History WesternAnimation / TransformersAnimated

* ThisIsSPARTA:
--> '''Starscream:''' [to Megatron] "THIS! IS! '''ALL!!! YOUR!!!''' '''''FAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUULT!!!!!'''''"
-->'''Prowl''' [to Lockdown, much more quietly] "Give. Me. Yoketron's. Helmet."

* FoeYay - the ending of "A Fistful of Energon"

* ParentalBonus - {{Shout Out}}s to ''{{Airplane}}!'', ''Film/DieHard'', ''StarTrek'', ''{{Peanuts}}'' and so, so many more...

* AbandonedWarehouse - Detroit has quite a few of these due to robots replacing human workers.

** Wreck-Gar (voiced by WeirdAlYankovic) declares "I '''dare''' to be stupid!" in one episode, and pulls out an accordion in another.

* AdaptationalVillainy: ''Animated'' Waspinator is much scarier and more villainous than the ChewToy Waspinator in ''Beast Wars'', who spent a lot of his time being blasted to bits by other robots.

* AesopAmnesia - Happens frequently. Bumblebee and Sentinel Prime in particular are poster boys for this trope.

* AliensInCardiff - Megatron's head and hand land in Paw Paw, Michigan, though they end up in Detroit.

* AliensStealCable - Quite literally: Sari [[spoiler:(half-alien herself)]] and Bumblebee use the Key to pirate Master Disaster's illegal street races.

** Actually ''The Allspark Almanac'' probably counts a lot for this trope, revealing intense amounts of detail (and {{Shout Out}}s about the show, the setting and the characters).

* AttackPatternAlpha - 'Omega Formation' is used against Blitzwing in 'Sari, No-One's Home'. It doesn't end well.

* BadassGrandpa - Ratchet.

* BedsheetGhost - Bulkhead has to use a fumigation tent.

* BlofeldPloy - Played with in the first season finale. Megatron mentions how appropriate it is to have Starscream with him as he takes his revenge on the one responsible for his 50 years as a head. He then aims at Optimus, only to turn around and slag Starscream, who actually ''was'' responsible for it but didn't think Megatron knew.

* BuffySpeak - Oddly, two of the smartest (in terms of technology) cast members: see ShapedLikeItself.

* CapedMecha - Lockdown's space poncho and Alpha Trion's traditional cape. Red Alert's design makes her look like she's wearing a labcoat, but at least that's clearly a part of her altmode.
* CardboardPrison - Played straight and averted. The first time Meltdown escapes, he apparently does so without the Detroit Police [[FridgeLogic even hearing about it]]. The second time, however, he's stuck in a specially-designed cell not even he can melt through and it takes the Dinobots (following Blackarachnia's orders) to get him out. The lower-grade supervillains like the Angry Archer seem to have an easier time of it: Fanzone even [[LampshadeHanging points this out]] in the Almanac.

* ChronicallyCrashedCar: Captain Fanzone's car.

* CoDragons - Lugnut and Shockwave. When they finally meet, it takes them about ten minutes to start fighting over which of them is the most loyal to Megatron.

* ConvectionSchmonvection - Sari uses boiling water to kill the space barnacles possessing Bumblebee and Prowl, but isn't scalded by the steam. [[spoiler: Maybe her skin is tougher than a normal human's.]]

* ConveyorBeltOfDoom - When Megatron takes over the factory equipment in 'Home Is Where the Spark Is', he uses the manipulator arms to pin Bulkhead down on one of these and send him towards a crusher.

* CoolChair - Professor Sumdac used Megatron's hand as a chair in his lab. Its owner was less than happy.

* CurbStompBattle - The main Autobots are a maintenance crew, only a handful of whom have proper combat training and only one of whom has actual experience. The Decepticons are massive, powerful war machines. Do the math.

** He survived, and is shown covering the garbage disputes in Season 2.

* DecontaminationChamber - Sentinel uses one to pick on the team in 'The Elite Guard'.

* DevelopmentGag - Team Rodimus is three-fifths scrapped ideas (see WhatCouldHaveBeen). Sari's scooter / jetpack is based on a transforming trike she had in a dropped version of the opening sequence.

* DinosaursAreDragons - The Dinobots, as ever, although Professor Sumdac didn't actually have this in mind while designing them. Megatron added the flame breath because he planned on using one of them as a new body and the others as attack drones.

** Also, Elita-1.

* DontCallMeSir - Ratchet works for a living.
* DoubleAesop - 'Velocity'.

