1773 replies to this topic

[Cybersnark]

Ooh, I like that one.

On that note:

What Transformers call "energon" is actually available in a wide array of different compositions (in the same way that we use "nickel" to refer to a coin that is actually made of nickel and a bunch of additives). Different forms of energon have different energy densities --some give more power, others "taste" different. Certain impurities will affect a TF's onboard processing systems (resulting in symptoms similar to drunkenness, hyperactivity [sugar-rush], emotional imbalance [Ratchet's Synth-En], mode-lock [energon spiked with nucleon], or even chemical dependency).

Rare, naturally-occuring energon is dangerously pure, and needs to be processed (cut with some other substance) with something else before it can be safely consumed. This is the kind of energon that can be used in weapons (delivering a powerful charge even as it cuts, like a blade attached to a stun-gun).

While Transformers can generally only absorb useful energy from energon, they are also capable of ingesting many other substances (from scrap metal to crude oil to ethanol) despite their lack of nutritional value (in the same way that humans can consume beer, nachos, and cotton candy without gaining any useful nourishment). Transformers can also use external means to regulate temperatures (drinking heated fluids when operating in sub-zero temperatures, or needing refrigerated coolant when operating in a desert at high noon).

[Vestras]

Regardless of era or multiverse, the Cybertronian Empire still exists. Jhiaxus, Maximo, Rook, and Mindset among others are always there. They play long games, and have a less "Decepticon" agenda.

G1, the Quints found Primus while he was dormant and the earlier generations of the children of the 13. Conquering the planet, they installed what would become the Oracle as a shell program to keep Primus offline, and let them convert the planet into a factory.

Withered Hope: A lot more Gobots have/are/will be making the journey over to the conglomerate CHUG universe, although some are changing names as they go.

The LSotW Crew all survive...in spirit... But I wistfully think of them having more adventures.

Scourge (G1) became leader of the Decepticons in the Great Downgrade. Cyclonus became a wandering Ronin and was rarely ever seen again.

Skyfire and Jetfire are independent characters. The marooned scientist, and the field commander with a ton of guns.

RiD and MW are in G1 canon, but with some name changes to be different casts.

More Name repurposing that I can fit in a post, but specifically, Every Megatron (Except BW) and Optimus Prime that is NOT the G1 version specifically has their own name. I am perfectly fine with Fire Convoy and Gigatron, thank you very much!

Edit:
The Cybertronian Wars are galaxy wide, not just Earth, Nebulos and Cybertron. There are colonies and wars all across the stars that we never see.

Edited by Vestras, 17 November 2011 - 09:21 AM.

[Fear or Courage]

Ooh, I like that one.

On that note:

What Transformers call "energon" is actually available in a wide array of different compositions (in the same way that we use "nickel" to refer to a coin that is actually made of nickel and a bunch of additives). Different forms of energon have different energy densities --some give more power, others "taste" different. Certain impurities will affect a TF's onboard processing systems (resulting in symptoms similar to drunkenness, hyperactivity [sugar-rush], emotional imbalance [Ratchet's Synth-En], mode-lock [energon spiked with nucleon], or even chemical dependency).

Rare, naturally-occuring energon is dangerously pure, and needs to be processed (cut with some other substance) with something else before it can be safely consumed. This is the kind of energon that can be used in weapons (delivering a powerful charge even as it cuts, like a blade attached to a stun-gun).

While Transformers can generally only absorb useful energy from energon, they are also capable of ingesting many other substances (from scrap metal to crude oil to ethanol) despite their lack of nutritional value (in the same way that humans can consume beer, nachos, and cotton candy without gaining any useful nourishment). Transformers can also use external means to regulate temperatures (drinking heated fluids when operating in sub-zero temperatures, or needing refrigerated coolant when operating in a desert at high noon).

I like that one. I always imagined that the original Energon was a naturally-occurring crystal-like element on Cybertron, that got all used up over time, though it was occasionally found on other worlds, like in Beast Wars. By the time Cybertron's Energon got used up, though, its inhabitants had figured out how to make synthetic versions of it using almost any energy source, via "Energon Cubes" that convert said energy into synthetic Energon, though sometimes compression is needed (Skywarp cramming a stack of oil-filled cubes together to make one Energon cube in MTMTE, The ridiculous amounts of oil Carbombya needed to use to make a single cube). Of course natural Energon will always be more potent than the synthetic stuff, which is why Beast Megatron's big strike on Earth was such a big deal.

