Lol, dude. The arrival comics are written by isenberg to be in continuity with the show. They're complete canon. You just... Wow.

 

Oh, wait, so a cartoon based off of a 25 year-old franchise featuring transforming alien robots is actually hard truth in the real world?!

Since you love to keep pointing out that there's nothing to suggest the idea of the triple changer process makes robots go insane, I'm going to counter this by pointing out that there's nothing to suggest the comics CAN'T be in-cannon with the cartoon. In fact, the comic goes hand in hand with the cartoon, most notably the final issue where Jetstorm and Jetfire are introduced. The exact orgins for the twins is not given in the cartoon, but they are in the comic, and it makes sense for it compliment the cartoon.

Not in cartoon form. You may refuse to accept it, but the AllSpark Almanac II explicitly gives details on potential future episodes. Since it was developed by the same guys who worked on the same show, and therefore is 100% cannon, the only problem here is that you refuse to acknowledge that.

Of course, since you do not consider anything outside the cartoon to be cannon, that means Marauder Megatron never existed to you, and THAT means Blitzwing is the only triple changer in the entire show. Which means it could be taken that the process is dangerous enough that after Blitzwing was used as a lab rat for experimentation, NOBODY wanted to try finding ways to atain three modes or else they'd end up like Blitzwing.


EDIT: Didn't see this earlier:

This is true, frogot Isenburg wrote them.

 

Heh. Thanks. Don't mind the lurker poking his head out.

At any rate, my only point is this: by the time of the writing of The Arrival, Marty Isenberg had already considered Blitzwing to be a triple changer prior to his arrival on Earth. To me, combined with all the other evidence, the easiest explanation is that this is the story the TFA creative team intended for the character all along. (In fact, I believe that various interviews that Marty Isenberg and Derrick Wyatt have done touching on the character genesis of Blitzwing speak to this as well, but I only half-remember what was said in them so take that with a grain of salt if you will.) Does all of this constitute proof? Perhaps not to some, but Occam's Razor suggests to me to accept it as truth.

That said, I have no problems myself with how any person interprets the fiction. I'm sympathetic to this because as a child watching G1, my mind rejected the apparent contradiction that tentacled egg-bots were the creators of the Cybertronians, when clearly it was the floating gold disco ball! (Or, uh, that bearded old bot dude.) So I ignored their existence. And hell, to me, Nebulons are little robots, not people in mass-changing suits.

Anyway, those are my two (and only) cents on the topic.

On topic with Marauder Megatron: He's really cool and I wonder if when he consumes energon it gets all over his mask and makes him look like a drooling rabid dog?  

 

I don't see any point in continuing to argue with this Mathius guy.

He's been presented with multiple instances of proof that his interpretation goes against not only the intent of the creators of the show, but established canon.

Blitzwing's insanity originated from the process he underwent to become a Triple-Changer, and said process was invented by Blackarachnia. (Allspark Almanac vol. 1)

Blitzwing WAS a Triple-Changer before coming to Earth and scanning two alt. modes. (The Arrival #1)

Blitzwing arrives on Earth, and has an argument with himself as to which vehicle to scan. He compromises by scanning both. ("Lost and Found")

In an episode establishing Blackarachnia's actions in-between becoming a techno-organic and episode 1, she was going to subject Megatron to the same process she used on Blitzwing, upgrading him into a Triple-Changer as well. (Allspark Almanac vol. 2)


Given that he's only taking the show itself as canon, then yeah. I can see where someone might infer that Blitzwing became a Triple-Changer simply by choosing to scan two vehicles.

The problem with that (and his entire argument for that matter) is that he's discarding the non-show canon because he feels it "complicates" things.

Well, that's all well and good but throwing out authorial intent doesn't make things clearer, it does the opposite. You reject that Blitzwing was a triple-changer pre-"Lost and Found", but that he was indeed insane. (Saying one has nothing to do with the other.)

