o.supreme wrote:As for the Aligned Continuity, one issue I have is Grimlock. If it can be explained how he went from his appearance in the War For Cybertron, to him ending up as a Decepticon aboard the Prison Ship, Alchemor that I would like to see. Of course the simplest explanation would be to say that WFC Grimlock and RiD2015 Grimlock are two unrelated characters, but some explanation would be nice.
The show creators view RID 2015 Grimlock as a different Grimlock from WFC/FOC/Prime Grimlock, so for the time being, I'm just gonna view him as a new guy who happened to be born from the Well after it was revitalized.
o.supreme wrote:Additionally, as I really don't watch Rescue Bots (that's my sons show). I wonder if we are supposed to believe that everything that happened in seasons 1-3 of RB, happened before season 3 of Prime? or after, or what... Optimus Prime having obtaining a "dino" mode kind of mucks things up, but if any fan of RB can offer an explanation, I'd love to hear it.
Nicole Dubuc once explained that Optimus's Primal Mode is viewed more as a hindrance than not, which is why he prefers not to use it and never used it in TF: Prime.
As for how the two shows relate to one another, I once wrote out a big timeline speculating how the two shows would line up, episode-wise.
Sabrblade wrote:Showrunner Nicole Dubuc has stated before that she has a timeline chart that the staff uses to keep track of events that occur in the timeline of both shows, and which they use to keep Rescue Bots in continuity with Prime.
Well, I myself have tried taking a crack at making a timeline of my own to see how the two shows might relate to one another.
I first started with the only truly known exact point in time when the two shows share a direct link, in which the end of "What Rises Above" leads directly into the beginning of "Nemesis Prime". From there, I back-tracked to the beginning of each show to see which episodes lined up with which and where. Then I adjusted things a little to make them flow a bit better with each other to avoid any potential conflicts or confusion. Granted, since we still don't know at which point during Rescue Bots that Prime's third season begins, nor do we know at which point during Rescue Bots that Predacons Rising occurs. Thus far, Optimus Prime continues to be alive as far as Rescue Bots is concerned, so I placed all of the Rescue Bots episodes that have aired so far as of this typing (meaning up to "Pirates Ahoy") in the timeline prior to the Prime season 2 episode "New Recruit", which is the start of the long stretch of episodes that lead directly into the Prime season 2 finale. Should a later Rescue Bots episode bring about new info that would conflict with this, I can make the necessary adjustments since this timeline is very much subject to change.
But for now, here's what I have so far (
Prime episodes are in blue,
Rescue Bots episodes are in red):
Darkness Rising, Part 1
Darkness Rising, Part 2
Darkness Rising, Part 3
Darkness Rising, Part 4
Darkness Rising, Part 5
Masters & Students
Scrapheap
Con Job /
Family of HeroesConvoy /
Under PressureDeus ex Machina /
HotshotsSpeed Metal /
Flobsters on ParadePredatory /
Walk on the Wild SideCody on Patrol
Four Bots and a Baby
Christmas in July
Deep Trouble
Return of the Dino BotSick Mind /
The Other DoctorOut of His Head /
The Reign of MoroccoShadowzone /
Small BlessingsOperation: Breakdown /
The Griffin Rock TriangleCrisscross /
Rules and RegulationsMetal Attraction /
The Lost BellRock Bottom /
Bumblebee to the RescuePartners /
You’ve Been SquilshedT.M.I. /
CountdownStronger, Faster /
The Haunting of Griffin RockLittle White LiesOne Shall Fall
One Shall Rise, Part 1 /
Shake UpOne Shall Rise, Part 2
One Shall Rise, Part 3
Orion Pax, Part 1 /
Rescue BoyOrion Pax, Part 2
Orion Pax, Part 3It’s a Bot Time
Bot to the FutureOperation Bumblebee, Part 1 /
Road TripOperation Bumblebee, Part 2 Loose Cannons /
Sky ForestCrossfire /
One for the AgesTip of the IcebergA Virtual Disaster
Spellbound
Prescott's Bots
Blame the Gremlins
Feed the Beast
What Lies Below
What Rises AboveNemesis Prime Grill /
Space BotsThe Island of Misfit Tech
The Vigilant Town
Buddy System
In Search of the Griffin's NestArmada /
Bots and RobbersFlying Mind
Tunnel Vision /
Triangulation /
Triage /
Toxicity /
Rescue DogHurtChanges
The Riders of Midwinter
Movers and Shakers
Chief Woodrow
Odd Bot OutOut of the Past /
The Griffin Rock ExpressDouble Villainy
Rise of the Heroes
Land Before Prime
Big Game
Too Many Kades
Phantom of the Sea
Unfinished Business
No Place Like Dome
Bugs in the System
Switcheroo
Bot-Tastic Voyage
Quarry's Quarry
Did You See What I Thaw?
The Attack of Humungado
All Bots Great and Small
Time After Time
Pirates AhoyNew Recruit
The Human Factor
Legacy
Alpha/Omega
Hard Knocks
Inside Job
Patch
Regeneration
Darkest HourNotes:- "Con Job" is selected as the starting point for Rescue Bots since that episode has Optimus excuse himself from the party at the base for most of the episode, enabling him to go to Maine to debrief the newly-arrived Rescue Force Sigma-17.
- Though "Under Pressure" is place with "Convoy", it would have to start a little sooner since Heatwave's team gives Optimus a call early on in the episode, while Optimus is only at the base at the start of "Convoy", meaning the call would have had to have been made before Fowler's call to Prime at the beginning of "Convoy".