[lastmaximal]

At first I had a Word document detailing my personal fancanon adaptation compression of the Unicron Trilogy [conflating it with quite a bit of DragonTail's own material, which I devoured hungrily often as soon as it hit the web ]. Then I started folding in G1 [stuff from the cartoon, Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW; the club comics and characters, some stuff from Animated [the second Almanac was a godsend!]; the films and their backstory/interstitial comics; and even elements of MASK and GI Joe. Attempting to reconcile everything and have it work in tandem has resulted in a very squint-test-laden pseudonarrative. New ideas get added all the time. Hell, I'm mining this thread for ideas too. Now, like this post, it's TL;DR.

Edited by lastmaximal, 17 November 2011 - 08:10 PM.

[Zodberg]

Skyhammer is totally Ultra Magnus.

[Mecheon]

The Optimus Primal bat and the Megatron alligator are Optimus Prime and Megatron's Beast Wars forms, respectively

Why are they a bat and an alligator? Who knows! But they're their forms in that bit, to go with Magnaboss being a whole batch of G1 Autobots

[NICK NEMESIS]

During the Beast Wars there was a subsection of the Predacons Dubbed the Swampticons, and they consisted of Iguanus, Snapper, and Mega-Gator. Mega-Gator's scales were super tough because they were replicated from Armordillo's extra tough hide. Eventually Buzzsaw joined them as well.

The Swapticons ruled.

[Rust]

My personal Canon? Based off my own personal Toyverse.

The Quintessons are a mysterious race from the dawn of creation. Their ruins dot the landscape and their mindless Sharkticon Drones prowl the seas on many worlds, but none living have seen one. It's assumed they perished eons ago.

The Quintessons two shining achievements were the Vector Sigma Super Computer and a battle station of terrible might called "Unicron". Vector Sigma was based on the Quintessonian Factory World of Primus, where it aided the Quintessons in the construction of various robotic life forms. For whatever reason lost in the sands of history, both Vector Sigma (and by extension Primus) and Unicron were infected by the Creation Matrix Virus - a odd bit of code that was so sophisticated, it granted sapience to mechanical life. Who made it and where it came from are a mystery, but the effects were not.

Unicron - enraged at his servitude - turned his might on his former masters. Vector Sigma began using the Creation Matrix to create more Sapient Machines on the Factory World of Primus, whom the inhabitants eventually re-named Cybertron. These creations eventually stumble upon "The Covenant of Primus", which quickly becomes revered as a Holy Text, despite the fact it is actually the equivalent of a overview of the Primus facilities and their main mission statement.

Fast forward several trillion years, and the Cybertronian Mining Vessel The Ark arrives in the Sol System - under the overall command of Legate Prime Megatron and his Chief Science Adviser Orion Pax. The mission of these mining vessels is the harvest a solar system's natural resources for Cybertron - which as a artificial world, has no "internal" support. Upon viewing transmissions from the third planet (Earth), Megatron becomes enraged at the Humans callous enslavement of Machinery and violations of the Covenant of Primus. Orion Pax, along with his aide Bluestreak and a maintenance tech named Bumblebee, realize that Humanity is not some blasphemous infestation, but just a alien form of life. In a effort to sway public opinion away from Megatron's plan of system wide neutralization, Orion Pax takes to The Ark's extranet under the moniker "Optimus Prime" and issues statements and manifestos about the proper handling of unknown life forms.

Eventually, mutiny rips the crew of The Ark apart. Megatron remains in command of most of the ship's Command Staff and makes an alliance with the leader of the Mining Crew Scorponok for his support. Orion Pax fully embraces his Optimus Prime persona and flees to Earth with a good chunk of the Science and Support Crew. Security Officer Jazz manages to bring his Security detachment along.

Former Assistant Scientist Starscream - in a fool hearty experiment which actually sharded his "Spark" and transformed him into a Programming Echo - has taken the reins as Head of Security, leading his "Seekers" ruthlessly. Shockwave has ascended to Orion Pax's vacated position. Ultra Magnus and his "Wreckers" - Hot Rod, Blurr, Kup, Perceptor, and Wreck-Gar - continue to operate under Scorponok's command but are sympathetic to Optimus Prime and his "Autonomous Robots".

