No. What they're saying is literally what's in my post. They've gone into detail. That they're using a term in a slightly different simplified way than some in the fandom have grown used to (and people talk about G1 countinuity all the time, this is using the word in that same exact sense) is moot, because they've right out and explained what they mean by it in detail.

1) You're not looking at it from their point of veiw. Hasbro more than anything wants kids to be able to cross between their various media and understand the basic universe and concepts without being confused by every universe and backstory being entirely different.

Every kid who gets into the kid aimed Spiderman media gets the same Peter Parker with roughy the same powers, villians, and backstory. Now imagine Spiderman had one cartoon with Peter, but another with Miles Morales, and a third set of kids books and toys with Miguel O'hara. From a corporate sense thats terrible. It's confusing, complicated, devisive and it diffuses your character and brand. It's a bad idea. THAT'S what Transformers was in recent years.

This is Hasbro's solution to that and from a corperate perspective it is a very good idea to facilitate audience crossover and understanding across your whole swath of media.


2) It's really not stifiling creativity in any way as the creators are being alowed to go where ever they want in taking off from the bible. Heck, half of the fan complaints are because they've gone so many different ways. Seriously, EVERY media and liscensed property tends to have this sort of bible for their liscensies and internal groups to work from. The only difference here is that Hasbro really put extra effort and depth into it and is no longer reinventing their whole property completely every couple years like they did last decade. They've decided to take Transformers more seriously as a unified media property and not just a toy line.


-ZacWilliam, any focus that allows for WfC, Prime, and Rescue Heroes has plenty of scope and flexibility for creativity.

 

Here's a picture of a fish.

Obviously.

 

Why the hell do you guys care so much?

 

different artwork and style doesnt means its a different continuty, There are MANY Shows that had spinoff or sequels and yet their succesors have a different style than the previous show, but that doesnt measn it takes place in its own world

its like saying Oh the current mario games cant take place in the same continuty as the old 2d games (every single game had different looks for each character (mostly cause of console limiations), yet they are in the same continuty)

 

That's a good point there! I mean even the Batman TAS had different styles going on once it got into the New Batman Adventures. The same goes for Antholgy films like with the Animatrix,Batman Gotham Knight,and Halo Legends. The Alinged countutiy may be on par with those.


While I'm still uncertain to see how Rescue Bots may be connected to Prime I'm willing to be open minded about it and see if Rescue Bots does indeed take place in the Prime countuity. Who knows? Maybe it does!

 

Congradulations on being so ludicrusly exagerated as to be nonsensical. Your point here takes things so far it ends up having absolutely nothing to do with what were discussing.

Try it some time. Thier POV gives a valid reason for the choice and positive outcome to it.


-ZacWilliam, edited to better address this, moving on now.

 

Right now, the only official sense of RB being connected to Prime is from Jeff Kline and Hasbro, but as RB gets more eps, it might become more apparent. For the time being, there's nothing (other than the art style) to say that the two shows aren't connected.

Beat me to it, as I was about to say the same thing about grossly over-exaggerated.

I'm still waiting for a response on how RB isn't connected to Prime other than art style.

 

Citing G1 and IDW doesn't really help illustrate how the Aligned Continuity is aligned; you may have missed it, but 1 is ridiculed constantly for its poor continuity, and IDW has received it's own grief for their poor continuity.

That is NOT what they said at all bro!

As a matter of fact, Aaron Archer has gone on record re-affirming that they are not like G1's multi coninuity family- but that they are- now pay attention here- 1 SINGULAR FLOWING STORY, where there are NO contradictions and that EVERYTHING MESHES TOGETHER PERFECTLY.

Archer stated that the only continuity problems there can only be seen from (his words) a squint test.

Now, we have gone ad-nauseum over the conradictions of PRIME, WFC and EXO... they aint the result of squinting bruddah.

What- you don't like my fish?
As long as things are allowed to be a little different, then you ae required to accept this particular artist's interpretation of a clown fish. I was inspired when watching Finding Nemo.

