So I want to ask the BIGGEST question on why Aligned is such a mess..

 

Because it was intended as Transformes big move into being a more serious franchise. The problem was, they did that in two contradictory ways. They made everything part of one universe, and let creators of each show/game/book have control, which meant there wasn't anything holding them to each others continuity.

 

Because Prime really didn't want to be part of a shared universe. It's really that simple. It heavily contradicted the starting point of Aligned, War for Cybertron, and when the sequel to that tried to retcon itself to sorta maybe jive with Prime, Prime totally disregarded that, too.

With the only two pieces of fiction tied to Aligned refused to play nice with each other, you know you have a problem.

 

According to Tfwiki.net...

At a 2015 convention in Charlotte, Rik Alvarez claimed that the Aligned plan had been compromised from the start: while High Moon Studios were on board, the Prime creators didn't want to be tied to previous material (and have themselves said they wanted to get away from the "Binder of Revelation" and do their own thing[19] and the studio, not fully controlled by Hasbro, was unfamiliar with most of the lore); IDW Publishing couldn't shift to a mostly-Aligned schedule for logistical reasons. The original idea for the MMOG fell apart due to constant team changes; Universe made it into beta testing three years late and never got off the ground; the Universe team later declared that their game was not part of the Aligned continuity at all. He made a further claim that Prime was going overbudget and that Rescue Bots was plonked into Aligned continuity by the studio against the "Binder of Revelation".[20]
Prime's staff had plotted out three years of material and done them all before the end of S2 ("Which is pretty typical") so they had to reconfigure. The Beast Hunters revamp was given to them late in the day [21] and they weren't too happy about it. A perfect storm of this bad blood, major changes to what the third series was originally planned to do,[22] Aaron Archer moving up and being replaced by a new guy with new ideas, miscommunication and bad blood between toy designers & Prime team, and ballooning Prime budget led to an early demise for the show. Alvarez claims it also killed the "Binder" and future show plans.[20] Andrew Hall weighed in to confirm this lined up with what he'd heard from other people and that much of this is part of the big ball o' fun that comes from working for large corporations.[23]

 

For various reasons as mentioned above. I guess you could say things got misaligned.

 

Really, Hasbro should've exerted more control. It's really shocking when the team meant to make a show that only exists to be in-continuity with a previous fiction, were allowed to do the exact opposite just because they didn't feel like doing what they were brought on to do.

For details of the con breakdown, see this thread.

 

Because there's no one like a Kevin Feige in charge of keeping things on the same path.

 

It's a shame they couldn't get it together.

 

Q: Why is Aligned such a mess?
A: Writers didn't want to adhere to it, and Hasbro didn't make them.

 

Because authors of cartoon focused on finding artefacts which served as plot devices, rather than telling us why the war on Cybertron happened and why Transfromers came to Earth.

 

Because arcee needs to clean up

 

Aligned isn't a mess, it WAS a mess.

It's gone now, so you can stop worrying about what a FUBAR abortion it was.

 

On the other hand if you have an overly burdensome editorial system that is by itself inflexible you get messes like DC Comics.

 

Beacuse of the TFP.

Though brilliant writing like Covenant of Primus did not help either.


Lesson for execs with other ideas like that in the future - if it's your IP, order people you hire to write things they have to write, if not start firing.


Why nobody simply walked in there and told TFP creators to shut the **** up and fall in line, no discussion, is beyond me. But then, maybe Hasbro also did not care enough.

 

Only if things are not thought through all the way beforehand, and you have to make a bunch of major fixes and alterations midstream.

A strong editorial hand is not a bad thing. See Marvel Comics in the 1980s. Shooter had a much tighter grip on everything going on than you've seen at DC at any point since the early Silver Age, and yet that era is known for producing many of the most memorable and loved runs Marvel has ever enjoyed. See again the original Valiant Comics. Same deal.

It's only when there's a poor plan in place -- or no plan -- that a strong editorial hand over a shared universe is a bad thing. Or in the case of Transformers Aligned, a weak editorial hand over no plan. The worst of all worlds.

 

Wasn't that supposed to be Aaron Archer's job, as VP of Intellectual Property Development?

 

Aligned was never supposed to be a perfect, match-matchy shared universe in the first place. Hasbro flat-out said as it was all starting that fiction just needed to pass a 'squint test' - did everything match up if you squint? And it all does, really,

 

Yep.

 

Not really. If it did, we wouldn't be having this conversation and Hasbro wouldn't have given up on it.

 

The three toons match up just fine- TFP, Rescue Bots, and RID2015. Anything outside of that is just surplus to requirements.