5 replies to this topic

[That One Guy]

While researching Fun Pub's Dawn of Future's Past story (along with other Beast Era lore), this pannel grabbed my attention.



The scene this is set in features Divebomb telling Razorclaw of Predacon Megatron's demise after the climax of Beast Machines. Pete Sinclair later stated that the scene was intended to take place 50-100 years after Beast Machines, but this baffles me for a number of reasons.

Firstly, why would Divebomb be reporting to Razorclaw about this decades after Megatron fell? Unless Razorclaw's entire group went offline for a good 50+ years, I can't see how this would be relevant information to discuss. Furthermore, in the Universe extension of the Beast Era, Megatron is revived along with Primal during the Universe War. Why would Divebomb be reporting on Megatron's death from decades ago when he was revived only a year or so later?

To reconcile the second discrepancy, I chalked it up to the epilogue taking place in a different timeline branching off from Beast Machines, same as Universe, Wings Universe, and the Japanese animes and mangas. Hell, DoFP was even stated as being a part of the Wings Universe timeline, so the epilogue could just take place in that continuity. As for Pete's comment, that could also be dismissed as non-canon.

Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. According to the TFWiki Beast Era timeline, the DoFP epilogue is set somewhere in the future after the conclusion of the Universe War, which doesn't make any sense for the aforementioned reasons. Can anyone here feasibly explain how any of that jives, or is this just another case of a continuity error that has no real explanation?

Edited by That ONE Guy, 12 December 2018 - 03:49 PM.

[Sabrblade]

Razorclaw was asking about events that occurred right after the Beast Wars, which was Beast Machines.

 

At the time that the epilogue took place, Razorclaw himself had only just recently made his return, unaware of the events that had transpired during his absence. The bio for his 2009 toy, which was based on his appearance in that epilogue, describes how he was supposedly assassinated by the then-up-and-coming Tripredacus Council members, so he's been MIA for a good while.

 

In reality, DOFP was written to only take into account the two cartoons, in order to make it stand as the definitive BW prequel without referencing anything else of the various Beast Era continuities that it can slot into, meaning that the epilogue could not have made reference to the Universe War even if it had wanted to.

 

What's more is that, for a good long time, the latter-year 3H fiction was really hard to come by, officially, so not a whole lot of people would have been able to have read much of anything that hadn't yet been posted to BotCon Online. This included all of the Universe comics, so it's possible that most readers back then (outside of the hardcore convention-goers) weren't even aware of Megatron's resurrection in Universe, so some of those who did get to read DOFP may not have even noticed that the epilogue referred to events that preceded another appearance of Megatron.

 

Or even, a lot of folks to this day may have still not read DOFP itself if they missed out on BotCon 2006 or the Diamond Edition release, or even the Shout! Factory DVD boxed set release. And after awhile, any desire to read it may wane as the years go by.

Edited by Sabrblade, 12 December 2018 - 05:39 PM.

[Walky]

Megatron's Universe return was covered more in FP material than 3H. It's kind of nonsensical that DOFP would ignore it because it was too obscure -- it was from the same publisher from the same time period, and I can't imagine there were many people buying box sets without Club memberships, given how the discounts worked.

[Sabrblade]

Megatron's Universe return was covered more in FP material than 3H. It's kind of nonsensical that DOFP would ignore it because it was too obscure -- it was from the same publisher from the same time period, and I can't imagine there were many people buying box sets without Club memberships, given how the discounts worked.

 

True, though, I recall back in the day seeing people overlooking those profiles in favor just the comics and other "normal" types of fiction. Even got into some debates with some who felt like they "shouldn't have to go looking for story info hidden in a bio instead of seeing it play out in an actual story".

Edited by Sabrblade, 12 December 2018 - 06:56 PM.

[Jenny]

TBH I've always felt that  DOFP and TOTGD can easily slot into the 3H stuff-Wreckers Finale 2, for instance, mentions Backslash.

 

In any case, Razorclaw's 2009 bio indicates he died at some point prior to Beast Wars, having been brought back post-BM. Ultimately, I think it's easier to slot it right after, as there's no indication in the comic itself beyond the "many years later" bit to really put a timeline on it.

[That One Guy]

Got it, things make more sense now. Like always, Sabrblade, your attention to detail has aided me. I'll have to rework some aspects of the story I'm writing around all of these late Beast Era events, but not too much.