| 1 | %% leave the image on the right . --Admin |
| 2 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/transformers_poster.jpg]] |
| 3 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"Heroes are the ones who make the hard choices."'']] |
| 4 | %% leave the image on the right . --Admin |
| 5 | |
| 6 | ->'''Bumblebee''': But we're repair 'bots! We're not programmed for this kind of action! \ |
| 7 | '''Optimus Prime''': Then consider this an upgrade! |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Debuting in December 2007 with a three-episode-long "{{pilot movie}}", ''Animated'', despite being an AlternateContinuity, was created to ride the popularity of ''Film/Transformers2007'' and, as a result, borrows several aspects of the film. Despite severe fan reactions to the character designs and animation style, the show's story and scripting (and a healthy respect to the saga as a whole) have won over many converts in short order. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | A long time after the Decepticons were defeated in the Great War, a group of maintenance Autobots ([[TheHero Optimus Prime]], [[TheMedic Ratchet]], [[GentleGiant Bulkhead]], [[IneffectualLoner Prowl]] and [[KidAppealCharacter Bumblebee]]) discover the coveted Transformer artifact called "The [[WeWillUseWikiWordsInTheFuture AllSpark]]". When they're attacked by the exiled Decepticons, their ship crash-lands on Earth in Detroit. Waking up in TheFuture, they befriend Sari Sumdac, 7-year-old daughter of Robotics genius Professor Isaac Sumdac, and work to maintain friendly relations with the public. However, the Decepticons aren't far behind. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The animation style of the series is quite unique, being very fluid, simplistic and organic-looking for robot characters. This separates it from the more rugged designs of other parts of the franchise, while also allowing for some really stylistic {{animesque}} action scenes. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Other unique aspects of the show include the main Autobot team are not the upper hierarchy of leadership but instead low level maintenance workers, most of their weapons are re-purposed tools and the "Prime" in Optimus' name is [[TheChosenMany a military designation equivalent to a captain]] and does not make him TheChosenOne. The Decepticons are also defined as big and powerful enemies, with most towering over the Autobots; a GreatOffscreenWar infers the Autobots had only won due to strategy and control of the [[PortalNetwork spacebridge network]]. Even one 'Con requires the entire team to work together just to contain them, but [[TeethClenchedTeamwork they are scattered and at odds with each other]]. Most of the time, [[BigBad Megatron]] is planning some sort of EvilPlan to avoid detection while still furthering his plans. He is dangerous, but doesn't want to deal with the entire Autobot Elite Guard before he's ready. While the Decepticons are largely violent thugs there is some truth to a belief [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters they are fighting against a caste system that places them at the bottom rung]]; corruption, prejudice and stagnant social structures can be seen in the Autobot leadership. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | To maintain the Decepticons as serious enemies, humans comprise the bulk of the Autobots' enemies for the first two seasons. Some are joke villains who are only petty thieves, but others are legitimate threats through technology or mutations. Other unique features of the show are that the Transformers are very well-known among the community (which hasn't really been done since Generation 1), and there is a noticeable lack of HeroInsurance. The humans are unhappy with the collateral damage, and the Autobots maintain their good graces by repairing the city (after all, they ''are'' construction workers.) |
| 18 | |
| 19 | The show lasted three seasons and although somewhat cut short on production plans (they were hoping for a fourth season) the last episode was written to serve as a respectable GrandFinale, concluding the overall MythArc. Hasbro partnered with Discovery Communications to launch the Hub, the home of the next ''Transformers'' series, ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Prime]]''. Cartoon Network stopped airing the show almost as soon as the finale aired. Plans for Season 4 involved helping Sari gain more development, as ExecutiveMeddling from Hasbro demoted her to a secondary recurring character in Season 3. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | The show overall received positive reviews for storytelling and dynamic characterization, but suffered criticism for its initial art style and more SliceOfLife adventures. This criticism faded quickly as the show settled into its own tone and built up its own storyline. The show has gone on to become a beloved fandom darling; even more than a decade after its pre-emptive finale, many fans continue to call for a ''Young Justice'' style resurrection. Its influence also looms large on later incarnations; in particular, its [[CanonForeigner original characters Bulkhead, Lugnut, Lockdown, and Slipstream]] enjoy such popularity that they became part of the larger recurring character roster the franchise pulls from. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | However, the series got a brief revival/continuation via the Official Fanclub and its ''[[Franchise/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. In addition, the Hub itself aired reruns of the series prior to its rebranding as Creator/DiscoveryFamily. In 2019, story editor Marty Isenberg pieced together an illustrated outline reading of the Season 4 three-part opener, "Trial of Megatron", by the original voice actors when he was invited to the UK Transformers convention (which was prohibited from being recorded, but was uploaded to Website/YouTube by the convention's channel in August 16, 2021). |
| 24 | |
| 25 | See also [[Characters/TransformersAnimated the character page]]. |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | !!This show provides examples of: |
| 28 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder: A-D]] |
| 31 | * AbandonedMine: The Decepticons set up a hidden base in one. It also features prominently in the episode "Nature Calls". |
| 32 | * AbandonedWarehouse: Detroit has quite a few of these due to robots replacing human workers. |
| 33 | ** And being, well, Detroit. They reference the auto industry, with some easy extrapolations to the demise thereof, in the first episode. |
| 34 | ** The main characters also take residence in one of these. Not that it bothers them. |
| 35 | * AbortedArc: While the show does have a conclusive ending, it does leave more than a few plot threads hanging as a result of the premature cancellation it received. Some of these leftover plot threads include... |
| 36 | ** Meltdown possibly coming back. |
| 37 | ** [[spoiler:Where Sari's protoform came from.]] |
| 38 | ** [[spoiler:Where Lockdown, Swindle and the other two Constructicons went.]] |
| 39 | ** [[spoiler:The future plans of Waspinator and Blackarachnia.]] |
| 40 | * TheAce: Afterburn, in the ''Titan Magazine'' adaptation. In two consecutive issues, he 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.]]]] |
| 41 | * ActionHoggingOpening: Strangely subverted with the American opening. Played straight with the Japanese opening. |
| 42 | * ActorAllusion: |
| 43 | ** In "Human Error", Human!Bulkhead is dressed like an UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball player. Likely a reference to Creator/BillFagerbakke's breakthrough role as Dauber, a college football player on ''Series/{{Coach}}''. |
| 44 | ** Sentinel Prime is a walking ShoutOut to WesternAnimation/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. |
| 45 | ** Wreck-Gar (voiced by Music/WeirdAlYankovic) declares "I '''Dare''' to be Stupid!" in one episode. Doubles as a MythologyGag, as the song was also used as the Junkions' theme in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''. In another episode, he pulls out an accordion, an instrument favored by Yankovic. |
| 46 | ** In "Endgame, Part 1," [[Creator/DavidKaye Optimus]] shouts [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars "Yessssss!"]] |
| 47 | ** Creator/BillFagerbakke voices a big lug who's best friends with a little yellow guy. |
| 48 | ** Probably unintentional, but in the Season 3 opener, Megatron fights for control of Omega Supreme while [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII in a digital plane]]. (For bonus points, in that game, Corey Burton was playing the antagonist of ''Film/{{Tron}}'', who he based his Shockwave voice off of in the first place.) |
| 49 | * AdaptationalBadass: The Decepticons in general. While individual Autobots can defeat Deceptions on their own in other continuities, it takes a team of Autobots to defeat just ''one'' of them here. Many of them also tend to be a head than bots with Optimus Prime's size. |
| 50 | ** Waspinator. In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' he was pretty much the biggest ButtMonkey in the history of ''Transformers''. In this series, as Wasp he was one of the Autobot Academy's most promising candidates (despite being an overall {{Jerkass}}), before spending years in imprisonment drove him paranoid and crazy. When Blackarachnia transformed him into Waspinator, the resulting transformation is treated as a horrifying thing. Last we see of him, he's snarling his old CatchPhrase, "Waspinator has ''plans''..." What was originally a funny line in context is warped to be a sinister IronicEcho. |
| 51 | ** Megatron. In the original G1 cartoon, nobody feared Megatron. Rather, they just considered him to be the bad guy. He is also the subject of goofy outward monologues that only make his followers quake in fear. This show depicts Megatron as a discount Dracula/Vlad the Impaler; a OneManArmy, feared by everyone who knows who he is, and rarely any of his enemies walk away. Not to mention that he's willing to go way further here than G1 Megatron ever did, as he willingly kills his own soldiers if they betray him (something Starscream learns quickly), he kidnaps the very person who gave him back his body and showed him nothing but kindness and holds him hostage for months, and he's a better manipulator here than he was in G1. |
| 52 | ** Starscream, of sorts. In G1, anyone could pick a fight with Starscream, and they very rarely lost. He is a transparent strategist with poor fighting skills, and his silver tongue is his only positive. In this version, while Starscream occasionally shows signs of cunning, he resorts to using his brute strength first to defeat his enemies. In the first episode, it takes at least five Autobots to defend Detroit against his constant attacks, and at a later point, he incapacitates Ultra Magnus in one go. Starscream is half of what Megatron is regardless, but if it takes half of a race just to arrest him, Starscream has earned his right to be his second-in-command. |