* DrivesLikeCrazy - Sentinel, although it's more to do with his contempt for human traffic laws (he also can't figure out how to drive in the rain). All of the "Automen" in ''Human Error'', where they have to actually work their vehicle modes from the inside instead of just thinking about it.

* EatsBabies - Megatron is such a nightmarish, legendary figure to the Autobots that he's said to eat their protoforms for breakfast. He doesn't, [[spoiler: although he doesn't mind using them to build [=WMD=]s.]]

* EatTheBomb - Snarl swallows a missile in the Dinobots' debut episode, and isn't even fazed.
* EasyAmnesia - Averted, for the most part, with Arcee. [[spoiler:After she loses her memory it stays lost for a very, ''very'' long time, and it takes quite a while to retrieve them properly in the finale.]] There was also a scrapped Season 4 idea with this as its main plot point, this time with Cosmos being amnesic instead of Arcee. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanac 2]], "HilarityEnsues".

* EyesDoNotBelongThere - The mutant space barnacles make eyes appear all over their victims.
* FacePalm

* FanNickname:

* FascistsBedTime - One of Sentinel's first acts as Magnus is to institute a curfew. What this means for robots who don't exactly 'sleep' is unclear, although they do take 'stasis naps'.

* FauxtivationalPoster - Prowl has one in his room.

** Team Chaar also fits, with Strika being the BigBad (though Megatron still outranks her), Cyclonus TheDragon, Blackout TheBrute, Oil Slick TheEvilGenius and...Spittor TheDarkChick by default.

** Sentinel Prime once refers to Optimus and the Autobots as "You Glitches". It's a DoubleEntendre when you think about it.
** The Constructicons also give us this beauty: "What the front-end loader was that?" This was going to be "forklift", but that DIDN'T get past the radar.

** [[spoiler: Prowl as well, in the third (and most likely final) finale]].

* HollywoodLaw - Powell uses his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney connections and resources]] to get Masterson free so he could hire him, despite Masterson threatening to blow up an entire state on live television.

* HostageForMacGuffin
* HumansAreWhite - It does a better job of averting this than previous entries.

* IncrediblyObviousBomb - How Starscream nearly kills Megatron in the premiere. He tries to do this again during the famous Death Montage, but Megatron catches it and throws it back at him.

* InhumanableAlienRights - Powell uses this to get Masterson off the hook for attacking Optimus and Sentinel. Fanzone and the Autobots turn this back on him a few episodes later.
* InitiationCeremony - Mixmaster and Scrapper get the 'painful' version when they officially join the Decepticons: Megatron literally brands both of them.
* InsigniaRipOffRitual - After Shockwave frames Wasp, Sentinel removes his Autobot insignia as Cliffjumper is taking him away.

* IntroDump - The first scene featuring the main Decepticons.

* IslandBase - There's one hidden on Dinobot Island: Meltdown moves into it after his first jailbreak, and Blackarachnia finds it during season 2. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual Almanac]], it's an abandoned government facility.

* JawDrop - Bulkhead does this twice, and it literally ''falls off'' the second time.

* JetPack - Bumblebee's turbo-boosters (when he's in the air), Prowl's jump jets (especially with the samurai armour), Sari's transforming scooter and Optimus' wing-pack from the finale.

* {{Keepaway}} - Five Autobots trying to keep an angry Starscream from the Allspark. Lampshaded by Sari.

* MasterCharacterHeroes -

* MookFaceTurn - The Dinobots, once Meltdown couldn't hurt them.

* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily - Sky-Byte only appears as a headshot in the AII, and doesn't even get a bio, but slag does he have teeth. It's an even bigger shift than Waspinator.

* MotorMouth - Blurr, to the ''n''th degree. Notably, this is played differently from his G1 counterpart, who rambled irrelevancies and reiterated himself in a redundant manner; Here, he talks a [[MythologyGag blue streak]] at 600 mph.
* MyNaymeIs - Played with at episode 1's "next episode" segment in the Japanese dub. Bumblebee complains that "Optimus Prime" is long and hard to remember, and so opts for other names that are all rejected by Optimus: Convoy (traditionally used in Japanese TF series for almost any "Prime"), Opti (sounds more fitting for a cute dog), Opra (plain weird), and Pupu (from "O''pu''timasu ''Pu''raimu", and it's hard not to laugh at it). Bumblebee actually gets Optimus into responding to "Pupu", much to Prime's dismay. It soon degenerates into a "Pupu!" "Optimus Prime!" argument ''past'' the sponsor cards.

