So I got curious about Windblade's geisha appearance and Googled it, wondering if Asians or anyone had been offended by it, and the first thing that popped up was her Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windblade I thought it was funny she's listed as one of the G1 fembots but then in the same article as being 'from the Kre-O continuity' and then it also talks about her being fan-built. So was she retconned into G1 or something in the comics or is that article all screwed up?
You're right on both accounts. Windblade was just retconned into G1, but she's also in RiD. I don't know if there's a Kreo Windblade, though.
Okay, to clear things up to the best of my knowledge: The IDW comics ARE the (current) G1 comics. Windblade appearing in the G1 comics would essentially make her a G1 character. She wasn't retconned or anything. It's merely another one of the many versions of the character in the whole Transformers multiverse. The 'Kre-O continuity' Windblade is, like the G1 Windblade, just another version of her. She didn't originate from there and then jumped universes or anything like that. Her being 'fan-built' alludes to her origins, attributes, and general character being voted on by the fans. 'Fan-built' is the fancy way of saying 'Her character was decided upon by the fans and refined by Hasbro'. Hope this helps.
To be fair, there has been no official explanation to any of the continuities. At one time there was going to be an attempt made by Aaron Archer and his crew, but it fell apart after layoffs and Archer's resignation. So basically you have to look at the continuities as this: G1 Cartoon - BW Cartoon - BM Cartoon - TF Club Universe Marvel G1 - Marvel G2 Armada Cartoon - Energon Cartoon - Cybertron Cartoon Armada Comic - Energon Comic Dreamwave G1/War Within RID Cartoon WFC/FOC Games - TF Prime - TFRiD Movieverse IDW Transformers I label it as "IDW Transformers" because thanks to the ongoing Transformers and Windblade series, we now have G2, RID, Beast Wars, Cybertron, and TF Prime characters appearing, basically destroying any and all thoughts of Transformers and different continuities. Toy wise, we seem to be centered in on classic Generation One toy upgrades running alongside the new animated TFRID series.
I thought Hasbro threw this continuity out the window when they introduced convict Grimlock in the show with the apparently all-new Dinobots origins? Also some of the other characters I thought like Sideswipe are said to not match up to their WfC/FoC counterparts.
That, and the radical personality shifts in some characters is what has made me consider it a completely different continuity.
For the initial question that led you to the page; Windblade's not actually a geisha. Her face-paint resembles that worn in Kabuki Theatre, which ia significantly more warrior-like compare. Even if it was there, there'd be literally nobody offended, the design is not negative in any conceivable way. And the answer to the second main question is "Yes, Windblade is placed in the Generation One continuity". While it is still called "Generation One" it is now a group of stories with similar elements. The Sunbow Cartoon, IDW, Generations, Marvel Comics, Dreamwave, etc are all "Generation One". Windblade, even prior to joining IDW, was created as a new Fan-Built Character to join the "G1" continuity. But why? The thread isn't really about the comics, its about the character of Windblade and where she is placed in G1 canon. While Windblade debuted in IDW, her placement as a G1 character extends beyond that and she's already showing up in other continuities. You talk as if the original "Generation One" didn't have radical shifts in personality. Just take a look at Marvel Shockwave compared to Sunbow Shockwave for an example. Those two have a lot less in common with each other than 90% of the IDW G1 cast compared to their original G1 biographies. The Aligned Continuity was a mess from the get-go. The current official word (although this was not the official word when the whole mess began, initially the official word was literally that Prime was a sequel to WFC) is that they are the same "continuity family", just as the Sunbow Cartoon, Marvel Comics, Dreamwave and IDW are all "G1" while still being completely separate. You may point out that that contradicts the meaning of "Aligned" but the true answer to that is its because the entire concept of the "Aligned Continuity" was fucking stupid.