| 53 | * AdaptationNameChange: [[AllThereInTheManual The All-Spark Almanac II]] showed a character named Primal Major, whose backstory makes it clear that he's meant to be this continuity's [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Optimus Primal]], but with the name changed. |
| 54 | * AdaptationalSympathy: |
| 55 | ** Optimus Prime, who in most versions before and after this show is depicted as TheStoic, AFatherToHisMen, and TheComicallySerious most of the time, due in part to having undergone {{Flanderization}} during the course of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the third season of the original series]]--a take of which almost every Optimus has been depicted as since. While most other stories usually give Prime sympathy by having him [[WeUsedToBeFriends be allies and friends with Megatron until their inevitable ideological clashes drove them apart]], with a lot of the [[ItsAllMyFault consequences of the war weighing heavily on him]], this Prime had the makings to be a hero, until he was drummed out of the Autobot Academy for an incident that apparently killed a fellow cadet--an incident of which his [[FalseFriend "buddy"]] Sentinel Prime let him [[NeverMyFault take the fall for]]. This leaves Prime, who's now in charge of a ragtag bunch of misfits acting as protectors of the future Detroit, with doubts about his leadership capabilities and whether or not he has what it takes to truly be a hero. Over the course of the series, he would prove this to himself and to others by [[TookALevelInBadass growing into the hero the world knows him as]]. |
| 56 | ** This also applies to the show's version of Ratchet, a grizzled war veteran who's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold and suffers from a seriously bad case of PTSD for having fought in a horrific war, lost a patient to seemingly permanent LaserGuidedAmnesia, and essentially being forced to use a TykeBomb version of a WMD to end the conflict for good. His grouchy demeanor hides the scars of having gone through all that pain, but he's able to warm up and let go of his demons. |
| 57 | * 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. |
| 58 | * AdaptationalWeaponSwap: The original Ultra Magnus is armed with a rifle and (seldom-used) shoulder rockets. His depiction here lacks both of those weapons and instead has the giant Magnus Hammer, which has influenced later versions of the character. |
| 59 | * AdaptationalWimp: The rank of Prime. In most continuities it designates the Supreme Commander of the Autobots. Here it's a military rank that's held by at least three major characters and is second to Ultra Magnus, Magnus being the rank that denotes the big kahuna this time around. |
| 60 | * AdorablyPrecociousChild: 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. |
| 61 | ** [[http://twitpic.com/31hv8n Just look at him!]] |
| 62 | * AesopAmnesia: Happens frequently. Bumblebee and Sentinel Prime in particular are poster boys for this trope. |
| 63 | * AIIsACrapshoot: |
| 64 | ** Megatron developed Soundwave to evolve with uses of Sari's key into a new body, but Soundwave unexpectedly became sentient unto himself (though still useful to Megatron's plans). And then there's stuff like Professor Sumdac's malfunctioning police robots, and the nanobots in the pilot, and... |
| 65 | ** One must wonder how Sumdac stays in business if 3/4 of his machines go haywire. On the other hand, owning the patents on the fundamental building blocks of the robot technology that forms the backbone of modern society probably helps. |
| 66 | ** Subverted somewhat with Wreck-Gar, who is pretty much a very impressionable child with ADHD. |
| 67 | * AirVentPassageway; Used by Optimus, complete with ShoutOut to ''Film/DieHard''. |
| 68 | * AirplaneArms: Briefly by Optimus in "Where Is Thy Sting." |
| 69 | * AlienArtsAreAppreciated: Bulkhead winds up with a museum show in one episode, although his "masterpiece" was an accident. Still, his art is a hit with human audiences. |
| 70 | * AliensInCardiff: Megatron's head and hand land in Paw Paw, Michigan, though they end up in Detroit. |
| 71 | * AliensSpeakingEnglish: Every Cybertronian in the series speaks English, even in scenes taking place before they first encountered humanity. |
| 72 | * AliensStealCable: Quite literally: Sari [[spoiler:(half-alien herself)]] and Bumblebee use the Key to pirate Master Disaster's illegal street races. |
| 73 | * AlmightyJanitor: Eventually taken to near absurd lengths with the main crew. Despite being a lowly maintenance crew, they have [[spoiler: A cadet who was on track for the Elite Guard, a vet from the Great War who is bonded to the Autobot's greatest weapon (which happens to be their ship), the most skilled spacebridge engineer in the Autobot ranks, and one of the most skilled Cyberninjas around. Really, everyone but Bumblebee is considered near top of their field, and this is before they TookALevelInBadass.]] |
| 74 | * AlmostKiss: Blackarachnia and Optimus Prime. However, most of the time she does it, she's trying to [[DistractedByTheSexy distract him]]. |
| 75 | * AllThereInTheManual: |
| 76 | ** The Starscream clones are only ever referred to by their personalities (or gender), but their toys are named after the ''[[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1]]'' Seekers: Coward Starscream = "Skywarp," Sycophant Starscream = "Sunstorm," Egomaniac Starscream = "Thundercracker". This is because if they gave them proper names in the credits, they would have had to pay Tom Kenny for four more characters. And while he didn't get a toy until ''long'' after these three, the Liar Starscream's name was given as "Ramjet" in the Allspark Almanac. |
| 77 | ** A lot of information about the ''Animated'' universe not established in the show is given in the ''Allspark Almanac'' books. |
| 78 | *** The first installment of ''The Allspark Almanac'' reveals intense amounts of detail (and {{Shout Out}}s about the show, the setting and the characters). |
| 79 | *** ''The Allspark Almanac II'' contains lots of hints of what happened after the series, more details about life on Cybertron (including how protoforms are developed), and more behind-the-scenes information about the show itself. |
| 80 | *** ''The Complete Allspark Almanac'' contains all the information of the previous two books (with some minor revisions) as well as ''The Allspark Addendum'' and approximately ten pages of new content. |
| 81 | ** The six-issue miniseries "The Arrival" shows events that happened between or during certain episodes of the show. The events of the first issue take place concurrently with the events of the three-part premiere episode "Transform and Roll Out", while the events of issues 2-5 take place sometime between the episodes "Total Meltdown" and "The Thrill of the Hunt", with the sixth and final issue explaining the backstory of Jetfire and Jetstorm. |
| 82 | * AloofAlly: The Dinobots and the main team of Autobots have a relationship that is adversarial at best. To be fair, only a handful of Autobots were ever actually nice to them (namely Prowl and Bulkhead), while everyone else simply saw them as dangerous and unstable. |
| 83 | * AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese version used a different [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8uldvja-MY opening]] / [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xHTWO0BnwU&feature=related ending]] theme than the American version. |
| 84 | * AmbiguouslyRelated: All members of the Witwicky family from ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' make {{Continuity Cameo}}s in the series, but it is unclear if Sparkplug Witwicky's counterpart is still part of the family due to never being confirmed to be a Witwicky and never being seen with Spike, Carly, Daniel or baby Nancy. |
| 85 | * AmoralAttorney: Implied by Meltdown, whose mutant bat monster used to be his lawyer. On a similar note, the ''shark'' monster was his stockbroker. |
| 86 | * AmuletOfConcentratedAwesome: Sari's Allspark Key [[spoiler:for the first two seasons.]] |
| 87 | * [[AnAssKickingChristmas An Aft Kicking Christmas]]: "Human Error" takes place during Christmas and has the Autobots get in an epic battle with Soundwave. |
| 88 | * AndIMustScream: |
| 89 | ** Swindle's fate at the end of "SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy". He's been frozen in his vehicle mode, and Fanzone sends him to be towed away so his parts can be sold at a scrapyard. [[spoiler:"Five Servos of Doom" reveals that Swindle is NotQuiteDead, and he gets freed in "Decepticon Air".]] |
| 90 | ** Blurr [[spoiler:ended up crushed into a cube while still active. He doesn't recover from this until the events of the script reading ''The Return of Blurr''.]] |
| 91 | * AndThisIsFor: In "Survival of the Fittest", Prowl and Captain Fanzone fight Meltdown's mutated minions while trying to save Sari from his experiments. Fanzone throws one particularly impressive punch with a yell of "And ''that's'' for Sari!" |
| 92 | * AndroclesLion: Grimlock, complete with a thorn in his foot for those who might miss the connection. |
| 93 | * AnimalMecha: The Dinobots, as usual. Soundwave's pets combine this with InstrumentOfMurder, and then there's Steeljaw and Zaur on Cybertron. Blackarachnia and Waspinator fall into the "actually-part-organic" category. |
| 94 | * AnimatingArtifact: The [=AllSpark=] Key was originally a security keycard owned by Sari Sumdac before the [=AllSpark=] transformed it, imbuing it with some of its power, being able to heal and upgrade the Autobots and even some non-sentient Earth machines. It is later revealed that it can also imbue machines with life if under prolonged use, turning Soundwave from a harmless music-making robot into a particularly powerful Decepticon. |
| 95 | * {{Animesque}}: From the same folk who worked on ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo''. And of course, the overseas Creator/MookDLE, Creator/Studio4C and Creator/TheAnswerStudio[[note]]as well as Creator/AjiaDo and Creator/StudioWanpack (who both went uncredited) [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCWd60YVgAw and later]] {{Creator/Diomedea}}[[/note]] ''are'' Japanese-based animation houses... |
| 96 | * AntagonistTitle: The human villains Nanosec and Headmaster both make their debuts in the respective episodes "Nanosec" and "Headmaster". |
| 97 | * AnyoneCanDie: Starts in the beginning of the third season with [[spoiler:Blurr, [[NotQuiteDead (sort of)]]]] and never looks back. |
| 98 | * ArcWelding: Ratchet's two old friends from the Great War — Arcee and Omega Supreme — are revealed to be closely connected (plotwise) in the third season. |
