The Taxonomy of Toy-Based Fiction, or a further look at Continuity Families
- Thread starter Tuxedo Prime
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That's as may be, but did we hear that name in the broadcast episode?
Even if we did, conflating "Primacron's assistant-Oracle" with "Beast Machines-Oracle" is just as much a later retcon as conflating "Creation Matrix" with "Matrix of Leadership", or putting Optimus' spark chamber in front of the Matrix receptacle as 3H did.
We seem to be talking past each other a bit, as I don't hold retrofitted continuity to be inherently good or bad. It simply is.
Furman's retcons, whatever you or I may think of them (and I've been willing to point out where they need some squinting and hammer blows to make fit), have stood the test of time in the ephemeral world of fortnightly comics designed to help sell toys. I figure that there had to be a reason for that, as well as a reason why, the kaiju that is Japan's Pack-in With A Recording of a Radio Play of Revelation might be a little less gravitated towards, even by our weebier fans.
(...poor Sayori.)
But ultimately the arbitration of Canon will be done by Hasbro Licensing, so we'll just have to see what comes next. I do wish IDW had been able to do their Infinite Crossover Crisis as a close-out, though.
I consider it a bit more 'streamlining' then anything. Since it gives oracle some kinda connection to G1 which doesn't really strech credibility or change anything. It's just makign two vaguely similar 'characters' with obscure lore, into one that gives them slightly more depth then being random macguffin characters.
I also feel its MUCH less a retcon to do, then 'The Quints are secretly trying to take over." Which largely just feels like more fandom spite on the level of killing Wheelie and Daniel. Becuase one doesn't really change or effect the show at all, and the other tries to completely change things.
While, yes, the whole Primus layer was indeed a big fat retcon, what Takara did with their version of Vector Sigma was basically reconcile all of the different interpretations of it featured across the different series of the Japanese G1 timeline:
Combining all of that gives us Vector Sigma: The ancient computer hidden deep inside Cybertron that gave life to the Transformers after foretelling their first coming to Cybertron, maintained the balance of stability on Cybertron in tandem with the power of the Matrix, and was revered by the Transformers as their god. Following Cybertron's destruction in 2011, Vector Sigma somehow survived and eventually evolved into the Oracle by the 24th Century, during which it was rediscovered after a long period of dormancy that had led to its fading away from Cybertronian knowledge. This rediscovery brought it back into public awareness and eventually led to its becoming the highest authority on Cybertron, by which point it had evolved again into a new form and started bestowing a certain class of individuals with Energon Matrices. Oh, and it made Cybertron City in the distant past and put it on Earth to protect the planet's Gaia Energy for... reasons.
And that's all before adding in the Quintessons from the G1 cartoon, Cybertron having originally been an organic planet in the ancient past from Beast Machines, and adding in both of the retcons about Primacron's assistant and Primus to explain Vector Sigma's connection to the Matrix's power, which then led to more retroactive connections with... *deep breath*
Phew!
- Vector Sigma of the G1 cartoon: The ancient ultracomputer that gave life to the Transformers, hidden deep within a secret chamber near the center of Cybertron (listening to the dialogue of the Japanese version, it sounds like Megatron at one point refers to Vector Sigma as "kami", meaning "god")
- Vector Sigma of The Headmasters cartoon: The ultracomputer that maintains the balance of stability on Cybertron, which is also somehow tied to the sacred cosmic power of the Matrix (Note that it is also supposed to be the same Vector Sigma as the first one, despite its bluer appearance inside a very different-looking chamber)
- Vector Sigma of the Beast Wars Neo cartoon: The "God of the Transformers" said to have been their creator, now a known public figure and the highest authority on Cybertron, residing high up in the Tower of Light (and now speaks with a female voice and has a completely new look as a silver, jagged, crystalline shard, coincidentally looking kinda like a giant version of the AllSpark shard from ROTF)
- Vector Sigma of the Car Robots cartoon: The "God of the Transformers" like in Beast Wars Neo, now said to have bestowed Energon Matrices to those of the Convoy Class, and is said to have created a great fortress called Cybertron City hidden on Earth in ancient times to protect something called "Gaia Energy"
- Vector Sigma of the Beast Machines cartoon: The ancient computer that eventually evolved into the Oracle by the time of the 24th Century, and has only just been rediscovered after having faded into complete and total obscurity over a long period of time, with only its evolved Oracle form being remembered in legends (legends that said the Oracle foretold the coming of the first Transformers to Cybertron), while knowledge of its original Vector Sigma form remains confined to centuries-old datatrax (Note that while in the English version the Oracle speaks with a female voice, it speaks with a male voice in the Japanese dub)
Combining all of that gives us Vector Sigma: The ancient computer hidden deep inside Cybertron that gave life to the Transformers after foretelling their first coming to Cybertron, maintained the balance of stability on Cybertron in tandem with the power of the Matrix, and was revered by the Transformers as their god. Following Cybertron's destruction in 2011, Vector Sigma somehow survived and eventually evolved into the Oracle by the 24th Century, during which it was rediscovered after a long period of dormancy that had led to its fading away from Cybertronian knowledge. This rediscovery brought it back into public awareness and eventually led to its becoming the highest authority on Cybertron, by which point it had evolved again into a new form and started bestowing a certain class of individuals with Energon Matrices. Oh, and it made Cybertron City in the distant past and put it on Earth to protect the planet's Gaia Energy for... reasons.