Now you're faced with the question of: "If becoming a triple-changer is simply a matter of scanning two vehicles, then why don't more characters have multiple alt. modes?"

Canon Answer: Because there is a process, invented by Blackarachnia, that a bot must undergo to be able to scan multiple forms, and it drives Cybertronians insane.

You're throwing that out, and thus introducing a plot hole.

Here, you CLEARLY admit that there must be some reason that ONLY Blitzwing is ever shown scanning and adopting two distinct alt. modes.

Well, you've been handed that reason three times over and you keep throwing it out simply because it wasn't explicitly stated in the show itself before the series was discontinued.

To me, that's not "simplifying things", that's just being stubborn.

 

I don't even know what the hell you're getting at there, so I have no response.

You can believe whatever the hell you want to. I choose to believe that not every transformers series that comes out has anything to do with another. There's no reason to, especially since they contradict each other. RID features optimus as a fire engine showing up roughly the same time as the events as G1. Am I supposed to take those together?

You want me to believe the comic and the cartoon for animated should be taken together, but yet they both have their own starting and ending points, different events, and were most likely not the same author. Why should I believe one is true to the other?

Like I said, you can believe whatever the hell you want to believe. I haven't read the almanac and as far as I'm concerned, those events are more o fa "What if" than anything else because there was no season 4.

No, because like I said. It's a story. Someone else may have found a way later, someone could have done it and we didn't know about it. You guys are willing to accept whatever is thrown at you as the word of Primus but you fail to recognize that these are stories, with human authors that make mistakes, leave stuff out, and don't even think of things until some crazy fanboy asks them about it.

Mathius

 

You seem to not understand the meaning of the word intent. Intent means they MEANT to do something. It never happened. Season 4 did not happen get over it.

No, I disgarded it because it's not part of the transformers animated cartoon. That doesn't mean it isn't canon, it means it was added later, and as such as far as I'm concerned is almost a different continuity later. I'm not going to buy every damn transformer book that comes out. I watched the complete transformers animated series from season 1 to season 3. I have them all saved on my HD. That is the complete series, period until someone makes another cartoon. Introducing something in comic form or book form by another author is not part of the same series, period.

There is NO plot hole. Why do you guys pigeon whole everything into what you're told? Do you just fail to have any kind of imagination or what? I could invent 20 different ways on the spot how a triple changer could be created in a story. There doesn't need to be some insane laboratory process. That was how this Marty fellow wanted to implement it and that's fine, whatever. But that doesn't mean it's the only way possible.


Here, you CLEARLY admit that there must be some reason that ONLY Blitzwing is ever shown scanning and adopting two distinct alt. modes.

Well, you've been handed that reason three times over and you keep throwing it out simply because it wasn't explicitly stated in the show itself before the series was discontinued.

To me, that's not "simplifying things", that's just being stubborn.[/QUOTE]

And to me that says you accept what you're told and you're not capable of anything else, so I don't expect you to agree with me. Have a nice day sir.

Mathius

 

If you havent read the Almanac then how do you even know about Marauder Megatron ???
Face it, the comics and the 2 Almanacs are Canon.you may choose not to include them as canon but the fact is they are canon.

 

What do I need to know? First off, when I joined this thread, I commented on Blitzwing from the cartoon, not Megatron. Second.. He's a megatron?

I wish you people would quit putting words in my mouth. I never said it wasn't canon, I said it wasn't in this continuum.

Mathius

 

Same author. Isenberg wrote the series, Isenberg wrote the TFA comics where Blitzwing was stated to be a triple changer before he came to earth. They're canon. They were meant from the start to go hand in hand with the TV show.

 

You're on my ignore list. You've been wrong in every post you've made. I did not say they weren't canon. I very clearly said they were canon.

Mathius

 

Because they WERE written by the same guy, SPECIFICALLY to be in continuity with one another. "The Arrival" tells stories set inbetween the episodes (or during them, but from different points of view) with the explicit intent of clarifying certain story elements and filling in whatever gaps happened to spring up.