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, the reports sent from Sol have split the Council of Elders neatly in half, with Vector Prime in charge of the contingent that supports Optimus while the Lord of Darkmount Straxus and his supporters endorse Megatron.

[Tindalos]

Rare, naturally-occuring energon is dangerously pure, and needs to be processed (cut with some other substance) with something else before it can be safely consumed. This is the kind of energon that can be used in weapons (delivering a powerful charge even as it cuts, like a blade attached to a stun-gun).

It would not suprise me if this weaponised Energon is what's refered to as Solitarium, named in honour of Solus Prime, the first weaponsmith.

The Cybertronian Wars are galaxy wide, not just Earth, Nebulos and Cybertron. There are colonies and wars all across the stars that we never see.

Personally, I like the idea that the colonies may have civil wars of their own. Like, say, on Animatros, there are 3 factions, centered around the volcanic mountain ranges, the oceanborn island chains, and the tropical jungles. (Playing on Battlebeast's Fire/Water/Wood factions). On velocitron, the factions may be more like racing teams, with battles replaced with violent oilsport races for territory.

[Bass X0]

I love the Marvel comics (U.S. & U.K.) so my personal canon is based of off that. I like to alter, add and drop certain elements to it as I see fit to improve it or to incorporate standards that didn't get created until afterwards.

I also love the toys, even those I don't personally own. If I were producing a new comic by myself, everybody would have a toy and I'd incorporate as many different toys as I can. The only time a Transformer design in my comic would not have a toy is if a Cybertronian form is needed and a toy of that character doesn't exist. Even then I'd lift existing designs from The War Within. Each story would be 22 pages long, a single page Mosaic expanding a scene from the story and two profiles, one each for an Autobot and a Decepticon that appeared in the story or Mosaic.

I'd also lift scenes or entire stories from other sources. I'd throw out half of Marvel #1 and replace it almost scene for scene, line for line from the first episode of the cartoon up until just before the Autobots meet the Witwickys, then the story would switch back to the comic from when Buster first makes an appearance. Shockwave would be missing though. His story is told in Spotlight: Shockwave instead. The IDW comic would be used unaltered except for the last page which is changed to fit it into the general comic continuity.

There would also be a shake-up of characters. Trailbreaker, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak remain on Cybertron, Sideburn (Club toy) is added to form the Autobot Bros. with Prowl and Brawn. Skids, Tracks, Hoist, Grapple and Smokescreen awaken on Earth along with everyone else (Rock n Roll Out is now dropped). Also among the 1984 Autobots is Swindler - he disappears early on after teaming-up with a human named Doc Brown.

Jetfire (6" Titanium) is based on the Dreamwave version and is an active character on Cybertron. The Jetfire from the Marvel comics is replaced by Deftwing but remains the same character other than name and appearance. Skyfire also makes an appearance based on the cartoon Skyfire. A new story is a retelling of the cartoon episode Fire In The Sky; Skyfire's design is based on the Henkei Skyfire toy (he's Jetfire's brother) - he is buried in the ice again at the end but doesn't return until much later.

Emirate Xaaron is replaced by Safeguard, Vector Prime's Mini-Con in 2006 Galaxy Force colors. He has gone through his events in Cybertron and Balancing Act a long time ago before settling down in this universe as the Autobot's leader on Cybertron (much later on, The Last Autobot is replaced by Vector Prime and marks the very beginning of Vector Prime's story).

Impactor is replaced by Roadbuster but remains the same character Impactor was. Marvel Roadbuster and Rack n Ruin are replaced by Ricochet and Inferno (in Artfire's colors for now; Artfire does not exist seperately). They 'become' Targetmasters for a second during the Wrecking Havoc story where they grab Nightstick and Fracas and claim that they have become Targetmasters (and get the Nebulans' names completely wrong, matching the names given to the toys in Japan), only for the two Decepticon allied Nebulans to wrestle free from their grip and return to their true partners.

Xaaron, Impactor, Rack n Ruin and other comic/cartoon only characters appear (nameless) during Target: 2006 where they are Facsimile Constructs designed to fill in for real Autobots.

