History Characters / TheTransformersRobotsInDisguiseAutobots

* KickTheSonOfABitch: In ''On Off On'', this is revealed to be Prowl's plan for Spike. His grudge against Spike has waned after he began to understand where Spike was coming from, and now sees Spike as a means to an end in infiltrating Blackrock's fortress. At best, he views Spike as a casualty in the ensuing attack, nothing to go out of the way and get too worked up about. With that said, deep down in Prowl's subconscious, [[ItsPersonal it's still very much personal]], so that combining into Devastator brings the resentment out and he abandons the mission to try and squash Spike. Afterwards he's angry that he never got to play this trope straight.
** He's also responsible for Ratbat's assassination by Arcee's hands. Given that Ratbat had a hand in unwittingly starting the war by arming Megatron's forces, and was all too willing to restart it for glory and the chance to finally be in command, it's [[AssholeVictim hard to shed any tears.]]

A former team of special ops killers, the Dinobots had a reputation as the worst of the worst. Postwar, they've been hit hard by the recognition of this, and are currently shepherding the next generation of Cybertronian lives to atone.
For tropes on Grimlock, see ''Characters/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye''

** Slug is ''livid'' to discover the other Dinobots are now allied with [[spoiler: his killer Sandstorm]] in ''Optimus Prime'' #13 and tries to kill him on the spot.

* NoPlaceForMeThere: They ultimately work towards preserving the new society even though they admit that it's at odds with their vicious, belligerent nature, ultimately [[spoiler: at the cost of Slug, Snarl, and Sludge's lives.]]

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: Strafe, in more ways than one. She's the only female on the team, the only non-Cybertronian (she's Camien), the only non-Autobot, she's never seen war, and she even lacks the group's traditional grey, gold and red colours.

--> '''Kup:''' I've had worse than this. I've been spiked by Squadron X, dipped in the smeltin' pool, framed for treason, shot into the sun — and I was the only 'bot still trapped inside the Nightmare Engine when everyone else woke up. I've seen off every rinky-dink, two-bit, catchpenny Decepticon rust-poker, and I got the dents in my knuckles to prove it. End of the day? I'm ready for anything you can throw at me.

* HeroicSacrifice: Superiorn permanently separates to destroy Galvatron's "Earth Engima".

* StartOfDarkness: While it doesn't take him down the road to becoming a super-villain, ''Optimus Prime'' #5 shows that [[spoiler:being lied to by the Decepticons as Orion Pax (whom he then idolized as freedom fighters) turned him from a kind hearted cop to someone dedicated to bringing them down setting him up for ''Autocracy''.]]

* BaritoneOfStrength: Mentioned over in MTMTE when Whirl tries to imitate him, and fails. Considering that Whirl was trying to quote the '86 movie, it's likely Roberts was referencing that movie.

** He asks Prowl to join him when he returns to Earth, stating that while he doesn't trust him, he at least knows how far he can trust him. By the time Prowl is arrested in ''Combiner Wars'', he's severely hindered the Autobots' chances of making peace with the humans, caused a massive amount of damage as Devastator, and tried to destroy Cybertron's Space Bridge, effectively dooming Caminus if he'd succeeded. [[SarcasmMode Nice job, Prime]].

* RedIsHeroic

* {{Expy}}: WordOfGod confirms that Optimus' post-''Dark Cybertron'' arc as an unwilling messiah figure becoming more comfortable with the notion takes a lot of inspiration from Ben Sisko of ''Deep Space 9'' fame.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Does not hesitate to do what has to be done, be it punching through a begging [[BigBad Nova Prime]]'s chest to put an end to his delusions of universal control, blasting a [[TimeyWimeyBall temporarily-good]] [[OmnicidalManiac Shockwave]] to bits to save the universe (though he did regret it and there was [[IDidWhatIHadToDo no other way to stop Shockwave by that point]]) or executing a surrendering [[BarbarianHero Galvatron]] to end his ambitions of taking over Earth once and for all. Even [[WellIntentionedExtremist Soundwave]] and [[BloodKnight Arcee]] are [[OhCrap visibly stunned]] by that last one.