| 99 | * ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Mixmaster cannot defeat [[SmallNameBigEgo Thundercracker!]] He is not worthy! He is inferior! And his [[PreAssKickingOneLiner joke]] stinks! |
| 100 | * ArtisticLicenseSpace: Jetstorm can still create windstorms... in space. Solar wind, perhaps? |
| 101 | * AscendedExtra: While he's got fewer appearances than in the original series, Shockwave manages to do much more notable things in this series. |
| 102 | * AscendedMeme: |
| 103 | ** The portrayal of the Autobot Elite Guard as arrogant and corrupt, and the Decepticons as fighting for their freedom (though [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized the show keeps the Decepticons]] [[BlackAndGreyMorality unambiguously as the bad guys)]]. |
| 104 | ** The 'Punch of Kill Everything' made it into the canon comics (though sadly not the show itself), and shows up in ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'' to boot (as both a Leader-class killstreak reward and a Soldier-class melee upgrade). |
| 105 | * AsteroidsMonster: Rock Lords (or at least the animalistic space-born ones) can form smaller versions of themselves if shattered. |
| 106 | * AttackPatternAlpha: 'Omega Formation' is used against Blitzwing in 'Sari, No-One's Home'. It doesn't end well. |
| 107 | %% * AutobotsRockOut: Done absolutely literally in "Human Error". |
| 108 | * AwesomeBackpack: Wreck-Gar's, which was inspired by [[Creator/TheMarxBrothers Harpo Marx]]. He can pull practically anything from it. |
| 109 | * AwesomeButImpractical: The maintenance Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, chose regular everyday vehicles as a means to disguise themselves in the city. What does Sentinel Prime choose as alternate modes to avoid getting noticed? A massive combat-grade missile truck for Ultra Magnus, and a snow plow (in summer) for himself! |
| 110 | --> '''Bumblebee''': No one's gonna notice ''that''! |
| 111 | ** What's clever is that when Sentinel first came to Earth, there was a snowstorm, he didn't stand out and his alt mode was very useful. But when he comes back the next time, it's a blistering summer. He's just far too stubborn to scan something more suitable. |
| 112 | * BackToBackBadasses: With bonus EnemyMine: Megatron and Optimus Prime. ''"Well, you're the last bot I'd expect to come to my rescue."'' When Optimus says he isn't, Megatron then grabs Optimus and ''uses him as a shield''. |
| 113 | * BadassNormal: Captain Fanzone is a very capable ally to the Autobots even though he's just a human. ''Survival of the Fittest'' should be simple enough. He's also the only human (aside from Sari and Sumdac) willing to explain things about life on Earth (namely laws and government) to the Autobots, and makes it clear that, while he hates machines, he appreciates what they do for Detroit. |
| 114 | * BagOfHolding: Swindle's "personal storage dimension" and Wreck-Gar's backpack, which contains (quite literally) everything ''and'' the kitchen sink. The former has a justification, the latter runs on RuleOfFunny. |
| 115 | * BandOfBrothers: And one sister. |
| 116 | * BashBrothers: The most literal version is Prowl and Fanzone in "Survival of the Fittest," but the trope is frequently used as, on the whole, one Decepticon is more dangerous than three Autobots. |
| 117 | * BastardUnderstudy: Starscream comes close to betraying Megatron and usurping his position as Decepticon leader several times (most notably in the pilot). |
| 118 | * BatmanGambit: Optimus manages to pull one off in "Decepticon Air," in a near-perfect {{homage}} to ''Film/SupermanII''. |
| 119 | * BattleButler: Lugnut's near-religious fanatical devotion to Megatron. |
| 120 | * BedsheetGhost: Bulkhead's Halloween costume in "Along Came a Spider". Because of how big he is, he has to use a fumigation tent. |
| 121 | * BeingGoodSucks: The series both [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructs]] and [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructs]] this trope. In particular, Optimus and Bumblebee's backstories both involve them losing their dignity and status when they take the moral high ground in a crisis. But while the main heroes suffer from the burdens of being [[TheParagon paragons]], the series ends with them returning to their home planet as heroes -- after one of them makes a HeroicSacrifice to stop the BigBad. |
| 122 | * BerserkButton: Starscream, true to type, likes to plan out monologues and speeches. Don't interrupt him when he gives them, 'kay? |
| 123 | -->'''Starscream:''' You ''interrupted'' my '''''SPEEEEECH'''!!'' |
| 124 | * {{BFG}}: Huge guns are the weapons owned by Megatron, Swindle, and Shockwave. |
| 125 | * BigBad: As usual, Megatron serves as the main villain of the series. |
| 126 | ** BigBadEnsemble: While Megatron was the overall Big Bad of the series, the writers wanted to minimize his appearance to further emphasize the threat he posed. In addition to Megatron and the Decepticons loyal to him, we had rogue Decepticons like Starscream, Lockdown, Blackarachnia and Swindle, or semi-affiliated ones like Soundwave, running around causing problems, and various human enemies. Among the humans, [[MadScientist Meltdown]] and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Porter C. Powell]] were chief among the Autobots human antagonists. |
| 127 | * BigBrotherInstinct: All of the Autobots are protective towards Sari, even more so when she comes to live with them in Season 2. |
| 128 | * BigGood: Ultra Magnus is the highest Autobot authority and is actually honest and compassionate, unlike Sentinel Prime. |
| 129 | * BigNo: |
| 130 | ** Done by Sari when she is informed that the Autobots have decided to leave Earth in "Lost and Found". |
| 131 | ** Bulkhead screams "No" when he wakes up and finds his body stolen in "Headmaster". |
| 132 | ** Ratchet does it in the second season finale in response to Omega Supreme sacrificing himself to destroy Megatron's space bridge. |
| 133 | * BigStupidDoodooHead: In "SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy", Sari gets back at Powell by reprogramming the Reception Bot to call Powell a boogerhead. |
| 134 | * BioAugmentation: The aim of Prometheus Black's company, Biotech Unbound, before things [[FreakLabAccident went downhill for him]]. |
| 135 | * BirdPoopGag: |
| 136 | ** The FiveEpisodePilot "Transform and Roll Out" has Prowl get pooed on by some pigeons that perched on his head. |
| 137 | ** "Blast from the Past" ends with Grimlock getting hit by droppings from a pair of birds on a branch above him. |
| 138 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: In Autoboot Camp, at Boot Camp, Longarm was one of two 'bots that treated Bumblebee with any degree of decency. [[spoiler:Then we find out his true identity by the end of the episode...]] |
| 139 | * {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Sumdac Tower is shaped like a giant spark plug, and thus is narrower at the bottom than it is near the top. |
| 140 | * BlackAndGrayMorality: This series deconstructs the moral nature of the Autobots and Decepticons, resulting in a less [[BlackAndWhiteMorality black-and-white]] depiction than its predecessors. The Decepticons [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters think of themselves as freedom fighters]], while Cybertron's rather militaristic government is run by Autobots, for Autobots, and shows signs of corruption and extreme prejudice towards the Decepticons and organic life. That said, the main five Autobots are all unquestionably good guys, and the civilian Autobots seem pretty normal. |
| 141 | * 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. |
| 142 | * BlowYouAway: Jetstorm and vehicle-mode Safeguard. Optimus whips up a tornado with the Magnus Hammer. |
| 143 | * BootCampEpisode: In a [[WholeEpisodeFlashback Flashback Episode]], Bumblebee and Bulkhead go through basic training. |
| 144 | * BorderOccupyingDecorations: In Japan, the show was aired with a border depicting several of the characters alongside the series logo thanks to the aspect ratio. It's part of the reason the Japanese DVD releases are considered [[BadExportForYou an inferior version]], since not only are the live-action Otoboto Family skits cut out (resulting in OrphanedPunchline and OrphanedSetup situations), the aspect ratio still wasn't fixed for the DVD releases. |
| 145 | * BornInTheWrongCentury: Captain Fanzone, no doubt. The man (''somehow'') has a ''rotary dial cell phone'', of a size that marks it as outdated by ''today'''s standards, among other things[[note]]There are in fact apps that display a rotary-style dialing screen for making calls[[/note]]. |
| 146 | ** Fanzone's CatchPhrase when getting befuddled by anything more complex than that? "This is why I ''hate'' machines.'' |
| 147 | * BountyHunter: Lockdown's main business is to hunt down Autobots for the Decepticons. |
| 148 | * BrainBleach: Optimus looks to be in dire need of some after Sari explains where little organics come from in the series premiere. |
| 149 | * BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:Sari in Season 2. First her dad goes missing, then her dad's company gets taken out of her control by [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Porter C.]] [[{{Jerkass}} Powell]] who reveals with the subtlety of a brick that she doesn't exist in any form of legal documentation. If it weren't for the Autobots helping her cope with all of this, Sari could very easily have [[BewareTheNiceOnes snapped]] upon the [[TomatoInTheMirror revelation that she was part Cybertronian]] instead of [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]]]]. |
| 150 | * BreakTheHaughty: Sentinel's ordeal in ''Return of the Headmaster''. It doesn't stick. But it's fun to watch. |
| 151 | * BreakoutVillain: The Transformers created Lugnut, Lockdown, and Slipstream would all go on to appear in various future Transformers media outside of this continuity. Lockdown even being the main villain of ''Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction''. |
| 152 | * BrickJoke: |
| 153 | ** "Transform And Roll Out" has Optimus making the terrible mistake of asking Sari where babies come from. In "Transwarped," where [[spoiler:Sari being robotic is the main source of conflict]], Optimus brings up that the situation at hand doesn't really match what Sari told him two seasons ago. |
| 154 | ** "Sound and Fury" begins with Bulkhead and Sari doing a fist bump, which somehow hurts Bulkhead's hand even though he's made of metal. Later in the episode, they do another fist bump, which hurts Sari's hand this time. |
| 155 | * BringIt: The Autobots gladly welcome whatever odds are against them. |
| 156 | * BrokenHero: Optimus Prime, of all people. He's still haunted by his failure to save Elita-1. |
