I've downloaded the Binder of Revelation....
And man, there's a lot that would have been cool to implement in the cartoons had the Aligned writers played in this sandbox. Granted, there are some things I'm glad we got switched around - which I'll get into later - but because it's Christmas and I don't want to bombard people with too much of my usual ranting against TFP, I'm gonna focus on something/someone who got my immediate attention when I was reading the Binder earlier:
Jetfire, who is one of my favorite Autobots who, much like my favorite X-Man Cyclops/Scott Summers, has one of the most complicated histories in TF lore.
So, for a start, anytime I hear or see Jetfire, I always think of his most iconic versions from the Unicron Trilogy. I've never viewed him as G1 "Jetfire"/Skyfire (though I am aware that they were supposed to be one and the same until Japan and Hasbro suffered trademark issues), in part because the two could not be any more different than they already are. In recent years, I personally would split the difference by making them twins: Skyfire as the scientist who joined the Decepticons before defecting, and Jetfire as the cowboy or no-nonsense second-in-command of the Autobots.
But I'm getting distracted.
What fascinates me about Jetfire's Binder bio is his entry for "distinguishing features" - namely, that Jetfire has a transwarp drive.
Look below for a summary of a transwarp drive under "time travel" if you don't want to read the TFWiki page for it.
So, the creative geniuses (truly, I think they were kinda genius with all that I've found in the Binder thus far) behind this $250,000 story bible gave Jetfire the ability to travel back or forward in time, apparently limited only by his lifespan for the latter and "distant past" for the former. And I have to ask myself:
What were their plans for Jetfire?
Was he going to be a time-jumping Autobot ally, appearing and disappearing depending on what he found throughout his travels? Was he trying to fix certain parts of the War for the Autobots' benefit? Was this to explain how he ended up frozen on Earth (new plot bunny just manifested)?
Or was it simply for a "cool factor"?
Seriously, this opens up so many possibilities that my mind is almost racing. Jetfire is an awesome character and fan favorite from the early 2000s, and giving him something like this would have benefited TFP or any of the Aligned Continuity by having a time traveler version of Jetfire constantly hopping around and lending a hand to his fellow Autobots. And while this was unfortunately scrapped, reading his personality and history blurbs...it feels like Jetfire's "cranky" aspects were shifted onto Ratchet, which is a separate ball of wax that exploded in the TFP writers' faces for reasons I'll get into later.
Regardless, I find this particular bit of lore intriguing, and it's starting to give me ideas. Heck, I might even be able to combine a few of his personality traits into the one version of him for myself, though I will have to reconsider that a bit more thoroughly.
Well, that's all for now, peeps. Until next time -
Merry Christmas, and transform and roll out!