And that's all before adding in the Quintessons from the G1 cartoon, Cybertron having originally been an organic planet in the ancient past from Beast Machines, and adding in both of the retcons about Primacron's assistant and Primus to explain Vector Sigma's connection to the Matrix's power, which then led to more retroactive connections with... *deep breath*
- Unicron and Primacron from the G1 cartoon and movie
- The Angolmois Energy from Beast Wars Second and Beast Wars Neo
- The Zodiac from Zone
- Devil Zed from Super-God Masterforce
- The Trans-Organics from the G1 cartoon
- The Pretenders and Master-Braces also from Super-God Masterforce
- The Powermaster concept first introduced to the Japanese lore via the Nucleon Quest Super Convoy toy
- "It" from the G1 cartoon
- The Great Transformation prophecy from Beast Machines
- The Junkions, Lithones, Xetaxxians, and Lanarqans from the G1 cartoon, as well as the people of Twin Star from The Headmasters
- The Primus Vanguard first mentioned in Legends LG-EX Magna Convoy's toy bio and first alluded to in his tie-in comics
- The Golden Lagoon redeco toys from the small toyline of the same name, plus the "Electrum Jazz" reissue toy
- The One from Transformers: The Ultimate Guide
- The Vector Oracle toy from the 2011 Arms Micron store promotional campaign
Phew!
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And I bet none of the extra Primus retcons would have even happened at all if it hadn't been for the whole "Primus exists in all worlds" thing that Furman laid the groundwork for with his "There is only one Unicron" idea, since it really feels like that the main reason Primus was retconned into the Japanese G1 cartoon continuity at all was to adhere to the "Primus in all worlds" notion that was in its heyday at the time of 2006-2007.
Thinking more about this streamlining of Vector Sigma, when going back to what the Kiss Players timeline did, before adding in the Primus part, all that was added to this equation was just Primacron's assistant, in an attempt to explain the presence of the Matrix seen departing from the assistant's body in the episode. Since the episode's script referred to him as "the Oracle" (based on his glowing energy appearance), the timeline simply merged the two entities named "Oracle" into one being, which also merged the assistant with Vector Sigma since the BM Oracle was also a form of Vector Sigma. Coincidentally, both the G1 Oracle and Vector Sigma also had the same voice actor.
Though, since the G1 Oracle was also located on an ancient rocky planet, all scenes set on that planet had to be retconned as taking place in the distant past in order for this retcon to work. Watching the scene of the Primitives traveling to that world, it does kinda look like it could be reinterpreted as a time traveling sequence. This retcon also fit nicely with how Beast Machines said that Cybertron had originally been an organic planet, so the Oracle's ancient world would just be how the planet looked before that lush green ecosystem was created. And since the Key to Vector Sigma was already retconned by Beast Machines into being able to turn any and all organics into technomatter, that provided the perfect tool for the Quintessons to have built Cybertron with in this retcon.
Plus, what really brings things full circle is a nice bit of symmetry in how, in the episode, the G1 Oracle's planet was said to have been located at the center of the galaxy, and then later near the end of Beast Wars Neo, Cybertron was located near the center of the galaxy, essentially bringing the planet back to its origin point at the end of the latest-set JG1 cartoon.
And this is all still before the Primus part was added in, so even without that part does the retcon still look basically the same as it did back when it was first made in 2006/2007. I guess the Primus part was just added to try to give some real weight to Vector Sigma/Oracle being an archenemy of Unicron, since neither a space monkey nor a shiny globe would have seemed all that impressive fighting against Unicron directly during the final battle of the Sparkbots storyline.
And even though the Primus part was added in at the time, not much else was really done with that particular part of the retcon until 2019-2021, when Generations Selects really dove into JG1 Primus's backstory with the Primus Vanguard and the Precursor World. I honestly thought it was quite clever to use the Vector Oracle toy to represent his most basic, original form, since back when that toy was first unveiled, my initial reaction to it was "Judging by his name, Vector Oracle may be a physical humanoid form of Vector Sigma."
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....Siege who?
Oh... was he part of Hot Rod's crew? I think there was an small orange Autobot in some of the cover group shots....
One idea I was considering is that Primacron was the name of the lead scientist working to build the Quintesson's factory planet. Records of his note book survived, but because noone speaks his langauge, only the barest of translation was possible, but there was enough notes for them to realize it's from their creator, so they deem it a holy book. It also has Primacron's initial notes for a planet that "eats" (converts into raw resources) other planets (Primacron's next project). Because of this, "Primacron" becomes known to Cybertron as two god beings who are the yin/yang of each other; Primus the creator, and Unicron the Destroyer.
Interestingly, the short Japanese manga story titled "Controverse" asserted that even the Quintessons were descended from those who had been originally created by Primacron, but the Quintessons in their arrogance refused to believe that they themselves could have ever been among those created by the lowly monkey scientist.
That's kinda similar to the take I use, with "Primacron" being one of the original names of the (cyborged, many-formed) species that we call "Quintessons."
So the individual in CotP is identified by a descriptor rather than a proper noun.
Well, the Exodus novel does state that the earliest entries in the Covenant of Primus were written in long-dead languages untranslatable by the time of Orion Pax, so that idea would track....