| 157 | * BuffySpeak: Oddly, two of the smartest (in terms of technology) cast members: see ShapedLikeItself. Optimus slips into this once or twice himself, usually when he's trying to understand something new about Earth. |
| 158 | * ButtMonkey: If you get annoyed at JerkAss Sentinel Prime, just wait five minutes and ''something'' nasty will happen to him. Usually it's related to Earth's weather/inhabitants/road structure, but he's also [[GrandTheftMe had his body stolen by a human]], been humiliated in front of his comrades, screamed like a little girl when encountering organics, failed at driving in the rain, and been wrong in pretty much every arrogant assertion he's made. |
| 159 | ** From Season 2 onward, Starscream also becomes a Butt Monkey in this series. It starts with the infamous [[Funny/WesternAnimation "Starscream Death Montage"]] with [[spoiler:Megatron killing him over and over again (with the [=AllSpark=] fragment on his head being the only thing keeping him alive).]] All of his plans always fail and in the finale, [[spoiler: his clones (with one heavily implied to represent his self-loathing) betray him for Megatron.]] He spends the majority of Season 3 [[spoiler: as a disembodied head trapped with Megatron aboard Omega Supreme,]] and just when he [[spoiler: finally gets a new body, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Megatron blasts him (He recovers).]]]] And in the finale, [[spoiler:the [=AllSpark=] fragment that was keeping him alive is pulled out, thus killing him (although he would have been revived by Slipstream in a scene that was cut for time).]] And if you count the comic adaptation, he [[spoiler: gets humiliated and blackmailed by Professor Princess.]] One can't help but feel a bit sorry for him. |
| 160 | ** Tutor Bot, as well. |
| 161 | * TheCameo: |
| 162 | ** The busts in Yoketron's dojo are [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Springer, Devcon,]] [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Roadhandler,]], [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Kick-Off]], [[Anime/TransformersVictory Star Saber,]] [[ComicBook/TransformersWingsOfHonor Tap-Out,]] [[Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Heavy Load,]] [[Anime/BeastWarsII Star Upper, Motorarm, Powerhug,]] [[Manga/TransformersZone Dai Atlas, Sky Garry, Grandus,]] [[ComicBook/TransformersGeneration2 Road Rocket]], and of course, [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Ultra Magnus]]. |
| 163 | ** In "This Is Why I Hate Machines", [[Franchise/TransformersTimelines Flareup]] and [[Manga/TransformersZone Grandus]] try to squish Captain Fanzone upon his arrival to Cybertron. [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Steeljaw]] can be seen in the crowd. |
| 164 | ** Also in "This Is Why I Hate Machines", [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Tracks]] is the 'bot that walks by Ratchet and Captain Fanzone outside of Maccadam's after listening to Sentinel's PSA, running off after noticing that the latter is an organic. |
| 165 | ** Though he isn't named onscreen, the hobobot that Ratchet and Fanzone confront in "This Is Why I Hate Machines" is [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Rattrap]] (or, er, Rattletrap). |
| 166 | * CampStraight: Tracks. He's every bit as flamboyant as his G1 counterpart, but has the hots for Botanica according to the ''[=AllSpark=] Almanac'' books. |
| 167 | * CannotTellALie: Inverted by Ramjet, the Liar Starscream, who literally always says the opposite of the truth, OppositeDay-style. |
| 168 | * CanonImmigrant: |
| 169 | ** Oil Slick was never intended to be in the show (in fact, he was originally just a sketch someone made in their free time), and was kept to the toyline and the comics. He's since been introduced in the cartoon in a brief but memorable scene. Roughly the same deal with Soundwave's guitar creatures. |
| 170 | ** Inverted with Prowl's samurai armor sidecar; it was created for the show but Hasbro liked the design so much they made a toy version, and Prowl eventually got the armor permanently. |
| 171 | ** Played more straight with Lugnut, Lockdown, and Slipstream. Slipstream's a character in ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'' (albeit for multiplayer only); Lockdown got [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Lockdown_%28ROTF%29 a toy]] for the ''[[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen Revenge of the Fallen]]'' toyline, then was repurposed and used as the basis for a [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Lockdown_%28G1%29 G1 version of the character]]; and [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Lugnut_%28TF_2010%29 Lugnut]] appeared in two G1-based comics, [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Rodimus_vs._Cyclonus one of which]] took place during [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie the original movie]] (and, as the [=TFWiki=] points out, probably freaked out when Starscream threw Megatron out of Astrotrain). |
| 172 | ** The various versions of ''The [=AllSpark=] Almanac'' added characters from other versions of the franchise, including later installments, as seen with [[Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen Scalpel]]. ''The Complete [=AllSpark=] Almanac'' has added [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Knock Out]], The ''[[WesternAnimation/TransformersRobotsInDisguise2015 Robots in Disguise]]'' incarnation of Strongarm, and even [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Discord]]. ''The Complete [=AllSpark=] Almanac'' is also one of the many pieces of ''Transformers'' fiction that incorporated the ''Franchise/TransformersAlignedUniverse'' (the source universe of said versions of Knock Out and [=RiD=]!Strongarm) into the larger ''Transformers'' multiverse. |
| 173 | * CanonDiscontinuity: Both shorts "Starscream Heckles Megatron" and "Starscream's Fantasy" don't seem to be in line with the show. The Decepticons are in a mine after Megatron came back from the first season finale, but Starscream is with the team despite being rogue throughout the second season. Also, Blackarachnia shows up despite leaving the Decepticons at the start of the show. |
| 174 | * CapedMecha: Lockdown's space poncho and Alpha Trion's traditional cape. Red Alert's design makes her look like she's wearing a lab coat, but at least that's clearly a part of her alt mode. |
| 175 | * CaptainGeographic: The Autobots (Optimus' team, that is). They're far more superhero-esque than they usually are, and seeing as their protectorate is Detroit, former automobile capital of the world and (in the series) current robot manufacturing capital of the world, they seem to fit this trope quite nicely. |
| 176 | * CaptainSmoothAndSergeantRough: |
| 177 | ** Ultra Magnus (Captain Smooth) and Sentinel Prime (Sergeant Rough). |
| 178 | ** Optimus Prime (Captain Smooth) and Ratchet (Sergeant Rough). |
| 179 | * CardboardPrison: |
| 180 | ** 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. |
| 181 | ** The Decepticons seem to escape with frightening frequency on the ELITE GUARD ship. |
| 182 | * CassandraTruth: Bulkhead tries to warn Sari about Soundwave's true nature during "Sound and Fury", but she's just not listening. |
| 183 | * CastOfSnowflakes: The human characters have surprisingly diverse appearances, as do many of the Autobots and Decepticons. |
| 184 | * CatchPhrase: Captain Fanzone, "''This'' is why I hate machines" ([[MadLibsCatchPhrase with a couple of variants]]). |
| 185 | ** How could one not mention "Transform and Roll Out"? Or the even cooler evil variant, "Transform and Rise Up"? |
| 186 | * CatScare: Sentinel receives one in "Return of the Headmaster" when a cat spooks him during the investigation of a Decepticon report fabricated by Henry Masterson. |
| 187 | * ChewingTheScenery: Starscream, especially in the first season finale: "You interrupted MY '''SPEEEEEEEEEEECH!'''" |
| 188 | * ChristmasEpisode: "Human Error" takes place during Christmas. Strangely enough, the two-parter initially aired during ''April''. |
| 189 | * ChronicallyCrashedCar: Captain Fanzone's car always gets trashed. |
| 190 | * CloudCuckooLander: Wreck-Gar and Random Blitzwing. To quote the latter after being sent flying in "A Bridge Too Close": |
| 191 | -->Mayday! Mayday! Let's all dance around the maypole! |
| 192 | * 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. |
| 193 | ** Thanks partly to Starscream manipulating the (rather dense) Lugnut... and because Megatron ''wanted'' Lugnut to be at his most loyal. |
| 194 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Autobots are bright, primary colors (sans Bulkhead and Prowl) while the Decepticons are muted or secondary colors like gray, purple and green. Dead Cybertronians become a distinct darkish grey, in homage to G1 Optimus Prime's death in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''. |
| 195 | * CombatStilettos: [[MeaningfulName Stiletto]], a comic-only human supervillain, uses experimental Sumdac weapons in her heels (she's also a kickboxer). Blackarachnia, for some reason, only gained high heels after becoming part-organic. Sari sort-of lampshades this in ''Bee in the City'' by asking who designs a robot with high heels: Flareup doesn't know either, but when she finds him... |
| 196 | * ComicBookAdaptation: Three: One is a FilmComic that adapted the entirety of the first two seasons, one is an original series of stories published by Titan Magazines and only available in the U.K. (There's also one ''Animated'' story in the main ''Transformers Comic'' written by Simon Furman), and one is a (most definitely {{canon}}) series called ''[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Arrival The Arrival]]'', written by the show's head writer, Marty Isenberg, which both tells new stories and [[AllThereInTheManual what various characters were doing between appearances on the show]]. |
| 197 | * CombiningMecha: |
| 198 | ** Any Transformer becomes this ''against their will'' when the Headmaster gets his hands on them. |
| 199 | ** Also, in the comics and Season 3, Jetfire and Jetstorm, who merge [[Anime/GaoGaiGar symmetrical docking]]-style into Safeguard. |
| 200 | * CompositeCharacter: |
| 201 | ** The show's version of Blackarachnia is a composite of Blackarachnia from ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' and [[spoiler:and ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'''s Elita One]]. Not to mention her design features certain elements of all of her appearances throughout ''Beast Wars/Beast Machines''. |
| 202 | ** Megatron is a combination of [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers his original cartoon incarnation]], his "[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:SuperAndUltraMegatron.jpg Super Megatron]]" appearance from the Japanese "Return of Convoy", and his larger and more vicious [[Film/TransformersFilmSeries live-action movie incarnation]] in design, but with a little dash of [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars his Beast Wars incarnation]] added in for character. |