* {{Nanomachines}} - Experimental 'microbots' going haywire indirectly wake up the Autobots during the pilot. Powell has them repurposed to consume garbage in season 2, but the first sample is exposed to Allspark radiation and starts consuming everything: luckily, they can't swim.

** The second part of the pilot has an enormous monster with tentacles grabbing a ''seven-year-old girl''. It's not perverted in context (thank God), but it's surprising that there weren't more Kiss Players jokes at the time.

* NeutralNoLonger - Happens not just once, but twice because of the Autobots. To be fair, Ratchet apologizes to Wreck-Gar about the first time and convinces him to switch back to being a hero.

** Not to mention that Lockdown is featured as part of the main group of Decepticons (Even in the ending) despite being technically unaffiliated while [[TheBrute Lugnut]], on the other hand, only appears briefly.

** It's later revealed that [[spoiler: Lockdown]] was once a ninja pupil himself [[spoiler:and an Autobot; WordOfGod is that no Decepticon ever trained under Yoketron]]. And Oil Slick is a ninja chemist.

* OfficerOHara - Wreck-Gar meets one of these while trying to work out who he is.

*** Ultra Magnus has a pretty good one. After telling the Autobots to stand back, he presumably intended to deal with the situation. As soon as he turns around, Starscream has recovered and is pointing his weapons right in Magnus's face. * [[TheWorfEffect blast]]!*

* RandomTeleportation: Going through a space-bridge with no target co-ordinates can send you just about anywhere, and holding onto a plasmadynamic thruster while someone else is transwarping can send you hurtling around space like a pinball. The Autobots exploit this by attaching one to Omega while he's under Megatron's control, sending him transwarping randomly through space for most of the season.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech - Bulkhead delivers one to Wasp in "Where Is Thy Sting".

* RedHerringMole - Wasp is the UrExample in this show, and suffered for it the most. But every one that wasn't Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Sentinel in the flashback [[EveryoneIsASuspect was a suspect]]. An error in an online game on CartoonNetwork's website made [[spoiler: Ironhide]] a Deception. [[spoiler: Cliffjumper (the red Autobot)]] was supposed to be the traitor but Hasbro nixed the idea. Turns out the mole was [[spoiler: Longarm Prime]].

* ReferenceOverdosed - The ''Almanacs'', again, if not the show itself.

* RemakeCameo - The Witwicky family, and all those crowd shots on Cybertron during the second half of season three.

* ResistanceIsFutile - Delivered by Soundwave in 'Human Error'

* RollerbladeGood - Optimus and Bumblebee have wheels on their feet which they can use this way. Sari has actual rollerblades, and later gets laser-skates with her upgrade.

* ScrewYourself - Okay, he never gets ''that'' far, this being a kid's show, but there was definitely something suggestive about the way Starscream asked Slipstream what part of him she represented. She wasn't interested.

* ShapedLikeItself: Bulkhead is as gentle as a...really gentle thing (and then there's the page quote Professor Sumdac gave us for TechnologicalPacifist).

* ShockwaveClap - Bulkhead can cause this just by clapping, as seen in the "Mime Time" short.
* ShooOutTheClowns - Masterson is the only human supervillain to appear in season 3. Not even Meltdown, who was still alive and actually a threat, is heard from again.

** Bumblebee in "Nature Calls", after Prowl asks him where he found room for so much stuff in his car mode.

* SocialServicesDoesNotExist - Despite her father being a famous businessman, no-one notices that Sari doesn't legally exist until Powell does some digging. Afterwards, no-one seems to mind her living with the Autobots - of course, it'd be one brave social worker who tried to stand up to five protective transforming mechas.

* SoulBrotha: Jazz.

* SpaceIsNoisy: A stasis-cuffed Starscream actually calls attention to this in "A Fistful of Energon": "You call this a fight? I'll rust before someone wins, and I'm in a vacuum!"
* SpaceX - Transformers already had space bridges, but now we have space barnacles and Lockdown's Space Poncho (at least, that's what the Allspark Almanac calls it).
* SpinningPaper: Three in the course of a night during 'Three's A Crowd'. Either it's just a gag, or the Autobots spent a ''long'' time trying to get Lugnut out of that crater.

* SpoilerOpening: The Japanese opening, while very pretty, spoils most of the major subplots of Season 2.

