DC comics.

Example: Marvel 616 is the normal marvel continuity, Marvel Zombies is Earth 2149, Ultimate continuity is Earth 1610, Marvel Alliance the video game even has one which is Earth 6109

My point is, Each version of the comics has vastly different stuff happening, the movies, the shows (Japanese AND American) ALL could have their own distinctions.

In this way G1 would be Earth/Cybertron 616 for example, not using the same numbers of Marvel comics, but something similar.

It is a very odd way of thinking, but it is making me a bit more open to the vastness of the Transformers, and not being so quick to despise something because it isn't a perfect adaptation of G1

 

Universal stream - Transformers Wiki

 

HA, I'll be damned, I didn't know they cataloged it like this, is that officially a multiverse, or is that fanmade?

 

It's official. Many of them come from major secondary sources such as the AllSpark Almanacs, but if the Almanacs aren't official then I don't know what is.

 

Sweet, I'll look more into this, I'm pleasantly surprised by this. I always dig the idea of respecting continuities in their own rights, that way you don't worry about that fanboy crap of getting to pissy about accuracy etc

 

I prefer the "Different Universe" type thing. It has worked for me. I hate that Hasbro is trying to merge it all to one. I mean Takara already does that and it seems so stupid and far fetched. It is just so obvious that these continuities are not originally supposed to match up. (Except those that do on purpose.)

Like I do not like so much that Hasbro has decided that from Like War For Cybertron on everything is the same continuality? So really? Ratchet goes from the game to Prime and he is like that? They all changed so much? Arcee was a pink car now she's a blue bike? And it's not even just the forms that changed but entire personalities? Come on...

I don't know why hasbro just can't leave it so that each "Universe" is it's own. I (and I'm sure a lot of others) are perfectly fine with that. I mean who really is so upset about it not being all one big universe that they are trying to piece them all together? Are there a lot of people out there that are bothered by this?

Meh... I just know to me they are separate. TFP to me is TFP. And isn't in the same "Universe" as anything else but itself. That is how I feel...

 

the universal stream thing solves so many problems, but fans still seem inclined to ignore it and argue over pedantic crap like the Cyclonus thing.

 

Personally I just go 'that is that and this is this'. I'm not that fond of things crossing over or being linked up between series 'just because'. Everything is separate to me and if something from one version happens to crop up in another version then it's just another one for that version and not the same thing as in the other versions. One may influence the other, like how the 1986 movie Matrix of Leadership became the form of the Creation Matrix from the Marvel comics, but that's about as much as I want. Beast Wars being tied back (forwards?) into G1 worked well enough for me too.

Unicron being multiversal all Unicrons in all series are the same Unicron just seems like pointless extra pap to me.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what this is all about, but then that's because I've been in this since 1984 and never felt the need to start threading things across various universes in some attempt to make everything live happily together. I couldn't even read that far into the Universal Stream thing someone linked to above because it just seemed like extra work I just didn't need to do to be content with all versions of TF.

 

I think the first real indication of this concept I remember was in a Dreamwave comic. I can't think of which one, but it showed a bunch of monitors with the different universes in it, including one that was RID.

 

the thing is, that actually -is- how the universal streams work. all the different versions of G1 that conflict with each other, you don't have to worry about trying to figure out if they could coexist, because they officially don't. every inconsistency happens in a different stream, therefore it's no longer inconsistent, it's just separate

 

Ah well, I guess I didn't understand it then. But it still seems like needless extra work giving everything it's own pretty little number and name classification when just saying 'This is separate' would do.

I don't sit in a corner rocking back and forth repeating over and over 'But Wheeljack built the Dinobots...' after reading the Marvel comics origin for them and desperately hoping someone will create a fancy classification system to help me cope with the conflicts between versions.
That people seem to really need that and why I just can't fathom the reasoning of.

I liked seeing that as a nod to other versions/series of Transformers but that was about as far as it went for me. I didn't start thinking 'This should be applied to everything to help explain why there are different series of TF but they're all real and exist in other dimensions at the same time'.

 

Yeah this is how it works until the whole WFC and Prime stuff... now Hasbro seems like they are trying to make everything from that point on one continuity... why? ugh...

 

I just call everything the G1 Multiverse. There hasn't been a year totally without Transformers since it all started in 1984. Also, Transformers have always been sold in at least some part of the world since 1984.

 

It's for fun.  

Also, it gives an artist something to write on a screen in a comic panel when somebody is watching their alt-universe doppelganger in lieu of Ceiling Cat.

A useful thing.

localhost trivia: The TFW Funnies had an unofficial numbering system before the official one came out. TCracker invented it, and it spread to some of the other comics.  

 

The 'Aligned continuity' is the stupidest thing Hasbro has come up with in recent years.

 

Yup. Multiverses.

That being said, I ignore everything but the story I'm currently reading/watching. Characters are going to be different even they might look similar or even be represented by the same toy.

It's pretty easy once you put up them blinders.

 

The aligned continuity, to me, is simply another multiverse. There's enough of them so why not?

Also, I do what Foster said. Shut out expectations based on other versions and enjoy what is in front of me. Works better that way, and more enjoyable too.

 

^This.

My goodness can't we enjoy everything.....except Energon.

 

You're a bit late on that. I figured this out back when RID first aired and I was left trying to figure out why Ultra Magnus was suddenly being a Jerk to Optimus Prime when they use to be friends.

Anyway, there are some continuities and characters which people do claim to be the same universe or the same character even though there's no evidence to support it within the fiction. There's plenty of real life evidence to support it because Hasbro has made claims to it but they don't ever seem to put their claims into their work.

I tend to think of every continuity error as it's own universe. For example G1 has 3 different origins for the Constructicons so there are 3 different universes of G1. Everything else is the same in each of the 3 universes.

It gets worse when you get to the Unicron Trilogy. Energon and Cybertron are their own universes because they don't actually fit into each other or to Armada. And Armada, practically every episode is a new universe. That series can't keep it's continuity straight at all. Armada could technically spawn new continuities from within a single episode sense characters names are constantly wrong and towards the end of the series Optimus Prime just changes to his power link colors in the middle of an episode for no reason. Gawd damn that series sucks. Micheal Bay has less plot holes and he thinks plot means explosives.

 

Ever since multiple universes started occurring, I've never had a problem with the multiverse concept. As others have already said, it even makes TRANSFORMERS more enjoyable.