| 203 | ** Bumblebee is essentially a combination of G1 Bumblebee and Armada Hot Shot. This is perhaps not surprising given that during development, the show's KidAppealCharacter was planned to be an incarnation of Hot Shot, until ''Film/Transformers2007'' thrust characters called Bumblebee back into the spotlight, and the character was reworked into being the first incarnation of Bumblebee to appear in any of the cartoons since ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers''. |
| 204 | ** Optimus Prime is of course derived from G1 Optimus Prime, but includes elements from his "Return of Convoy" Star Convoy design, Optimus Primal, G1 Orion Pax (Optimus Prime's original form) and Movieverse Optimus Prime, while character-wise borrows from Optimus Primal in being an inexperienced leader leading his RagtagBunchOfMisfits to SaveTheWorld while trying to figure it all out. |
| 205 | ** At the end of the show, Optimus carries the Allspark around in a necklace, looking similar to the Matrix of Leadership. AllThereInTheManual would expand on this, with Optimus saying that he hopes that this "Allspark Matrix" will be carried by future leaders, making it even clearer that Optimus essentially just invented the Matrix of Leadership. |
| 206 | * CompulsiveLiar: Each clone that Starscream makes of himself represents a part of his personality. In the case of Ramjet, everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie, as pointed out by Slipstream. |
| 207 | --> '''Ramjet''': What are you talking about? I am the original Starscream. |
| 208 | --> '''Starscream''': Liar. I am the original Starscream. |
| 209 | --> '''Ramjet''': I never said I was the original Starscream. |
| 210 | --> '''Starscream''': Yes, you did just now. |
| 211 | * ConceptArtGallery: All three ''Almanacs'' feature concept art of the show. |
| 212 | * ConservationOfNinjutsu: The Autobots barely hold off Starscream early on, but are much more effective against the squadron of clones. (The Autobot arsenal now includes stasis cuffs...) |
| 213 | * ContinuityCameo: Spike Witwicky, his wife Carly, their son Daniel, and Spike's father Sparkplug from [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the Generation 1 cartoon]] occasionally appear as minor background characters. |
| 214 | * ContinuityPorn: The ''Almanacs'' are bursting at the seams with references to every corner of the ''Transformers'' multiverse. |
| 215 | * 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.]] |
| 216 | * ConvenientColorChange: When Mixmaster and Scrapper [[FaceHeelTurn change their allegiance to the Decepticons]], their paint jobs go from traditional construction livery (primarily yellow and gray) to the classic Constructicon colors of green and purple. Their [[UnusualEuphemism optics]] also [[EyeColourChange change color]], from yellow to red (going from a "neutral" color to the traditional Decepticon optic color). |
| 217 | * 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. |
| 218 | * CoolCar: Par for the course with Transformers, but special mentions go to Lockdown, a combination of a few classic muscle cars, and Blurr, whose vehicle mode is reminiscent of [[Anime/SpeedRacer the Mach 5]]. |
| 219 | * CoolChair: Professor Sumdac used Megatron's hand as a chair in his lab up until the first season finale. Its owner was less than happy. |
| 220 | ** And of course, Bulkhead himself, who can turn his kibble INTO a chair! |
| 221 | * CoolShades: or rather, optic sensors: Prowl, Soundwave, Jazz, and Grimlock (the first two's even look a bit like [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Kamina's]]). Meltdown's shades, however, are actual sunglasses, and are pretty funky. |
| 222 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: |
| 223 | ** Porter C. Powell is a very smug opportunist who responds to Sari Sumdac's insistence that she's in charge of her father's company due to being Isaac Sumdac's daughter by revealing there's no legal proof of her existence and usurping control of the company while kicking her out of her home. Another particularly vile case happens in the tie-in comic ''The Arrival'' in the story "The Insincerest Form of Flattery", where he releases a line of SWAT Vehicles named after Bulkhead without the Autobot's permission and was perfectly fine with selling them even when aware that they were completely unsafe death traps. |
| 224 | ** To a lesser extent, Prometheus Black/Meltdown, who uses his biological experiments to try and find scientific breakthroughs that would make machines obsolete and cares little about the well-being of his test subjects. |
| 225 | * CranialProcessingUnit: These Transformers' mind seems entirely located in their heads, since they are depicted as being able to function without their bodies. |
| 226 | * CrapsackWorld: Even if it's a hundred years into the future, the main setting is Detroit, a manufacturing hub. It has gone through urban decay and is pretty dull to look at for a main setting in a superhero show. |
| 227 | * CreatorCameo: In "Human Error, Part 1," one of the customers at the burger place is Marty Isenberg. |
| 228 | ** One of the recurring setpieces present in Detroit is a toy store named Wyatt Toys, named after staff member Derrick J. Wyatt. |
| 229 | * CreatorProvincialism: Isaac Sumdac grew up in Paw Paw, the same place as Derrick Wyatt. |
| 230 | * CreditsPushback: YTV did this to the second season finale's [[TheStinger stinger]], making it hard to hear [[spoiler: Megatron and Starscream bickering in space]]. Fans were unamused. |
| 231 | * CreepyMonotone: Soundwave. Perceptor is actually [[SyntheticVoiceActor performed by a voice synthesizer]]. Megatron and Shockwave come close, being more [[ImplacableMan implacable]] than monotone. |
| 232 | * CruelMercy: [[spoiler: Optimus didn't spare Megatron because he was feeling kind...]] |
| 233 | * CrypticBackgroundReference: |
| 234 | ** In AllThereInTheManual, Kup complains that Hot Rod used to have flame decos on his chest, comparing it to that of the Fallen. [[SchrodingersCanon Unofficial art]] by [[WordOfGod Derrick J. Wyatt]] shows that the Fallen is WreathedInFlames. |
| 235 | * CrystalDragonJesus: WordOfGod states that there is a Church of Primus on Cybertron. Not much is known about the church, though ''Animated'' Vector Prime's design brings to mind the uniform of the Pope. WordOfGod states that it's of the ChurchOfHappyology flavor. |
| 236 | * CurbStompBattle: |
| 237 | ** 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. |
| 238 | ** Then you have the three Dinobots against Meltdown's mutants in "Survival of the Fittest". Do ''that'' math. |
| 239 | * CustomBuiltHost: Megatron is reduced to just his head at the start of the series and convinces Isaac Sumdac, who thinks he is an Autobot, to rebuild him. Isaac finds he cannot build servos for Megatron's new body without a material rare on Earth that will become unstable in the time needed to transport it to the lab, so Megatron tries to take advantage of Sari's careless nature with her Allspark Key by designing a robot toy called Soundwave for her that will become more powerful each time the key is inserted until it can serve as his new body, but it gains sentience and its own agenda instead. Eventually, Isaac finds the remains of Megatron's original body and the plan to build him a new body is scrapped in favor of restoring his old one. |
| 240 | * CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Perceptor may already be a robot, but according to WordOfGod, he deleted his own personality and capacity for emotion in order to store more information in his processor. |
| 241 | * DamselInDistress: |
| 242 | ** Arcee is metaphorically StuffedIntoTheFridge multiple times. |
| 243 | ** Also, Elita-1. |
| 244 | ** 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 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. |
| 245 | * DarkActionGirl: Slipstream, the Female Starscream, is as treacherous as her progenitor ''and'' her fellow trope examples. Blackarachnia sometimes fills this role as well, though she's more often a FemmeFatale. |
| 246 | * DarkerAndEdgier: Third season. FamilyUnfriendlyViolence, FamilyUnfriendlyDeath, and ChildSoldiers, oh my! |
| 247 | * DatingCatwoman: Optimus and Blackarachnia[[spoiler:/Elita-1]] are implied to have feelings towards each other even though they are on opposing sides. |
| 248 | * DavidVersusGoliath: As mentioned below, [[EvilIsBigger most Decepticons tower over the Autobots]]. They also have the might to match, being the biggest threats in the series, usually requiring the entire team to take down a single 'Con. |
| 249 | * DeadlineNews: |
| 250 | ** A reporter is covering the RobotWar that Soundwave started in "Sound and Fury" when his camera starts attacking him. Then we see a News-Bot covering the news a few days later... Fortunately, it is later revealed that he survived, and is shown covering the garbage disputes in Season 2. |
| 251 | * DeathIsGray: In reference to Optimus Prime's death in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', all Transformers fade to gray upon death. This is {{justified|Trope}} by the concept of Transformers having "electronic paint jobs" that let them change color at will, with the implication that their normal color schemes are such paint jobs that deactivate to reveal their real gray colors underneath when they die. After Blurr is crushed by the disguised Shockwave into a cube and handed off to be disposed of, it's noteworthy that the cube is still Blurr's powder blue coloring, hinting that [[AndIMustScream he's still alive but immobile]]. |
| 252 | * DeathMontage: [[spoiler: a now immortal Starscream gets one showing him attempting, and failing, to overthrow Megatron in the episode "Mission Accomplished".]] |
| 253 | * DecompositeCharacter: Played straight maybe; we're not quite sure what happened with Skywarp and Cyclonus. In Franchise/TransformersGeneration1, Cyclonus may or may not be an upgraded Skywarp (blame error-prone animation for a confusing TransformationSequence.) The ''Animated'' version, however? Skywarp is one of several clones of Starscream, each with one trait of the original taken up to eleven. Skywarp represents his cowardice. As for Cyclonus, he's a brief cameo, but AllThereInTheManual tells us that his "internal chronometer" is way off, he is seeking someone named Galvatron (that's Megatron's upgraded form in G1 and several other series), and he has some circuitry in common with Starscream, particularly his (now disabled) self-preservation instinct. This hints without saying that Cyclonus is from the future and used to be Skywarp. |