** While this isn't technically canon, Slo-Mo's design was based on TFA team member Samantha Lomow.

* StuffedIntoALocker - Wasp and Ironhide do this to Bumblebee in 'Autoboot Camp'...after ''removing his legs'' and putting them where he couldn't get to them even if he was outside.

* TakeMyHand - Bumblebee to Sari in the pilot.

* TearfulSmile - Sari after Optimus's [[FirstEpisodeResurrection revival]].

-->'''Optimus Prime:''' "...It's just an auto parts supply store, Ratchet."
* TheyWouldCutYouUp - Blackarachnia joined the Decepticons for fear of ending up on a lab table on Cybertron if she returned to the Autobots.

* TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay - Optimus to Lockdown (when he thought Lockdown was just a crazy human in a muscle car).

* ThemeTuneCameo - Bumblebee's horn plays it in 'The Thrill of the Hunt', Ratchet whistles it in one of the DVD shorts, and Sari hums it in 'Sari, No-One's Home'.

* ThrownOutTheAirlock - How Optimus survives his first fight with Megatron.

* TooFastToStop - Bumblebee's first go with the turbo-boosters results in this.

* ToylessToylineCharacter - Quite a few, both human and robot.
* {{Trainstopping}} - 'Mission Accomplished'. On top of it being out of control, Starscream had planted an unstable Allspark fragment on it.

* TwinkleSmile - ''Starscream'', although it only shows up in his full TransformationSequence.

* VillainExitStageLeft - The main Decepticons do this less often than in previous shows, but Lockdown and Soundwave still manage it, with the result being that they're both still on the loose by the end.
* VillainousBreakdown - Megatron starts to lose it just a ''little'' bit in the season 3 finale. "Then destroy the Autobots. Destroy the city. DESTROY ANYTHING THAT'S '''NOT ME'''!"

* TheVirus - Space barnacles, once they've been...altered(either by Megatron's body or Allspark energy).

* WeHardlyKnewYe-Blurr. Poor Blurr. He cameoed in "Velocity", was formally introduced in the Season 2 finale "A Bridge Too Close" and was [[spoiler: compacted into a cube]] in the Season 3 opener "Transwarped".
* WhamEpisode - ''A Bridge Too Close'' and ''Transwarped''.

* WheresTheFunInThat:

* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough - This happens to Bumblebee at least twice in season one, and again in season three - not to mention Sentinel in 'This is Why I Hate Machines'.

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes - Elita-1's "death" left Optimus with a phobia of spiders and Seintel of anything organic. Cybertronians in general are wary of organics in this continuity (due to a bad past experience, according to WordOfGod), but Sentinel is that much worse about it.

* WithDueRespect - 'But Sentinel-' 'Is a glitch-head. All due respect.'

* WouldHurtAChild: Blackarachnia and Soundwave. The former drops Sari off a building to distract Optimus and later threatens to kill her if she doesn't give up the Allspark's location. The latter blasts her with Laserbeak and brainwashes her own family into attacking her. Megatron, of all Bots, simply brushes her out of his way when she stands in front of all the Allspark. He most likely thought she was just beneath him.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame - Prowl and clone #2716057.
* YouCanRunButYouCantHide - Bumblebee went for the flipped-around version against Lockdown. Of course, he was biting off a lot more than he could chew.

* YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost - [[spoiler: Starscream]] to Megatron in season 2, after his resurrection but before he figured out [[spoiler: it was an Allspark chunk keeping him online.]] "Well maybe you HAVE!"

* YoureNotMyFather - Sari to Isaac after her RoboticReveal. He actually ''is'' her biological father (sort of), but by the time she learns this she's already accepted him again.

* EasyAmnesia - Averted, for the most part, with Arcee. [[spoiler:After she loses her memory it stays lost for a very, ''very'' long time, and it takes quite a while to retrieve them properly in the finale.]] There was also a scrapped Season 4 idea with this as its main plot point, this time with Cosmos being amnesic instead of Arcee. According to the [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanac 2]], "HilarityEnsues".
* EfficientDisplacement - Bulkhead and Blitzwing in different episodes.

* TheAce - Afterburn, in the ''Titan Magazine'' adaptation. Borders on CanonSue who, in two consecutive issues, leaves Optimus and Bumblebee holding the IdiotBall, respectively. [[spoiler: Turns out he is a [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman sparkless drone]] [[TheMole Decepticon spy]], whom Megatron [[YouHaveFailedMe quickly]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness disposes of.]]]]
* ActorAllusion - Sentinel Prime is a walking ShoutOut to TheTick, including his blue coloration, giant chin, and occasional lines like "Energon-y goodness". His character was actually designed after actor Townsend Coleman was cast.

