Factions in the Beast era

[Dominic]

Our discussion about user groups got me thinking about this.

As much as I like Minicons, there is not taking away the fact that the Beast era had more factions than any other point for the franchise. Even if one counts Alpha Quintesson and his henchmen as a seperate faction, the Beast era still wins.

Maximals
Predacons
Megatron's Predacons (seperate from the main Predacon faction)
Vok

Mutants

Oracle's Maximals
Vehicons (This faction also included troop-builders.)
Dinobots

Wreckers

Decepticons (RiD)

Insectrons
Jointrons
Autorollers
Space Pirates

Blendtrons (BW Neo)


I actually miss the days of multiple factions, as it allowed for more possibilities in the cartoons, comics and toys. Thoughts?

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

I'm so glad you've got the Destrongers in there. Hooray!

[Dominic]

Well, the Destrongers/RiD Decepticons are mostly their own faction.

Now, why would you like them so much?

Dom

[onslaught86]

Because they are Destrongest! Heh.

There's also the Insectrons and Autorollers, they were functionally mercenary factions. I thoroughly enjoy the idea of the Insecticons branching off into their own faction proper.

[Dominic]

I just edited the list to add them, and a few others.

I always liked the Insectrons as well. I have Tonbot, and absolutely love the episode with Bigmos' history with Stinger.

Dom
-"mercenary" is a hard word. Do you know what it means?

[Onslaught Six]

Now, why would you like them so much?

Well, for one thing, they're awesome.

But the real thing is that they're from 'RID,' and your inclusion basically means you support RID (or at least Car Robots) being in-continuity with Japanese BW. Which it is because it totally works and makes RID better.

One could also almost argue that the Tripredacus council and their various Agents are a faction unto themselves, seperate from the main Predacons, but that could be stretching it.

[Dominic]

I consider "Robots in Disguise" and/or "Transformers 2000" to be late Beast era by virtue of the toys. Continuity-wise, I never bought into the idea that BW, G1 and TF2000 all fit neatly together. All of the theories seem to hinder on badly written Takara copy and a heavy dose of fan-fickery.

I have a hard time considering RiD to be part of BW the same way I have a hard time considering "Alternators" and "Armada" to be part of the same continuity, despite both being post-Beast era toys and some Alternators being able to accomodate Minicons.

The problem with considering the Tripredacus Council as yet another faction is that they *ran* the main Predacon faction. They wrote the policies and saw to it that they were enforced. Given that the Unicron thread was never picked up after the show was cancelled, and that there is official material to discount it, the idea that they are working for Unicron has to be shelved.

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

But there's also evidence that they *aren't* running it, and a seperate group whose name I forget is actually running it.

It's confusing as hell and the disambiguation of BWII and Neo is why I like those serieses.

[andersonh1]

I've always thought that Beast Machines would have had the potential for better character conflict and drama if the Predacon faction had been included, rather than simply streamlining the story to Maximal vs. Vehicon, with Dinobots on the side in the toyline. Buzzsaw, a first year basic, was originally going to be a Predacon I believe, but it was decided that would make things too confusing.

But the Beast era is a different kettle of fish than G1. G1 is about a massive, race-wide civil war, where the two halves of the Transformers are caught up in the struggle. Beast Wars and that era is more political, with an ostensible peace on Cybertron and the war more of a small conflict between two small factions on Earth. The Beast era, at least in American fiction, reminds me of a cold war scenario, with spies and different factions within the factions competing for varying goals. The Beast Wars on earth is a regional 'brush fire war' of sorts. You don't see as much of that with G1.

I'm not very familiar with the Japanese continuity, so I don't know how or if it would fit in.

[Onslaught Six]

Japanese BW tended to focus more on the Here And Now. LioConvoy and Galvatron's crews looked over Gaea, which turns out to be post-apocalyptic Earth in the far-flung future of Current-Day BW. Neo focuses on Big Convoy and Magmatron trying to get the Angolmois capsules--I think--and then the Blentrons show up, steal them, sacrifice them to Unicron, and get eaten. Big Convoy blows up Unicron, the end.