| 254 | * DeconReconSwitch: Optimus Prime's DarkAndTroubledPast, which still affects him to this day, shows what happens if a young hero is too lenient, naive, and innocent for his own good. Displaying too much of those good qualities to people who just don't deserve them means that [[TheHero Optimus]] leaves himself open to [[{{Jerkass}} jerks]] like [[HateSink Sentinel]] who find a way to take advantage of him and end up [[BeingGoodSucks ruining his life]] [[KarmaHoudini while they run scot-free]]. Despite this, [[TheIdealist Optimus]] continues to be a good person, and [[TheHerosJourney learns on his own how to become]] [[TheParagon the hero everyone was expecting him to be]] in spite of the odds and losses. |
| 255 | * DecontaminationChamber: Sentinel uses one to pick on the team in "The Elite Guard" by giving them an emergency decontamination in spite of their insistence that the organics they've encountered haven't infected them and are harmless. |
| 256 | * DeflectorShields: Sumdac Tower has an emergency force-field that can cover the entire building - pretty impressive, considering it's one of the few inventions that probably didn't have its roots in Megatron. The Elite Guard ship also has one, and Swindle has a personal version that he purchased from the [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Vok]]. |
| 257 | * DesertedIsland: North Sister Island, a volcanic island that somehow exists in the middle of Lake Erie. Then it becomes "Dinobot Island" and gets more and more crowded. |
| 258 | * DestructiveSaviour: Bulkhead, thanks to his huge size and clumsiness, often causes damage inadvertently. |
| 259 | * DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Bumblebee's horn plays it in "The Thrill of the Hunt", Ratchet whistles it in the short "Operating Table", and Sari hums it in "Sari, No-One's Home". |
| 260 | * DieHardOnAnX: "Decepticon Air", complete with Prime doing the "exploding elevator" trick from ''Film/DieHard'' and making snarky comments while doing an AirVentPassageway escape. |
| 261 | * 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. |
| 262 | * DirtyCoward: Starscream's cowardly clone Skywarp, even more so than Starscream himself, though the clone lacks even the courage to betray people to ensure his own safety. |
| 263 | * DiscoDan: |
| 264 | ** Meltdown. Not only does he cling to outmoded ideals about human superiority over all machines, he also once speechified about how Prof. Sumdac isn't worthy to "lick the mud off my platform shoes, booga-looga-looga-looz!" |
| 265 | ** A surprising number of other villains, too. Headmaster's all outdated interwebz slang, Slo-Mo's a flapper, Angry Archer's stuck in the Middle Ages, and there were hints that Season 4 would have had a villainous SteamPunk commune. |
| 266 | * DistinctiveAppearances: Nearly every robot in the series can be identified by their shadow. Especially Blackarachnia. |
| 267 | ** Nearly any. Many Cybertronians share a mold with either Bumblebee or Ratchet, the former moreso. |
| 268 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Blackarachnia pulls this on Bulkhead and Bumblebee during her first appearance on Earth (They'd never seen a female Transformer before) and does it quite often to Optimus Prime [[spoiler: (who kinda used to be her ex)]] afterwards. |
| 269 | * DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Bulkhead. One noteworthy example occurs in "Home is Where the Spark Is", where he accidentally crushes a robotic drone that he was told to deliver intact. |
| 270 | * DoIReallySoundLikeThat: Sari's impression of Optimus Prime in "Along Came a Spider" yields this question from a less than flattered Optimus. |
| 271 | * DontCallMeSir: Ratchet says this to Arcee in a flashback from "The Thrill of the Hunt" in response to her addressing him as "sir". |
| 272 | * DoubleAesop: "Velocity" has Bumblebee learn that he has to set a good example for Sari and Sari learning that pirating illegal broadcasts is still wrong even if you're not paying to watch it. |
| 273 | * TheDragon: Starscream at first, and later Lugnut. |
| 274 | ** By the series finale, the latter is literally fighting Shockwave for this position. |
| 275 | * DrillSergeantNasty: Sentinel [[strike:Prime]] Minor in a flashback. |
| 276 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: Sentinel, although it has 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. |
| 277 | * DubNameChange: In the Japanese version, Bulkhead's name was changed to Ironhide so the main group of Autobots will all correspond to the main group of Film/TransformersFilmSeries Autobots (except for Prowl - oops). Consequentially, Ironhide's name was changed to "Armorhide". |
| 278 | * DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: In the first two seasons (before the human characters took a back seat), the Autobots would take breaks from their mission of repairing their ship/contacting Cybertron (season 1) or finding All Spark fragments (season 2) to help stop petty crimes, do construction work, rescue people from car accidents, and generally help Detroit however they could. |
| 279 | * DumbMuscle: The Dinobots, especially the toddler-like Grimlock. Of course, [[TheVoiceless Swoop and Snarl]] can't seem to muster up the processor power to ''speak'', either. Lugnut, Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Blackout are also standouts, while Bulkhead is a GeniusDitz, though his lack of general intelligence is played up considerably in the Japanese dub. Omega Supreme was ''specifically programmed'' to be all brawn and no brains, so that he wouldn't question his lot in life as a [[PersonOfMassDestruction Robot Of Mass Destruction]]. Blitzwing's Hothead personality leans toward this, as well. |
| 280 | [[/folder]] |
| 281 | [[folder:E-H]] |
| 282 | * EasilyForgiven: For once in ''Transformers''. {{Averted}}. ''This'' Megatron is absolutely intolerant and unforgiving of Starscream's treachery. Starscream spends most of the series ousted from the Decepticons as a result, and the only reason he survives so long is due to an [=AllSpark=] fragment implanted in his head that grants immortality. |
| 283 | * 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.]] |
| 284 | * EatTheBomb: Snarl swallows a missile in the Dinobots' debut episode, and isn't even fazed. |
| 285 | * 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 amnesiac instead of Arcee. |
| 286 | * EnemyMine: Although they're technically both Autobots, Optimus and Grimlock's fateful team-up played out like this. |
| 287 | * EngineeredPublicConfession: Done in ''The Arrival'' comic story "The Insincerest Form of Flattery" when Sari and Bulkhead use a hidden camera to trick Porter C. Powell into confessing to the public that his line of Bulkhead SWAT vehicles (named after the Autobot without his permission) were completely unsafe and that he was selling them even while aware that they were high-speed death traps. This results in Powell being forced to recall every single Bulkhead vehicle before anyone gets hurt. |
| 288 | * {{Engrish}}: The closed captioning for one episode dubbed Shockwave as "Chugway" |
| 289 | * EpicFlail: Bulkhead's main weapon is a chained ball. |
| 290 | ** Don't forget Swoop! His even ''bursts into flames!'' |
| 291 | * EquippableAlly: Laserbeak and Ratbat for Soundwave. |
| 292 | * EveryoneKnowsMorse: Used in "Decepticon Air" when Optimus's Autobot symbol flashes while "telling" Jazz his plan. |
| 293 | ** {{Justified|Trope}} here, since Optimus is an Elite Guard washout and Jazz is an actual member of the Elite Guard. |
| 294 | * EvilCostumeSwitch: Shockwave changing his color scheme to his "true" Decepticon colors can be treated as such. |
| 295 | * EvilCounterpart: Oil Slick and Lockdown for Prowl. |
| 296 | * EvilDuo: Lugnut and Blitzwing, with the complication that Blitzwing can go from being Lugnut's straight man to the crazy one at the flip of a switch. |
| 297 | * EvilGloating: Starscream ''loves'' this. Interrupt him at your peril. Naturally, his [[SendInTheClones clone]] Thundercracker, the Egomaniac, loves it even more. |
| 298 | ** '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwAjddZzNqI YOU INTERRUPTED MY SPEEEEEEECH!]]''' |
| 299 | * EvilIsBigger: Most of the Decepticons (with a few exceptions, such as [[TheNapoleon Dirt Boss]]) tower over most of the Autobots, actually taking into account how much bigger having flying alt modes would make them. [[spoiler:Emphasis on ''[[SapientShip most]]'' of the Autobots.]] Subverted with the human villains (except [[HulkingOut Colossus Rhodes]]), who are much smaller than the Autobots. |
| 300 | * EvilLawyerJoke: One of Meltdown's genetic experiments (specifically the one that resembles a ''vampire'' bat) used to be his lawyer (the shark monster was his stockbroker). |
| 301 | * EvilutionaryBiologist: Meltdown's human experiments ended up bizarre, monstrous {{Mythology Gag}}s of G1 Pretenders. |
| 302 | * ExactWords: Once Megatron's body is restored, he says that it is fitting that Starscream is by his side as he gets his "revenge on the one responsible for [[his]] fifty stellar cycles of helplessness and humiliation." He points his gun at Optimus, who had caused him to crash onto Earth... and then punches Starscream through the chest, the one who weakened him to make him lose that fight against Optimus. |
| 303 | * {{Expy}}: |
| 304 | ** Quite a lot of characters are based on one from a previous continuity, this being ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}''. ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' character Rattrap got one in the form of Rattletrap (a combination of the original's Western (Rattrap) and Japanese (Rattle) names). Not exactly [[DirtyCoward a flattering portrayal]]. |
| 305 | ** ''[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Magnus_Hammer Whoever holds this hammer, if they can deal with that now, shall possess the power of the Magnus...]]'' One could say the Magnus Hammer is basically an Expy of [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor Mjolnir]], and Animated Ultra Magnus is basically Thor for wielding it. Also, the hammer is the symbol of office for the Magnus, since in this continuity the suffix "Magnus" is a military rank, and they must have the hammer in their possession at all times to be considered the Magnus similar to Mjolnir only granting the power of Thor to whom it deems worthy. |
| 306 | ** Several of Sentinel Prime's design elements (he's energetic, mostly blue, with a ''very'' prominent chin) are based on WesternAnimation/TheTick, with whom he shares a voice actor. This was done on purpose after said actor was cast for the role. |
| 307 | ** Omega S.P.R.E.E.M. was a homage to Omega Spreem, an obscure toy from the [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Generation 1]] Action Masters line. |
| 308 | * EyesDoNotBelongThere: The mutant space barnacles make eyes appear all over their victims. |