* MerchandiseDriven - As always.

* CuteShotaroBoy - Cosmos is one of the smartest characters spoken about in the [[AllThereInTheManual Almanac]], and yet he is one of the most adorable characters in the entire roster.
** [[http://twitpic.com/31hv8n Just look at him!]]
** [[KidAppealCharacter Bumblebee]], at very least, in Human Error. And robot mode.
** Also, Wheelie from the Allspark Almanac.

** In a FunPublications comic published after the series, [[spoiler:Blurr attends an event, still smushed up]].

* AutobotsRockOut! - Done absolutely literally in "Human Error". And it was [[RuleOfCool AWESOME!!!]]

* UnderStatement - 'Sari, we...need to talk.'

However, the series recently got a brief revival/continuation via the Official Fanclub and its ''[[TransformersTimelines Timelines]]'' imprint, with an exclusive toyset designed by the series' art director and a comic penned by the series' main writer, and said writer has expressed a desire to continue Season 4 via comics if any publisher is willing. Here's to hoping...

* AnyoneCanDie - Starts in the beginning of the third season with [[spoiler:Blurr]] and never looks back.

* MoralDissonance - Fanzone laughing off sending Swindle to his death in "S.U.V." [[spoiler: though he does [[IGotBetter get better]]]]; Bulkhead's unprovoked attack on who he believes to be Wasp in "Where Is Thy Sting?"

* AirVentPassageway - Used by Optimus, complete with ShoutOut to ''DieHard''.

* ParentalBonus - {{Shout Out}}s to ''{{Airplane}}!'', ''DieHard'', ''StarTrek'', ''{{Peanuts}}'' and so, so many more...

** [[TheBumbleBee Bumblebee]], at very least, in Human Error. And robot mode.

*** Damn it, I even ''read that'' in Megatron's voice!

** Also, Elita-1. (Does it count as StuffedIntoTheFridge if you survive horribly mutated into a techno-organic? Probably.)
** Also, as Blackarachnia she ''keeps'' having to be saved from her own attempts at evil schemes. Even the one exception to this rule was retroactively made one (after Megatron Rising, it was the Dinobots who pulled her to the island.) That's ''three'' female 'bots ([[CompositeCharacter for the price of two]]) who were quite BadAss in previous incarnations whose roles have been reduced to "helpless victim who is either saved, or [[WomenInRefrigerators not saved as part of a male 'bot's backstory]]." You ''really'' expect the 2008 series to be ''more'' progressive than the 80s/90s ones... but in the writers' favor, there ''is'' Sari.

* TheBumblebee - Bumblebee (duh) and Sari.
** In "Bee in the City", Bumblebee is mistaken for several other "kid appeal" types across various other ''Transformers'' canons; [[TransformersGenerationOne Wheelie]], [[TransformersRobotsInDisguise Side Burn]], [[TransformersArmada Hot Shot]], and [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Cheetor]].

** In season three, [[spoiler:she's sixteen, which isn't a whole lot better.]]
*** [[spoiler:What do you mean? ''Of '''course''' [[SheIsAllGrownUp it's a whole lot better!]]'']]

* FingerTwiddling - By [[TheBigGuy Bulkhead]], of all bots.
** Bumblebee in "Nature Calls", after Prowl asks him where he found room for so much stuff in his car mode.

* ShownTheirWork - Derrick Wyatt says that, when designing Waspinator, he decided to look at actual photographs of wasps and a few nature shows (such as "Life in the Underground").

A group of maintenance Autobots ([[TheHero Optimus Prime]], [[TheMedic Ratchet]], [[GentleGiant Bulkhead]], [[IneffectualLoner Prowl]] and [[TheBumblebee Bumblebee]]) discover the coveted Transformer artifact called "The [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture AllSpark]]" and, in escaping pursuit from the Decepticons, land on Earth in Detroit. Waking up in TheFuture, they befriend Sari Sumdac, 7-year-old daughter of Professor Isaac Sumdac, and work to maintain friendly relations with the public. However, the Decepticons aren't far behind.

* CatchAndReturn - Megatron does this to Starscream with a grenade during the Death Montage.

* VoodooShark - Defied by the creators, who don't plan on giving the Allspark a concrete origin for fear it would be one of these. Wyatt is happy to share his thoughts on Cybertron's origins on Formspring, but he's keeping it vague.