** Played quite straight with the humans in season 2: they are [[WhatTheHellHero horrified]] that he would accept Megatron of all 'formers as an Autobot, after [[KillAllHumans his invasion of Earth resulted in the death of over a billion humans]] - something Soundwave uses to broker an alliance with the EDC despite their glaring mutual mistrust. Things get a LOT worse in ''All Hail Optimus'' after he basically tells Earth they're joining the galactic community whether they like it or not, leading to a massive attack by the EDC's CombiningMecha which is only ended after Optimus summons a two-mile tall Titan, leading to a full human retreat. In ''Revolution'' #1, his arrival and attempts to be reasonable are met with a [[spoiler: full scale attack by G.I. Joe, who steadfastly refuse to believe anything he says. That Soundwave, who killed a lot of people during the Decepticon invasion, is now one of Optimus' lieutenants doesn't help.]] Finally averted in ''Revolution'' #5, where he sees that Earth has defenders of its own (G.I. Joe, Action Man, M.A.S.K) and offers to work with them instead of taking sole responsibility for Earth's defence all the time.

** His annexation of Earth is specifically noted by [[spoiler: Joe Colton]] to be the main reason he and Cobra [[spoiler: invade Cybertron]] in ''First Strike'', which among other things led to [[spoiler:Unicron being woken up.]] [[SarcasmMode Good job, Prime.]]

* {{Bishonen}}: Mostly when drawn by Sarah Stone.

* CombiningMecha: Victorion obviously.

* DependingOnTheArtist: Victorion's head, and especially her head-crest seem to be a problem for artists. Also, whether she has a mouthplate or not.

* GravityScrew: Victorion has gravity-manipulating powers. ''Unicron'' suggests it's a side-effect of living near Ore-4.

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Stormclash is killed by Monstructor and Victorion functionally ceases to exist without her]] Subverted when the Earth Enigma changes Slide into one of her components, allowing her to live again.

* UnexpectedCharacter: Most of them originated from franchises of varying obscurity: Oiler and Slide are Micromaster Combiners from the last year of the original toyline, Gimlet and Bump hail from the Japanese-exclusive ''Anime/BeastWarsII'' and ''Anime/BeastWarsNeo'' anime series, and Roulette originated in 2003's almost entirely-forgotten ''Universe'' toyline.

* BadassBaritone: Mentioned over in MTMTE when Whirl tries to imitate him, and fails. Considering that Whirl was trying to quote the '86 movie, it's likely Roberts was referencing Creator/PeterCullen.
-->'''Whirl:''' ''How can anyone's voice '''be''' that low?''

* NotGoodWithPeople: Genuinely has no idea why the other Autobots are so shocked when she casually tells them Prowl, not Bombshell, had Ratbat killed - or why Sideswipe, who she'd fought alongside against the Decepticons, bars her way when she tries to see how Bumblebee is. She's getting better though.
* NoSocialSkills: Used to be ''very'' poor. Through the series she starts growing out of it, but she still has a tendency to be overly blunt.

* BadassInCharge: The undisputed leader of the Autobots, who has personally taken out three of the series' [[BigBad Big Bads]] in [[AGodAmI Nova Prime]], [[OmnicidalManiac Shockwave]] and [[BloodKnight Galvatron]].

* OnlySaneMan: Amongst the commanding Autobots, at least until Windblade shows up. While ''Dark Cybertron'' shows that he too has his issues, they pale in comparison to Rodimus' hotheadedness and narcissism, Bumblebee's fragile self-image, Ultra Magnus' SuperOCD, and Prowl's KnightTemplar / ManipulativeBastard tendencies. Just take a look at his meeting with 3 out of these 4 (plus SmugSnake Starscream) in MTMTE #28 for proof.

* NoSocialSkills: One of the big reasons he's so disliked is that he doesn't even try to be nice. Sure, other people have done worse things for worse reasons than Prowl, but they're fun to hang out with and show regret, so they're forgivable. Prowl just continues to be a jerk. Over in MTMTE, Swerve at one point describes him as Ultra Magnus - their SuperOCD RulesLawyer GrammarNazi second-in command - ''without'' the warmth or people skills.

* FlatCharacter: Occasional [[AffablyEvil affability]] aside there really isn't much to these guys and they're generally written as the same, interchangeable thug, lacking their signature idiosyncrasies from [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Generation One.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: Played for laughs, but he doesn't seem to realize that Earth has separate countries and that the White House is not the central authority on Earth. Possibly justified due to every other planet having one central government and the US President having near complete control over the EDC due to being their largest funder.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Save Swoop, who is, in fact, a Pteranodon. They have this mind-set themselves, since they chose the alt-modes to avoid succumbing to energon overload, but then they got attached, and never bothered changing back.