| 309 | * FacePalm: [[http://aeonmagnus.tumblr.com/post/36744109895 Prowl, to Optimus' idealistic "cogs in the great big Autobot machine" speech]]. |
| 310 | * FakeStatic: |
| 311 | ** Bumblebee attempts to do this in "Megatron Rising" to avoid getting in trouble for defying Optimus's orders. |
| 312 | ** Prowl makes an attempt in "A Fistful of Energon" to avoid being reprimanded for going after Decepticons alone. |
| 313 | -->'''Ratchet''': [[ContinuityNod Personally, I've always found Bumblebee's fake static to be a lot more convincing.]] |
| 314 | * FallenHero: Blackarachnia used to be an Autobot named Elita-1. |
| 315 | * FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: Blurr gets trapped in a tunnel and crushed by its closing walls. After which his killer (in disguise) casually hands his cube-sized remains over to the nearest Autobot who has no idea what he just tossed down the disposal chute. Considering the show had no "real" deaths up until this point, this made the emotional impact even worse. In [=BotCon=] 2015's script reading [[spoiler:Sari finds and reactivates Blurr via the residual [=AllSpark=] energy in her body, subverting the trope. Of note is that this story preserves the cartoon's original depiction of no spark being visible, as opposed to the oft-touted "visible spark" concept imagery ''[[{{canon}} that was never used]]''. The story occurs in parallel with the Stunti-Con Job story, explaining how Cliffjumper comes to have the cube at the show; Blurr is subsequently fully restored once the Stunticon plot is defeated.]] |
| 316 | * FantasticRacism: Aplenty. |
| 317 | ** Meltdown and his henchman don't like machines. Captain Fanzone likes to say he hates machines, but this is really in the context of being old-fashioned and irritable (and a WalkingTechbane). He's on good terms with the Autobots, even if they keep messing up his city (to the point that the Autobots call him one of the few humans they fully trust). |
| 318 | ** Sentinel Prime ''really'' doesn't like organics. This is actually endemic to the entire Cybertronian population (Optimus' crew, for whatever reason, are far more tolerant even at the start), but Sentinel goes above and beyond. He actually tells Blackarachnia, his old friend Elita-1 turned techno-organic, that she was [[FateWorseThanDeath better off dead]] [[spoiler: before trying to ''[[MercyKill kill her]]'']]. How bad is this? Even Blackarachnia herself has less hatred for her organic half than Sentinel does, and she spends the entire series trying to purge it. Second-in-command of the Autobot Elite Guard, everybody! |
| 319 | *** Fanzone actually uses this against the Cybertronians when he ends up on Cyberton in one episode. Being a human and all, he's basically a walking bioterrorism weapon. |
| 320 | * 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'. |
| 321 | * FastballSpecial: Optimus does this with Sentinel Prime to get the latter into melee range of Lugnut. They were in space at the time. |
| 322 | ** Bulkhead tosses Prowl and Bumblebee on more than one occasion. See also the NotQuiteFlight example below. |
| 323 | * FauxtivationalPoster: Prowl has one in his room that parodies the famous "Hang in there, baby" cat poster. |
| 324 | * FauxActionGirl: Blackarachnia's evil schemes very often ended with her needing to be rescued as well as, or rather than, her victims. |
| 325 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Megatron is very polite and well-spoken for being the fearsome leader of the Decepticons. |
| 326 | * FemmeFatale: Blackarachnia is seductive and manipulates others to do what she wants them to do. |
| 327 | * FirstNameUltimatum: Optimus does this to Sari at the end of "Sari, No One's Home" when he sees that she ate a ton of candy bars while she was home alone. |
| 328 | * FlashbackBPlot: These are spread out across the series with each member of the Spacebridge crew getting an episode or two focused on their past and how they came to join the team. |
| 329 | * FoodAsBribe: Mixmaster and Scrapper get recruited into the Decepticons by being given a barrel of oil each, then promised more for their continued service. |
| 330 | * ForcedFromTheirHome: Season 2 opens with Sari Sumdac attempting to run her father's company after he disappeared during the season 1 finale, much to the ire of corporate raider Porter C. Powell. When Powell discovers there's actually no government record proving Sari exists [[spoiler: because she's actually a Cybertronian protoform Isaac found eight years prior]], he wastes no time not only ousting her from the company, but from her own room, giving it to the villain Headmaster. He even goes so far as to withhold her robot dog and tutor as being Sumdac Systems' property, leaving the girl with no recourse but to spend the season crashing with the Autobots. When Isaac Sumdac returns in season 3, he is absolutely LIVID with Powell and very nearly throws HIM out via the penthouse window. |
| 331 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: At the end of the first season, Sari tries interacting with the Allspark and all it shows is a holographic DNA helix surrounding a spark. No explanation is given until the end of the second season but the fans quickly latched onto that as confirmation of some WildMassGuessing. |
| 332 | ** When Nanosec acquires the [[SuperSpeed speed]] [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman suit]], he runs around town and robs a few banks to test it out. The next time he runs into Bumblebee, he tells Nanosec the suit makes him look ten years older. |
| 333 | ** In "Return Of The Headmaster" Bumblebee and Bulkhead both casually and correctly guess the show's big plot twist ([[spoiler:that Sari is actually a robot]]) but at the time it just seemed like they were making crap up. |
| 334 | ** In the first episode, Optimus tries to activate a defensive system aboard Teletraan-1 codenamed "Omega", but his command is denied. At the time, it could be written off as a simple MythologyGag to Omega Supreme among the show's many such gags, but then we see the system activated two seasons later and Teletraan actually ''is'' Omega Supreme. |
| 335 | *** The Teletraan-1's WaveMotionGun seen in "Lost and Found" looks notably like the cannon on the back of G1 Omega's head, which turns out to be a feature both iterations share when Omega is finally revealed. |
| 336 | * ForgottenSuperweapon: Omega Supreme was the Autobots' ship the whole time, which raises the question of why Ratchet didn't reactivate him before the events of the second season finale. |
| 337 | * ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: In the ''[[Franchise/TransformersTimelines Timelines]]'' comic "The Stunti-con Job", the Stunticons pretend to be Autobots disguised as Decepticons for the sake of their traveling stunt show. |
| 338 | * ForScience: Blackarachnia's justification for her [[spoiler:Predacon research]]. |
| 339 | * FourFingeredHands: Strika, Scrapper, Grimlock, Oil Slick, and Waspinator - although the last one isn't meant to be anything close to human. |
| 340 | * FreudianSlip: When Starscream learns Lugnut's been [[HearingVoices hearing Megatron's voice in his head.]] |
| 341 | -->'''Starscream:''' Megatron? Did you just say "Megatron"? [[SuddenlyShouting DID HE JUST SAY "MEGATRON"!?]] THERE ''IS'' NO MEGATRON! Megatron is OFFLINE! TERMINATED! I DID IT MYSE- '''''[[VerbalBackspace saw]]''''' [[VerbalBackspace it myself.]] |
| 342 | * FriendlyEnemy: Bulkhead and the Constructicons (other than Dirt Boss) get along famously, and Bulkhead knows that Mixmaster and Scrapper are simply misguided, not evil. |
| 343 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: Prowl enjoys observing animals. |
| 344 | ** Ironic considering [[spoiler: he's the only Autobot who successfully kills another character on screen (Starscream in "Endgame Part 2"), although Jazz helped.]] |
| 345 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Wasp(inator) used to be an Autobot recruit who ended up kicked out due to being mistaken for a traitor. Now he's a really intimidating enemy who is after Bumblebee for vengeance. |
| 346 | * FunWithAcronyms: The "Fully Automated Rapid Transit System". Hilariously, WordOfGod swears this was an accident. Bee in the city's "Bi-directional Unified Transit Terminal", on the other hand... |
| 347 | --> '''Sari''': "The B-U... Dad, you really need to work on your acronyms." |
| 348 | * FunnySchizophrenia: Blitzwing has his three personalities Icy, Hothead, and Random, who all mainly exist for the sake of some comic relief. |
| 349 | * FurryConfusion: Or 'the robots are sentient? non-sentient?' confusion: Tutor Bot, News Bot. |
| 350 | * TheFuture: The exact date isn't known, but it's apparently the 22nd century or near to it. |
| 351 | * GaleForceSound: Used, briefly, in the rock battle between Optimus Prime and Soundwave, in "Human Error, Part 2". |
| 352 | * GenderFlip: Red Alert is female in this universe. Various other materials set in the same universe have also revealed this also happened to Drag Strip, Nightbeat, and--thanks to a retcon--Sunstreaker. |
| 353 | * GeniusBruiser: [[GeniusDitz Bulkhead]], [[HuskyRusskie Strika]] and [[MagnificentBastard Megatron]] are all as cunning as they are strong. |
| 354 | * GeniusDitz: Bulkhead is revealed to be the most qualified space bridge technician in the galaxy in spite of his clumsiness and laid-back attitude. |
| 355 | * GentleGiant: Bulkhead is very big and also very good-natured. |
| 356 | * GigglingVillain: Professor Princess, and Random Blitzwing, though his is more insane laughter than actual giggling. |
| 357 | * GirlishPigtails: Sari, of course. [[spoiler:After her upgrade, they get smaller but don't vanish entirely. Appropriate, since she's still pretty immature.]] |
| 358 | * GiveMeAReason: In "Megatron Rising, Part 2", Blackarachnia gets pissed at realizing Sari was lying about her directions to the [=AlllSpark=] to waste her time and tells Sari "Give me one excuse" in a way clearly inferring that she's hoping to get Sari to provoke her into harming Sari. |
| 359 | * GlassCannon: Soundwave has ThePowerOfRock, but since he's made out of Earth metals without the {{Unobtainium}} that Cybertronians have, he can be easily broken apart by a single attack. Retreat! |
| 360 | * GodzillaThreshold: |
| 361 | ** After [[spoiler:Sari goes through a fit of ExplosiveOverclocking, Ratchet manages to bypass the out-of-control circuits... until Megatron returns to Earth having commandeered Omega Supreme]]. Cue an OhCrap from the whole team: |
| 362 | --->'''Ratchet:''' ...there's nothing more I can do for [[spoiler:her]] now!\ |
| 363 | '''Optimus Prime:''' I know, but I may need you to UN-do something.\ |
| 364 | '''Prowl:''' You're not actually suggesting we unleash an [[spoiler:uncontrollable Sari on Omega Supreme]], are you?\'''Optimus Prime:''' I'm hoping we won't have to! |