- Five RB episodes are placed between "Predatory" and "Sick Mind" to allow "The Other Doctor" and "The Reign of Morocco" to coincide with "Sick Mind" and "Out of His Head", as both two-parters fit well together with "Out of His Head" providing a point where all of the Autobots are away from the Jasper base, during which time Heatwave's attempt to give Optimus a call in "The Reign of Morocco" would go unanswered.
- Continuing the pattern onward allows "Bumblebee to the Rescue" to coincide with "Rock Bottom", during which Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ratchet are not featured, providing an opportunity for Bumblebee to be in Griffin Rock while Optimus and Ratchet are back at the base, where Ratchet will tell Optimus about the virus that the Burnses would tell Optimus about via a communique between both bases.
- "Little White Lies" is place by itself before "One Shall Fall" due to the latter being serialized with "One Shall Rise" while the former is now serialized with its next episode, "Shake Up". This allows enough time to pass between "Little White Lies" and "Shake Up".
- "Shake Up" is place with "One Shall Rise, Part 1", but can really take place during any point within the three-parter during Unicron's global earthquake. This placement is the only way that Unicron's earthquake can make it into Rescue Bots without it just occurring offscreen between episodes. While the giant subwoofer was the given culprit of the quake in the RB episode, one could presume that the RB quake just happened to coincide with Unicron's quake, and that Griffin Rock was miraculously spared the worst of it. It's a stretch, yes, but it's better than handwaving it away outright.
- "Rescue Boy" is placed with "Orion Pax, Part 1", but could really take place at any point in that three-parter due to how serialized it is. And it's placed during this three-parter rather than in the "One Shall Rise" three-parter due to there needing to be enough time to pass after "Shake Up" for "Rescue Boy" to occur. If "Shake Up" were to take place early enough during "One Shall Rise", "Rescue Boy" can occur late enough during "Orion Pax".
- "It's a Bot Time" and "Bot to the Future" are both place after "Orion Pax" but before "Operation Bumblebee" since both Optimus and Bumblebee appear in them and Optimus is an Autobot with his memories intact and Bumblebee can transform.
- Only "Road Trip" and no other episode is placed in the "Operation Bumblebee" two-parter due to the two-parter being serialized while "Road Trip" and "Sky Forest" are not, requiring more time to occur between the two.
- Eight RB episodes are placed in between "Crossfire" and "Nemesis Prime" to allow "What Rises Above" to lead right into "Nemesis Prime". Plus, it gives MECH more time to complete and perfect Project: Chimera before its formal field debut in "Nemesis Prime". Though, in this regard, some of these RB episodes could admittedly take place at some point before "Crossfire" but still after "Operation Bumblebee".
- "Space Bots" is placed with "Grill" instead of "Nemesis Prime" to give it more time to take place after "What Rises Above" since, as the two are not serialized, "Space Bots" doesn't seem to take place the very next day after "What Rises Above".
- The next bunch of episodes are where things get tricky. Optimus's next appearance in RB comes in "Changes", in which he goes over to Maine to meet with and train Heatwave. However, Optimus has no free time to do that from "Armada" until after "Hurt", requiring that to be the earliest point at which "Changes" can occur. Plus, none of these RB episodes are serialized like the Prime ones are, which means that they need to coincide with at least every other serialized Prime episode. What's more is that the four relic hunt episodes all take place at the same time, permitting only one RB episode to coincide with them. Thus, four episodes are place before "Armada", one during "Armada", none during "Flying Mind", one during the four relic hunt episodes, and none during "Hurt".
- After "Changes", the next four episodes are placed before "Out of the Past" because of "Odd Bot Out", in which both Bumblebee and Optimus appear, and in which Optimus and Blades go after an Iacon Relic. In "Out of the Past", Optimus is seen still trying to decrypt the Iacon Database, so the relic he and Blades got might have been the very first one that Optimus decrypted (and apparently did so before Soundwave). Plus, "Out of the Past" has Bumblebee returning to base from somewhere, so this could possibly be his returning from Griffin Rock after Optimus returned further ahead of him. What's more is that "Hurt" had Bulkhead being more dead than alive, while "Out of the Past" showed him to be alive, awake, and attempting to move around, suggesting a fair amount of time having passed since "Hurt".
- The rest of the RB episodes are all shoved in before "New Recruit" since that's the beginning of the end for Prime season 2. As of "Quarry's Quarry", Optimus seems to still have the freedom to go back and forth between Jasper and Griffin Rock a few times with ease, yet has precious little free time to do anything of the sort by the time Smokescreen arrives. Plus, as of "Did You See What I Thaw?", Optimus is still invested in locating and securing energon deposits on Earth, as he tasks the Rescue Team to do in that episode, when much greater concerns like more relics, the Omega Keys, and the Omega Lock take away all of his attention by the final act of Prime season 2. And most notable of all, "Unfinished Business" has the Jasper base still in operation, as we get a glimpse of its interior in that episode (even though it was the military base hangar in Maine seen in episodes 1 and 45 that was used for the background instead, but Ms. Dubuc's comment about Ratchet suggests that it was meant to be the Jasper base, with the Maine base background just being recycled to represent it).
Granted, this timeline isn't perfect and doesn't have all of the episodes that have yet to air, and word has it that Optimus is the one who sends High Tide over to train the Rescue Bots in the next newest episode to come (as of this typing), so we'll just have to wait and see how the rest of season 3 and all of season 4 correlate to more of the Prime episodes.
And now that the rest of season 3 has aired, with Optimus having made further appearances in it, it is possible that the rest of season 3 might take place before "New Recruit" as well. But, as noted above, it remains to be seen how things will all play out in the long run.
Although all the changes may have seemed far fetched, there was enough explanation given to make The Original Series, Beast Wars, and Beast Machines work as one continuity. 
