Ok, this is an annoying subject that was brought up on Facebook, I was told that an idea of having Unicron in FOC was scrapped for the 'aligned' idea. I quote from an FB member of what is the same about WFC/FOC and TFP,

(I have not read comics)

- Dark Energon, In 'Darkness rising part 1 (or 2) Megatron infused himself with Dark Energon after gallivanting through Space to find some. They all acted as if it were a 'myth' when in WFC Megatron infused himself already? Starscream, in TFP, acted like "WTF is it, you don't know what it will do", but Starscream was in charge of the orbital station in WFC, where funnily enough, Dark Energon existed and he KNEW what it was.

They kept calling it the 'blood of Unicron' when in WFC/FOC they never once said that?

- Cliffjumper? He came to Earth via Shockwave's space bridge with Arcee? But in FOC everyone is aboard the Ark, apart from Arcee, probably. So that shits on everything in this point.

- Dinobots, they weren't seen, heard or mentioned in TFP, is FOC apart of TFP?

- Ultra Magnus, this guy, from the TFwiki, is the only guy with any relevance toward them being linked but it's not enough to persuade me.

- Megatron's new body is totally different? He was still a tank in FOC but a Jet in TFP?

-Optimus' new gun has no relevance. Path blaster.

-Insecticons, they refer to them as guards that Megatron left behind but Shockwave created all of them and they were all in Shockwave's entire crib in FOC, there were only three that Transformed.

Where was the Ark in TFP? Where were all the other Autobots?

This is why I enjoy the show more on its own.

 

Oh look, it's this thread again.

Everyone's free to have whatever personal canon they like - Hasbro doesn't have a thought police - but at the end of the day, Hasbro's position, and thus the actual canonical answer to all this, is that Prime, Rescue Bots, the High Moon games, the Exodus/Exiles/Retribution novel trilogy, IDW's FOC and Prime comics, and the Covenant of Primus hardcover are all part of the 'Aligned universe'.

They're probably not all the exact same timeline (for instance, notice how Optimus and Megatron didn't have game-style bodies in the cartoon's flashbacks to their early friendship), but the basic stories are linked. Hasbro's said they have a "squint test" - if the broad details match up when you squint, it's fine.

 

I always considered the games and Prime micro continuities seeing as both were considered the aligned continuity

 

Sorry. I haven't seen a thread like this.

May it burn in hell, yes?

 

They are not related, and never will be.

 

Except for all the fiction that relates them? I mean, the Prime cartoon had a flashback to the WFC/Exodus scene where Optimus travels to the Core, what more do people want?

 

To not poop on the Dark Energon concept, they pretty much 're-booted' to idea and concept of where it came from in TFP.

 

This.

If you, like me, think there is no possible way all of those can be directly linked, you are free to not look at them as such. However, officially, as in what Hasbro's marketing department says, with little thought to the actual content of the stories, is that they are in the same universe.

 

It makes sense if you don't think about it.

 

Aligned continuity in a nutshell...


...


...actually, a shitload of TF continuities in a nutshell.


 

 

And Beast Wars remains the pinnacle of televised Transformers writing.

The tragedy in all this is with today's communication technology, high speed internet, the ability to face time each other, convey ideas at the speed of electricity...

... the the Aligned Continuity is the best they could come up with.

 

Stop trying.

Problem solved.

 

I like to think its inspired by WFC/FOC, it makes more sense.

 

Aw shit, I've seen this one.

The Aligned continuity is a continuity family. There's three distinct timelines going - the games, the books, and the Prime show. They all have pretty similar elements as far as the backstory goes and basically follow the same story.

* Thirteen defeat Unicron, then disappear or die off
* Golden Age of Transformers on Cybertron ends when Megatron wants to be a Prime. Optimus becomes the new Prime
* The war renders Cybertron uninhabitable and most of the population leaves.
* Many adventures in space happen.
* Optimus and Megatron arrive on Earth and duke it out.
* Unicron briefly surfaces, revealed to have formed Earth's core but is defeated.
* Omega Lock is discovered and after being destroyed once, is used to restore Cybertron.
* Unicron returns but gets sealed away by Optimus, who sacrifices himself to restore Cybertron's ability to create new life.

That's the Aligned history in a nutshell, and all three branches of fiction line up, though they're not perfectly compatible.

 

I wonder what Prime would have been if it was an actual show about continuing WfC/FoC.

 

It would have a more ambitious and aggressive Megatron, the Combaticons (<-- 'nuff said), a much more interesting Soundwave (and active minion bots).

In otherwords: A much better story  

 

Probably this

I think the show is probably more accurate to the intended story than the games. The models are completely different because they are different styles from different groups (only way I can explain that).

The plot holes I would also say is either changes by high moon to help the game story flow or not enough budget for the show to produce large amounts of content such as the ark and the autobots that came with it so it's easier to not mention it in the show(although I think arcee said at one point they were scattered so there's is autobots but they are just not around right now)

Also I don't recall ever seeing cliffjumper actually on the ark. I could be wrong about that but I don't remember if he actually was.

Your bound to have many differences between a show and a game anyway. And there will hopefully be something (hopefully a game) to bridge the gap.

 

It's down to preference. FOC/WFC, the Novels and Prime can all be enjoyed seperately or you can accept that they're part of the same continuity.

I actually like that they're part of a larger continuity and with a bit of imagination you can get the storylines to smash together.

I don't include the aesthetic in this though. Two seperate media products created from the same mythos aimed at different audiences, hence the art design is completely different.

Names and stuff can be ignored (such as Sentinel Zeta Prime) and properties of things like Dark Energon can be attributed to the change in time period and Unicrons awakening. As for the lack of the Ark, well a lot of stuff goes down between WFC/FOC and Prime (some of it covered in the novels).

In the end though its down to what you want. Fanwank away and try and fit it together like I do - Sure. Call it all bollocks and declare it all micro continuities - thats okay too.

 

Fuck it, they're games TFP is a show.