Macabre is replaced by Thunderwing. This Thunderwing is not yet a Pretender, his inner robot only, just as obsessive but currently looked down on by other Decepticons. He doesn't die after killing Roadbuster (previously Impactor) but gets taken out for a long time.

Death's Head is replaced by Detritus. He's still Death's Head in all but name and appearance, plus he now originates from Junk.

Micromasters do not exist. The Micromasters are now full sized Transformers instead of being small Transformers. They appear throughout.

Characters with many toys will be changing bodies frequently during the course of the stories.

Characters who die without doing much in the Marvel comics are now prominent during flashbacks and stories set before their death. Or their 'death' isn't as fatal as is shown in the original comics and they get repaired instead of dying.

Shockwave isn't killed by Detritus, having been forewarned by Ravage during Time Wars. Alternators Shockblast has been a stand-in for Shockwave under the pretense of an upgraded body. Once Cyclonus and Scourge go back in time, the real Shockwave emerges once again to take command.

G.I. Joe destroy Bumblebee and he is rebuilt into Gold Bumblebee. Gold Bumblebee is destroyed by Detritus and is rebuilt by Wreck-Gar into Goldbug. Goldbug is destroyed by R.A.A.T. along with the rest of the Throttlebots as before but only Goldbug and Rollbar get rebuilt - Goldbug back into Bumblebee instead of Goldbug again, and Rollbar because he needs to later appear as his Alternators toy.

[CT-5555]

The Quintessons created the transformers and implanted them all with false memories which make them believe they are descended from some god called Primus

RiD takes place in Dreamwave G1. After the Ark II blows up, but before Lazarus and co start reviving them, RiD takes place. By the time Prime comes back online, the cast of RiD have moved on.

The Cybertron seen in World's collide is Dreamwave G1 and that is how that particular universe ends.

-----

Waspinator get's his original body back after Beast Machines

-------

The Unicron Trillogy is a movie production created by descendants of the G1 cast.

------

Primacron merely built Unicron's shell. Unicron himself took possesion of the body when he crossed over into that universe.

[LiamA]

Optimus Prime, Orion Pax, and Optronix are all separate characters instead of Orion Pax and Optronix becoming Optimus.

[LiamA]

Energon naturally occurs on other planets. It is only on Cybertron where it is called Energon. Different planets refer to it as different things.

Unicron has created his own planet and race like Primus did. Their purpose is to carry on the destruction of the universe and Primus' children if Unicron dies.

Galvatron and Megatron are separate characters and rivals.

Prime is a rank on the level of general. I was glad to see Transformers: Animated had the same idea.

There is a third group of Cybertronians who don't like the Autobots and the Decepticons and hate them for the destruction the war has brought.

Edited by LiamA, 23 November 2011 - 10:21 PM.

[Cybersnark]

Hey, I have a free moment!

The approach I tend to take is that Cybertron was created by the Quintessons, but has been through so much over the eons that most of history is forgotten or inaccessible. I'm trying for a LotR-ish sense of Forgotten Glories coming to an end --the Age of Elves Primes is ending and passing out of the world, its wonders never to be seen again by Man Cybertronian.

(As an aside, I first read Tolkien at about the same time I started getting back into TFs. When I heard that the Matrix "chooses" the Prime, I drew an inevitable comparison to the One Ring ["accidentally" slipping away when it selects a new host]. It just seemed appropriate, given the mythic nature of the Transformers saga.)

Vector Sigma, the Plasma Energy Chamber, the Underbase, and the Oracle are all integral to Cybertron's original function (as a Quintesson factory-world). The Matrix of Leadership (the physical object, which the Prime carries in his/her chest), the Covenant of Primus (Alpha Trion's book & stylus), the Magnus Hammer, and many other "holy" artifacts are peripherals for these primary (if you'll excuse the pun) systems.

The Matrix and Vector Sigma

The Matrix is a remote control unit for everything --it once would've been carried by the Quintesson Overlord in charge of the planet. It was captured during the War of the Primes (the original slave revolt) and used against the Creators, inspiring the legend of Prima's Sword, a weapon that could defeat any enemy and cut through any obstacle. It also has its own memory "backup," which is why the memories of Matrix-Bearers become imprinted on it.

