TF Continuity

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The "alteration" from a radioactive spider to a "Genetically engineered" one is a minor point, one that doesn't really change anything of significance to the origin tale. It's an evolution of the same story to reflect the times and current science. The root origin story itself though is still the same—the same sequence of events, the same characters, the same locations, etc. Everything remains essentially the same regardless of the continuity.

 

The same is true of Transformers, the origin story must remain consistent, and Hasbro in particular, wants a single, definitive origin story to govern all continuities.

Yes it's a minor point, but it's a simple one to show that each of the origins are from their own INDIVIDUAL continuities.

If I'm understanding you correctly, there are no INDIVIDUAL TF origins. There's just ONE TF origin that has caused all these different continuities.

Yes. According to Hasbro decree, there is a single origin from which every continuity springs forth. To make an analogy, the origin story for the multiverse—along with Primus, Unicron and the Thirteen—is like the trunk of a great tree, from which each major continuity family branches off, like the main boughs, and from which each individual continuity then branches off in turn forming the limbs, and then even other branch continuities branch off further, and sometimes re-converge forming the smaller branches, and so forth. Everything starts with the beginning of time; the beginning of creation itself, which is when Primus and Unicron were created by The One.

 

Thus, while all continuities share the same origin, as well as Primus, Unicorn, and the Thirteen Original Primes as multiversal singularities, the various timelines all branch off and go in their own directions from there with no other connection.

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Yes. According to Hasbro decree, there is a single origin from which every continuity springs forth. To make an analogy, the origin story for the multiverse—along with Primus, Unicron and the Thirteen—is like the trunk of a great tree, from which each major continuity family branches off, like the main boughs, and from which each individual continuity then branches off in turn forming the limbs, and then even other branch continuities branch off further, and sometimes re-converge forming the smaller branches, and so forth. Everything starts with the beginning of time; the beginning of creation itself, which is when Primus and Unicron were created by The One.

 

Thus, while all continuities share the same origin, as well as Primus, Unicorn, and the Thirteen Original Primes as multiversal singularities, the various timelines all branch off and go in their own directions from there with no other connection.

Yeah, IMO Hasbro shouldn't do it that way. They should do it like the other examples listed earlier...

Hasbro has been trying to maintain a unified multiverse under a single origin for over twenty years. The entire Universe story line was focused on the unified multiverse concept. If you think Hasbro's bad, look at Takara's timeline. They've tried to cram virtually everything (except their version of the Unicron trilogy) into a single timeline—Not a multiverse, but a single continuity, even when there is no way they could co-exist. They even have the live-action movie's as part of their G1 continuity, along with the original cartoons, BW (and its sequels), Car Robots, Kiss Players, etc. Everything is crammed into a single, very convoluted continuity. Only their version of the Unicron Trilogy exists as its own continuity separate from G1. At least Hasbro keeps its various continuities as individual continuities. They're simply unified under a larger "meta-continuity" framework with a single origin for all of them.

 

The other examples we've given all have essentially the same origin stories. What differences we do see are nothing more than evolutions in that same story to modernize them for each reboot. In those examples though, with every reboot of continuity, the old continuities are completely swept away in favor of the new. What came before is completely discarded. Hasbro doesn't do that. Hasbro and Takara maintain the integrity and validity of the earlier stories and continuities. They're not discarded and forgotten.

 

The Transformers multiverse contains every continuity established by hasbro and Takara, connected by a single origjn story and Primus, Unicron, and the Thirteen Original Primes created by Primus.

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Yeah, but I still think it would be better to just have all the continuities separately like the other examples. It'd make things more flexible and wouldn't be as hard to keep everything organized.

 

I might have missed or forgotten it among all the posts, but has it been stated that the Bayverse is indeed part of the "meta-continuity" that the cartoons are part of?

Every continuity is. And yes, Kurtzman has stated that they were drawing on the greater mythos when writing the story, and that Simon Furman's work on the prequels and comic adaption were to help further tie the movie-verse more closely into the greater mythos.

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Here's an interesting thing Simon Furman said in the recent interview with IGN regarding Primus and Unicron in the movie-verse:

 

IGN Comics: I guess this next question doesn't really apply to this project, but I'm curious anyway. One of the big contributions you made to the franchise back in the Marvel days was the mythology of Cybertron and the conflict between Primus and Unicron. Is that something you'd be interested in exploring in the context of the movie universe at some point in the future?

Furman: Yeah, I'd like to. I've always liked scale. As much as I like keeping the focus on certain characters, I've always liked the sense of an epic storyline building in the background. So given half a chance, and once we know what the third movie plans are, we'll be able to implement more of that. But yes, given half a chance, I'd love to explore and bump up the scale of this conflict.—IGN interview with Simon Furman