You see, it doesn't matter what you think it looks like- it is a clown fish because I say it is. Whatever you think about it is moot.

 

The notion that Rescue Bots takes place in the same continuity as TFP is perfectly fine by me. TFP and WFC, however? Get the fuck out of town.

 

Actually, we don't have to accept it. We can tell you that you've drawn a tree, not a fish. That isn't a style difference, that is the inability to observe, record and communicate (or the lack of desire to do so).

You can insist that you were trying to draw a fish left, right and upside-down, but if the people observing the artwork can't tell what it is or, even worse, thinks it is something else, then you've failed.

The characters in WFC are clearly Prime, Megatron, Ratchet, etc. The characters in Prime of clearly Prime, Megatron, Ratchet, etc. Different art directors influenced the design and different artists produced it, but the communication of character is clear.

WFC is taking the Aligned backstory and expanding on it, owning it and making it a unique experience that you don't have to follow Prime to enjoy. Prime is taking the Aligned story and expanding it, owning it and making it a unique experience that does not require you play any of the games. This resulted in different art direction.

End of story.

 

That is, in fact, the complete OPPOSITE of what he said. He said that while there may be continuity conflicts, the whole thing meshes together IF YOU SQUINT. THAT's the "squint test".

 

This.

It's pretty funny actually listening to someone completely misquote and missunderstand the official statements and then get mad that he hates his own entirely made up ideas.


-ZacWilliam, if it weren't so sad...

 

Chris- I'll look it up. I'm willing to be wrong about what Archer stated, but I don't really think it changes anything about the discontinuous continuity.

Zac- that statement just made no sense. Re-write it into something coherent.

 

Alright- I was wrong about Archer's take on it:

Botcon 2011 Hasbro Story Building Panel - Transformers News - TFW2005

So, you got me there: I did have it all backwards.

So, as I read the above I conclude the following:

1) No story-verses have to line up
2) Each story-verse is free to contradict each other
3) Same characters aren't required to look anything like each other.

Archer's "squint test" is actually to see what they have in common, not to squint and see what's different.

So from that I conclude:

4) That WfC and FoC are still free to be new G1 origins, while still being a part of the Prime family and Rescue Bots family
5) PRIME continuity can act independantly from the books and games.
6) Rescue Bots need not share any history or current story with PRIME, so it's kinda pointless to try to figure out when the events of Rescue Bots correspond to the events of PRIME.
7) If the live actions films are re-booted, they can still fit into the Aligned Continuity since they do not have to look like PRIME or share story elements of PRIME, WfC, Exodus, etc.

The key tie-together seems to be Dark Energon. So, if my conclusions are correct then why not call each different 'Verse a member of the Dark Energon Chricles, or something along those lines? Wouldn't that make more sense than using the phrase "Aligned Continuity"?

 

Because they're trying to use the established termonology. We talk about G1 Continuity. Armada continuity. Ect. All the time. That these things are in fact "Continuity Families" as the wiki phrases it, made up of many similar and related universes that can be quite contradictory in the details remains true, but fans still use the terms regardless all the time. "Aligned continuity" is the same sort of term.

"Aligned Continuity Family" would have been a much clearer name for it but it's a much more recent and nerdy fan -coined term and unlikely to have penetrated into Hasbro's conciousness yet.


-ZacWilliam, not sure I agree with point #4 of your conclusions, but the rest and your general gist is correct now. Well, except for #6, see totally apart from the Aligned issue the same head guy is in charge of both the Prime and Rescue Bots cartoons on Hub and has specifically said he's making those two things be the exact same universe. Cause he thinks it makes sense since they're on the same network at the same time. Though we have yet to see if it will ever come up on either show.

 

I think we'd ALL like a better name than "Aligned" for the family, and I expect that somewhere down the line, we'll actually get one, like we eventually did for "The Unicron Trilogy". I've actually heard someone suggest trying to sculpt a name around Dark Energon before. We're just going on the terminology Hasbro's been using until we can get something better and official in place.