That was the whole point of the comic.

Intent can also mean: That's what they INTENDED when they WROTE THE DAMN SCRIPT.

Wait, wait...

I think I know where wires are being crossed here:

The two Almanacs and "The Arrival" are canon, you agree on that. Here's the important part, they are also (get ready for it)...

...in continuity.

Yes. They are.

They were specifically written to be in the same continuity, and were written by the same people.

Just because they are a different form of media doesn't mean that they are any less a part of Animated than the cartoon.

I'm sorry you feel otherwise, but you're pretty much alone in that point of view.

 

I should not be finding this nearly as funny as I am.

 

Have you even READ the comics? I dare you to give an example from the comics in how they can NOT possibly be part of the cartoon. Or, tell me how the Nemesis crashed on the moon WITHOUT using what happens in the comic.

Then at least read the first one. That one covers events FROM the cartoon that DID appear on televison.

Problem: the guys who created Animated are already crazy fanboys. Just read the first Allspark Almanac and try figuring out just HOW many references are in it to anything and everything.

Oh, so the fact radio-Soundwave got carried away by Laserbeak at the end of "Human Error pt. 2" wasn't a sign of the intention that Soundwave would return somehow later on because the series ended before Soundwave did make a comeback?

I fail to see how you can classify the comics as being totally different when they not only make connections to the show, they were written at the same time by the same guy. They even stopped it when the Jet twins were introduced in the comics because said twins weren't in the show yet! Same goes for the Almanacs, which are not only written to make it seem the characters from the show wrote it, but that several parts of it were done piecemental during the actual show (mostly event reports by Optimus).

You seem to be treating the non-cartoon story material supplementals like the commentary from Spinal Tap. (If you do not get the reference, go watch the movie, and then watch it again with the commentary.), decades after the subject was made. Animated ended less than two years ago! It's not like IDW's interpetation of the G1 series.

Hell, I could invent a hundred different ways that a robot could become a triple changer, but the idea that gaining a second alt. mode MUST come at a heavy price (one's sanity) makes the process of becoming a triple changer balanced. The fact only Blitzwing has gone through the process makes him unique among Decepticons and adds to the idea of the Autobots having to face stronger and more dangerous foes. Oh, and to make his toy sell, too.

When it's been proven time and time again that the show and the supplementary materials are from the same "continuum". If it's canon, then it's part of the continuity, thus it's part of the same "continuum" because there's only one Animated continuity (there is the Japanese Animated continuity, but they've somehow retconned it into being the precursor to the live action movies and so is a totally different continuity).

 

While all six "Arrival" comics were written by Marty Isenberg, there are some elements (such as the backstory of the Omega Sentinels) in the Almanacs that are the brainchilds of Jim Sorenson and Bill Forster, and Derrick Wyatt has suggested that these things were not necessarily what the TFA TV creative team had in mind or had thought of.

That said, without the Almanac, Slipstream has no name.  

 

Well, obviously, each author will bring their own ideas to the table, but the final galleys for both Almanacs were sent to Marty Isenberg and Derrick Wyatt (and Matt Youngberg) for comments, and every one of their comments, corrections and suggestions were incorporated into the book.

-JimS

 

I apologize; I don't mean to imply that your work should be taken as any less canonical. And I thoroughly enjoyed your work in the Almanacs. My point was this (and perhaps it's so fine that it's really just pedantically splitting hairs): for the sake of veracity, we can't technically argue that the comics, TV show, and Almanacs were all written by the same people. The Arrival comics and TV fiction were developed and written by the CN team led by head writer Marty Isenberg, art director Derrick Wyatt, and producer Matt Youngberg; the Almanacs were written by you and Bill Forster. (With the understanding that you consulted heavily with and got the sign-off from the CN guys.) Nevertheless, if we're going to talk about who intended what and when and so forth, clearly some of the new ideas you introduced were not the ones that were intended from day one. Like, for example, I've read Derrick say that Hot Spot's eyes should be blue.