Then....yeah. Then...Cybertron. yikes. At least with G1 when older characters were brought back they were in their original form and colors and accents.....looking at you Jetfire....
It's funny you mention that since I recently came across a short Japanese DVD promo for Galaxy Force released ahead of the series's premiere in Japan that seems to clarify some things about its relationship to the previous two series.
First, this promo attempts to bridge the gap between Superlink and Galaxy Force by explicitly using footage (some of which looks completely new and original, rather than recycled existing footage) from both Superlink and Legends of the Microns to represent the past history of Galaxy Force's universe, with narration from Galaxy Convoy talking about how peace has finally been achieved after so much fierce fighting in battles, only for a new crisis to arise with the appearance of the black hole.
Second, Galaxy Convoy refers to himself in this promo as the "new" Supreme Commander, the Autobots' "new" leader, as if to say that, while keeping in mind the idea of Galaxy Force being the same universe as LOTM and Superlink, Galaxy Convoy is still not the same person as the Convoy/Grand Convoy from those first two series, but rather his successor. This would also lend credence to notion of Exillion, Dreadrock, Guardshell, and First Aid also all being separate individuals from Hot Rod/Hot Shot, Jetfire/Skyfire, Landmine, and Ratchet (I'm using all the Japanese names here since I am specifically talking about the original Japanese versions of these shows, not their English dubs).
However, the promo also talks about Master Megatron. Namely, it describes him as having "returned from Hell", specifically using the word "Jigoku" or Hell in reference to the place in Japanese mythology where evil people go when they die. At the end of Superlink, Galvatron did die when he plunged himself into the energon sun, and this Galaxy Force promo treats Master Megatron as the very same Emperor of Destruction having returned from the dead. Likewise, Starscream is implied by a second Galaxy Force promo to have also "returned from Hell" like Master Megatron, which also matches up with Nightscream dying with Galvatron in Superlink.
In the end, with all of this information taken into account, it would seem that Galaxy Force was indeed always set in the same world as Legends of the Microns and Superlink after all, with Master Megatron and Galvatron having returned from the dead, BUT with the caveat of all of the familiar-looking Autobots actually being all-new characters, explaining why some of them behave so differently. And because they were all new characters, Hasbro's attempts to make them
be those same familiar people in the English version caused quite a mess of things, especially with all of them (minus Optimus) having their voice actors recast.