There are certain rituals and ceremonies that a Prime needs to go through --these aren't spiritual (though they are believed to be), but are necessary to send commands via the Matrix (which was never intended to be connected to a living spark like it is).

Vector Sigma is the Main Computer that the Matrix is directly linked to. Any input from the Matrix goes to Vector Sigma and thence to whatever subsystem is being triggered --think of it as a household computer's router.

The linkage is two-way, of course, and Vector Sigma occasionally sends data to the Matrix, which the Prime interprets as dreams, visions, or subconscious hunches. It is this ability that allows a Matrix-Bearer to navigate Cybertron's core, with its shifting geography (the result of automated internal systems), mind-twisting illusions (hardwired aversions and perception filters programmed into Cybertronian AI), and eldritch abominations (the Dweller is an early Quintesson experiment --which is still hardwired to obey the Matrix). The Prime can come and go at will, but anyone else who tries to penetrate the core will likely end up a gibbering madman, or worse.

Vector Sigma, as the main CPU, also governs the Plasma Energy Chamber. When given the proper command, it draws energy from the PEC and channels it back to the Matrix, which emits it in the form of self-sustaining plasmid cells --sparks. This process is extremely draining for the Prime, and requires several cycles of stasis to recover.

A normal Spark Ceremony produces 65 sparks (13 groups of 5 --five newborns for each faction), and leaves the Prime unconscious for one vorn. This number does not include sparks that split (either accidentally or through deliberate intervention), and there are many folk traditions and legends concerning "extra" sparks (the equivalent of human legends about seventh sons). The 66th (or rather, the 6th newborn added to a given faction) is said to be specially touched by Destiny (Cybertron inherited the Quintessons' base-five math: the number 6 is considered portentious).

(There are persistant rumours that the slave who became Megatron was a 66th, though this could be just a fiction perpetuated by Megatron's cult-of-personality.)

It is possible to extract sparks directly from Vector Sigma, if the Matrix is unavailable (say, in the hands of an enemy leader, or lost on another planet for four million years), but this involves physically going into the Core, facing death or screaming incoherent madness, and rarely yields more than a handful of viable sparks (considering that one must either carry newly-built protoforms to the core, or carry the newly-extruded sparks back to the surface in relatively fragile laser cores).

The Underbase, the Oracle, and the Covenant

The Underbase isn't exactly a repository of knowledge as much as it is an access device. By the time they built Cybertron, the Quintessons had already mastered transphasic data storage --the sum total of their knowledge was stored not in physical repositories, but in subspace databanks. An Underbase module, regardless of location, served as an open connection to this non-corporeal database.

By analogy, the Underbase itself exists on "servers" far away from here, and the Underbase Cube is the modem you use to access it. If the Underbase Cube is the modem, then the Oracle is the monitor --a simple interactive system for accessing the Underbase's vast store of information.

The "Covenant of Primus" is actually a unique read/write access to the Underbase system, allowing its bearer to not only access secured data (not available to the Oracle), but to input new information (effectively creating prophecies, when these additions are found after-the-fact and presumed to have been there all along). The Covenant can also be used to alter or erase data from the Underbase.

(This is why Alpha Trion [and later Orion Pax] was so obsessed with handwritten books and physical datatapes: he of all people knows how easily "Truth" can be rewritten, even with the best of intent, because he has done so himself.)

Edited by Cybersnark, 24 November 2011 - 09:21 AM.

[Octavius Prime]

For TFP:

Arcee, Chromia and Elita-1 all three exist and their story is sort of a combination of their counterparts's stories in Animated and the movies.

Arcee wears blue because one of her older sisters, Chromia, died in combat as part of Ironhide's unit back on Cybertron. At some point post-season 1, we discover that Chromia actually got caught up in a transwarp explosion of a prototype Decepticon space bridge. Her transwarp signal gets recognized by Ratchet's groundbridge system, and she enters the Autobot base. For her, no time has gone by, and Arcee has one of the various tragedies of her life resolved in a goodway (Chromia also scans the same bike mode as Arcee, and Arcee reverts to her original colors).

