thoughts on the Beast-era

[Onslaught Six]

Nah, RID is its own era, tucked in between the Beast Era and AEC. It's not related to anything else.

You're stupid and wrong.

[andersonh1]

Nah, RID is its own era, tucked in between the Beast Era and AEC. It's not related to anything else.

You're stupid and wrong.

No, YOU are. So there!

[Dominic]

This actually has been a thing between JT and myself. I argue that RiD/TF2K/whatever is part of the Beast years.

He argues it is more UT era.

And, Anderson's snarkiness has validity as well. RiD was the precursor to "Universe" 1, which of course let to "Universe" 2 (aka TFU).

There is some talk of re-organizing the forums a bit, so this question has some relevance.

Dom
-really, "Destronger" was an intentional pun? Wow.

[andersonh1]

That's a good point. I had forgotten that RID was the recolor line for awhile before the original all-repaint Universe line was launched. RID was probably comprised of just about as many repainted older molds as it was new ones. It was the budget-saving catch-all line.

I was thinking in terms of the fiction as well. G1/G2/BW/BMac are all generally in their own continuity. RID is by itself, and then A/E/C follows that.

[Gomess]

Is there really enough discussing of RiD that it merits reorganisation....? Seems fine where it is, to me.

But yeah, I'm with the "It's part of the Beast Era" faction. Just 'cos the Autobots are all vehicles, don't let that distract you from the toy construction and... the aforementioned fact that storywise, Car Robot is closer to the Japanese Beast Warses than anything else.

...New forum for BW2 / Neo / RiD, leaving Armada / Energon / Cybertron in theirs? Least successful suggestion evarrr...! X]

[Onslaught Six]

-really, "Destronger" was an intentional pun? Wow.

I've at least always assumed it was. I can't imagine it being anything other, and it fits with Gigs's whole little-brother "I AM THE STRONGEST AND BESTEST" personality. (Of course, I've thought this much of him for so long, I don't remember how much of it is actually canon anymore. RID came out nine years ago.) I know him and Magmatron aren't brothers in canon, at least.

That's a good point. I had forgotten that RID was the recolor line for awhile before the original all-repaint Universe line was launched. RID was probably comprised of just about as many repainted older molds as it was new ones. It was the budget-saving catch-all line.

RID moreso than CR--technically, RID is *all* repaints, since all Hasbro did was import CR. Plus, they expanded it so much from what Takara originally did. Did you know that RID includes repaints of moulds from literally every US TF series that came before it? (Granted, that's only G1/G2/BW/BM, but still.)

My comment was snarky, but I really don't see RID easily categorized with either what came before or after.

But the Predacons, man, they're all...y'know, Predacons. And regardless of anything else, they *have* the Pred symbol on them. Even in CR. (The fact that Japan made no real distinctions between Destrons and Predacons is an oversight.) Plus, it hails from the pre-Armada time of reboot-the-series-every-two-years, so it's much easier to throw it in the bag. It also, stylistically, fits right in with BWII and BWNeo, as those were also well-produced Japanese-exclusive anime that had funny overtones, just like CR/RID--whereas Armada was poorly produced crap for both markets with shitty animation and dubbing. RID is clearly, thematically and stylistically, a continuation of the eras that came before it.

Is there really enough discussing of RiD that it merits reorganisation....? Seems fine where it is, to me.

But yeah, I'm with the "It's part of the Beast Era" faction. Just 'cos the Autobots are all vehicles, don't let that distract you from the toy construction and... the aforementioned fact that storywise, Car Robot is closer to the Japanese Beast Warses than anything else.

...New forum for BW2 / Neo / RiD, leaving Armada / Energon / Cybertron in theirs? Least successful suggestion evarrr...! X]

I'm with G here. Much as I'm stylistically arguing that RID "belongs" with BWII/Neo, it should stay with the ArmEnerTron crap just for consistency's sake. It's been there the whole time, why move it now?

(Also: Most of the Predacons/Destrons in BWII were initially vehicles. The four jets and Megastorm, plus the Autorollers. People tend to forget that.)

[Gomess]

As I recall, according to the manga, Gigatron is actually BW Megatron and BW2 Galvatron's big brother. Megs is the insecure little brother looking to do something grand, Galvatron's the misanthropic drunken middle child, and Gigatron's the bombastic big bro.

But Magmatron has nothing to do with them. Again, going by the manga (which I mostly prefer to the anime) he's three purely organic dinosaurs from Gaia, turned INTO a Transformer by... uh, I forget. Did Lio Convoy give his spark to Gaia at the end of BW2? I forget.

Always liked the idea of an animal developing a spark/protoform, to contrast the tradition of protoforms developing organic characteristics.

[Onslaught Six]

Well, that's the manga, I never really followed that end of it--the animals-turning-into-Transformers thing is interesting and different, but certainly not in line with everything else we typically see in BW's universe.

Maybe I'm taking anime Gigs' personality too literally, and imposing a little bit of his troops' buffonishness onto him. They're Destrongers because Gigs has 'so much' to prove that he has to call his group the ones who are STRONGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE ONE ONE. And the Predastooges and Sky-Byte being basically incompetant is a good bit of that, I think. On his own, mind, Gigs is still a decent threat--especially when imbibed with the power of HOIE--but it isn't until he becomes Devil Gigs that he achieves the power he's wanted for so long.

Again, not sure how much of this is fanon anymore.

[Gomess]

Heh, well it's fanon that I agree with, for what it's worth. But I always saw him as an old guy, past his prime (past his tron?) and trying to rebuild the great reputation he once had.

That sort of thing is borne out in the fact that he has the smallest army of all three brothers, but went to the effort of giving them all a name beginning with G, like him. He's such a cool maniacal old NERD.

...Basically, I saw it like this:
Megatron = Ambition; Future
Galvatron = Avarice; Present
Gigatron = Reputation; Past

And I call *Gigatron* a nerd! 8D

[Onslaught Six]

That sort of thing is borne out in the fact that he has the smallest army of all three brothers, but went to the effort of giving them all a name beginning with G, like him. He's such a cool maniacal old NERD.

...

*typeype*
*readread*

How did I never notice this before? Seriously.

...Basically, I saw it like this:
Megatron = Ambition; Future
Galvatron = Avarice; Present
Gigatron = Reputation; Past

And I call *Gigatron* a nerd! 8D

Well, the big thing with 86 and I was giving a real brotherhood kind of thing with Mags and Gigs. I believe there was that one fic we were working on where the two go out on a huge last night of partying before Mags is set to become Emperor of Destruction. And Gigs is pissy because he's not getting to be Emperor, and at this point it's looking unlikely that he ever will. Of course, we never finished it.