Elita-1, Arcee and Chromia's oldest sister, was an early compatriot of Optimus and was one of the first Autobot ship captains after the Exodus. However, her ship "disappeared", and no one knows what happened. However, it had been intercepted by Decepticons, who killed everyone save Elita and kidnapped her, knowing that Megatron would want her due to her close relationship to Optimus. However, before she could be taken to Megatron, another Decepticon (Shockwave? Not sure) thought she should be rebuilt and reprogrammed into a con. This resulted in Airachnid, who later took off on her own before the events of Predatory. No one, save her "creator", knows that she is Elita (least of all herself).

[ssg4life]

i wish i still had the thing i wrote explaining how rid actually fit in with the beast wars/machines timeline. i submitted to benson yee years ago when i wrote it

[Starfield]

Roller was always very busy. Optimus Prime used it like any Autobot commander would if they had a little mobile extension of his consciousness. It was always over the next ridge or in the next town quietly scouting the area up to 1,200 miles away. Optimus never called attention to it because it would take away some of the magic on how he appears to be so wise all the time and comes up with the right answers. Even the narrator hardly ever notices it is around, so it rarely made any appearances on-screen or on-panel. In the cartoon, Optimus went so far as to act like the "tough little Autobot" had a rudimentary mind of its own so no one would suspect the truth.

[Moroboshi]

Yeah, I wish they had done more, outside of Escalation, with the premise in the TFU profile that Optimus, Roller and the Command Deck were 3 parts of a whole (same with having more of the Pretender/inner robot tag team).

It would be interesting to know if the wearer ended up leaving some sort of psychic imprint on the shell (i.e., if the remote link worked in both directions). You could have creepy stuff where a guy dies and his shell is still wandering around with an echo of his death throes burned into its brain).

That's how I use the deluxe and Voyager Bludgeon together; Bludgeon's ego and will were SO strong that they imprinted themselves on the shell, which rebelled and became its own being.

Edited by Moroboshi, 25 November 2011 - 03:50 PM.

[Starfield]

Yeah, I wish they had done more, outside of Escalation, with the premise in the TFU profile that Optimus, Roller and the Command Deck were 3 parts of a whole (same with having more of the Pretender/inner robot tag team).

It would be interesting to know if the wearer ended up leaving some sort of psychic imprint on the shell (i.e., if the remote link worked in both directions). You could have creepy stuff where a guy dies and his shell is still wandering around with an echo of his death throes burned into its brain).

That's how I use the deluxe and Voyager Bludgeon together; Bludgeon's ego and will were SO strong that they imprinted themselves on the shell, which rebelled and became its own being.

In a twist on that idea, Skullgrin's shell, which always turned him into a uncontrollable engine of destruction, left its imprint on Skullgrin even after he lost his shell, so that the spark of the mad beast threatens to overtake his ruthless, methodical self.

[Tindalos]

Vector Sigma, as the main CPU, also governs the Plasma Energy Chamber. When given the proper command, it draws energy from the PEC and channels it back to the Matrix, which emits it in the form of self-sustaining plasmid cells --sparks. This process is extremely draining for the Prime, and requires several cycles of stasis to recover.

A normal Spark Ceremony produces 65 sparks (13 groups of 5 --five newborns for each faction), and leaves the Prime unconscious for one vorn. This number does not include sparks that split (either accidentally or through deliberate intervention), and there are many folk traditions and legends concerning "extra" sparks (the equivalent of human legends about seventh sons). The 66th (or rather, the 6th newborn added to a given faction) is said to be specially touched by Destiny (Cybertron inherited the Quintessons' base-five math: the number 6 is considered portentious).

(There are persistant rumours that the slave who became Megatron was a 66th, though this could be just a fiction perpetuated by Megatron's cult-of-personality.)

While I like most of your stuff, I really like this, especially picking up of the idea that Cybertron uses Quinary, which was the case in beast wars, but never really expanded upon.

I've always thought of the Allspark/Vector Sigma/Underbase/Compu-Core/Omega-Lock as variations on a theme. An ancient computer/artifact which is used to grant new life, and is full of an impossible amount of energy, and often jettisoned to protect it. I figure the life granting artifacts of the Matrix of Leadership, the Matrix Flame, and the "Cyber Planet Keys" are fragments of this ancient artifact, most removed in the ancient golden age, to provide life to the colony worlds.

The "Quill", I see as the same object as the Key to Vector Sigma. An interface with the source of all knowledge, and one of the few ways to interface with it without risking destruction.