| 365 | ** A much more comedic example comes during ''Bee in the City''. With Optimus and Sari captured by Transtech Sari, Bumblebee is left to ally with a [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars purple Tyrannosaurus, yesssssss]] and Flare-Up to save them. When trying to come up with ideas, he decides they need '''BIG''' help, suggesting they call in Grimlock, or scam Lugnut into helping them out. |
| 366 | --->''' "Joe":''' Oh ''please'', what do I look like, Creator/ScottMcNeil?!? [[note]]David Kaye voices Animated Optimus, Grimlock, and Lugnut, as well as "Joe". Scott [=McNeil=] previously voiced Rattrap, Dinobot, Silverbolt, and Waspinator on Beast Wars.[[/note]] |
| 367 | * GoodEyesEvilEyes: Alongside the classic [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes of evil]] the Decepticons have going on, most Autobots seem to have pupils while most Decepticons don't, giving their eyes a flat, soulless look in comparison. |
| 368 | * GoodGuyBar: Maccadam's Old Oil House (which first appeared in the UK version of [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel the Marvel comic book]]) is mentioned in Season 3. It used to be a TruceZone back before the Decepticons were exiled, and was reportedly the one place not even Megatron himself would bomb during the war. Sentinel has it closed down for being a "subversive gathering place". |
| 369 | * GoodIsNotNice: Well, let's see; we've got Wasp being thrown in the Stockades with one piece of questionable evidence, Swindle left paralyzed and our heroes do nothing about it, Sentinel wanting to kill Blackarachnia once he discovers who she really is, and then there's Omega Supreme's entire backstory... The Autobots can almost be as ruthless as the 'Cons at times. |
| 370 | ** Though others might argue that Autobots in this series are more grey than their usual white. |
| 371 | ** Most of the Autobots (excluding those who live on Earth) have an irrational fear of organics. [[CantArgueWithElves They generally consider themselves to be better than anyone else]]. Oh yeah, and Omega was built to be a [[spoiler: [[PersonOfMassDestruction fairly simple-minded bot, who isn't supposed to think about WHAT he's doing.]] ]] |
| 372 | * GottaCatchThemAll: In the beginning of the second season the All-Spark shatters into umpty-nine pieces each of which affects Future-Detroit's technology as well as the giant robots in different ways. The cast has to find them. The similarity to Manga/{{Inuyasha}} didn't go unnoticed by the fans. |
| 373 | ** Made all the more funny by the fact that [[ActorAllusion Optimus is voiced by Sesshomaru.]] |
| 374 | * GradeSchoolCEO: While temporarily in control of her father's company, Sari plays this role, up until Powell exploits the situation to seize control of Sumdac Industries because Sari refused to authorise research into weapons R&D projects. |
| 375 | * GrandTheftMe: Headmaster uses his Headmaster unit to steal Cybertronians' bodies and control them. |
| 376 | * GreenEyedMonster: Thrust, the only Starscream clone to neither appear in the show ''nor'' have a toy, embodies Starscream's jealousy. |
| 377 | * GrenadeHotPotato: Megatron does this to Starscream during the Death Montage. |
| 378 | * GrievousHarmWithABody: Spittor (the Decepticon frog-bot) in "[=TransWarped=]" grabs Red Alert with his tongue-tentacle things and spits her at the other Autobots. |
| 379 | ** Optimus beats up Headmaster-Sentinel with his own arm, a year before the movie! Optimus did the same thing to Starscream. He later forces Laserbeak into his altmode and clobbers Soundwave with him in ''Human Error part 2''. |
| 380 | * GrudgingThankYou: Sentinel to Optimus after their run-in with the Headmaster. |
| 381 | -->That must have hurt. |
| 382 | -->More than you know. |
| 383 | * GrumpyOldMan: Ratchet and Captain Fanzone. Naturally, they are forced to team up in "This Is Why I Hate Machines". |
| 384 | * HairTriggerTemper: The third Constructicon, Dirt Boss. To the point of also being TheNapoleon. |
| 385 | * HalfArcSeason: The show's episodes consist of lighthearted and self-contained stories as well as ones dealing with serious story arcs such as Megatron deceiving Professor Sumdac into rebuilding him and his attempts to conquer Cybertron using a space bridge after he regains his body. |
| 386 | * HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Sari turns out to be a half-Cybertronian hybrid who was born when a Protoform scanned her father's DNA.]] |
| 387 | * {{Hammerspace}}: Wreck-Gar's trash bin can both produce random objects and make things put in it seemingly disappear. Similarly, Swindle has an in-universe justification: a private transwarp frequency to his personal storage dimension... located in his torso. |
| 388 | ** [[spoiler:Post-upgrade Sari uses this for an actual hammer.]] |
| 389 | * HateSink: Sentinel Prime is clearly intended to be despised due to being a highly conceited and insufferable {{Jerkass}}. |
| 390 | * HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: In "[=TransWarped=]", Longarm Prime asks Blurr if he told anyone else about his information regarding the true identity of the Decepticon spy. After Blurr says that he didn't, [[spoiler:Longarm reveals his true form as the Decepticon Shockwave and has Blurr crushed into a cube to prevent him from informing the other Autobots of his secret.]] |
| 391 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Wreck-Gar, who has a tendency to do whatever the next person tells him, changes allegiances based on whether the last person who told him what to do was good or bad. |
| 392 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Blurr was able to piece together that Wasp could not have been the traitor in the Autobot camp, as his voice did not match that of Shockwave, who was hiding under an Autobot alias. He reported this to his boss, Longarm (head of Autobot Intelligence), and told him that a simple voice scan through the data archives could determine the identity of the traitor. Unfortunately for him, he also knew too little, as Longarm was the only 'Bot he had spoken to about this... and Longarm was Shockwave's alias. Shockwave then killed him to silence him, [[spoiler:though the script reading "The Return of Blurr" brings the speedy Autobot back.]] |
| 393 | * HeroAntagonist: |
| 394 | ** Sentinel Prime is often confrontational towards the series' main Autobots, but he's technically still a good guy due to being part of the Autobot Elite Guard. |
| 395 | ** Ultra Magnus is also one to a lesser extent. While he's the head of the Elite Guard and doesn't always agree with the decisions of Optimus' team, he ultimately understands that they know what they're doing and are doing the right thing. |
| 396 | * HeroesGoneFishing: Bumblebee and Sari can often be found playing videogames, holographic Twister or flying toy planes. "Nature Calls" starts out as a camping trip. |
| 397 | * HeroesPreferSwords: Inverted; Megatron, the BigBad of the series prominently wields a pair of swords [[note]] they form the rotor blades of his helicopter alt-mode [[/note]]. This stands in contrast to the weapons employed by the Autobots, such as Optimus' axe and Ultra Magnus' hammer [[note]] Per WordOfGod, the Autobots were built as a labor force while the Decepticons were created to be military, so it makes sense that Megatron would wield the archetypal weapon of a warrior while the Autobots would use repurposed tools [[/note]]. |
| 398 | * HeroicSacrifice: |
| 399 | ** Optimus Prime died in the third episode - less than sixty minutes into the series. He was brought back from the dead less than two minutes later - a new personal record. |
| 400 | ** Omega Supreme died in the second season finale while destroying Megatron's space bridge... but he's NotQuiteDead. |
| 401 | ** [[spoiler: Prowl as well, in the third (and most likely final) finale]]. |
| 402 | * HeroWithBadPublicity: Bulkhead occasionally in Season 1, all the Autobots in Season 2. |
| 403 | * HijackingCthulhu: At one point, [[spoiler: [[BigBad Megatron]] and [[TheStarscream Starscream]] take turns at the wheel of [[HumongousMecha Omega Supreme.]]]] |
| 404 | * HoldYourHippogriffs: A recurring staple of the franchise, but Animated ''really'' pushed the envelope with phrases like "risking spark and servo" [[note]]risking life and limb[[/note]], "pry it from my cold, offline processor", and insults like "glitch-head" and "crankshaft". See also UnusualEuphemism below. |
| 405 | * 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. |
| 406 | * {{Homage}}: Several designs are nods to other HumongousMecha and even other Transformers series: |
| 407 | ** Starscream's vehicle mode is similar to the [[http://www.new-un-spacy.com/macrossplus/yf-19.htm YF-19 Alpha One]] from Anime/MacrossPlus and Anime/{{Macross 7}} (he even looks like the GERWALK mode for a second during his TransformationSequence). |
| 408 | ** Tutor Bot looks quite a bit like Lord Canti of ''Anime/{{FLCL}}''. |
| 409 | ** The police drones used by the city look like the ED-209 from ''Franchise/{{Robocop}}'' (which is also set in a futuristic Detroit), and Sumdac even makes a reference to it having similar problems with identification. |
| 410 | ** Blurr's vehicle mode looks like the [[Anime/SpeedRacer Mach 5]]. The toy version even has a hidden sawblade that springs out front. On a different note, he also has wheels inspired by Cheetor from the canceled ''[[ComicBook/TransformersTransTech Transtech]]'' line. Appropriately, his toy will soon be retooled ''into'' an actual [=TransTech=] Cheetor toy. |
| 411 | ** Jetfire and Jetstorm, who combine to form Safeguard, bear a marked resemblance in [[BlueOniRedOni design]] and [[CombiningMecha combination-style]] to Hyoryu and Enryu/Choryujin from ''Anime/GaoGaiGar''. |
| 412 | ** Spittor's vehicle mode was designed as an homage to Don Figueroa's version of the original Spittor's altmode before the Beast Wars. |
| 413 | ** The Starscream clones are all based on other jets in previous Transformers series and a sly joke towards the repaint/resell methods of Transformer toys; The original Sycophant's color scheme almost exactly matches that of Starscream in The Anime/UnicronTrilogy. |
| 414 | ** Dirt Boss also has mind-controlling devices he fires into other Transformers' heads, just like the G1 Insecticon Bombshell. |
| 415 | ** During "Decepticon Air", [[spoiler:Sari's hands split apart into many smaller robotic fingers to operate a keyboard quickly, very much like is done by various computer operating cyborgs in ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''. Also, her "palm blast" hands in ''Transwarped'' bear a remarkable resemblance to the design of ComicBook/IronMan's repulsors that was used in the movie.]] |
| 416 | *** In the same episode, Sunstorm and Ramjet get headpieces that cause them to resemble their G1 counterparts much more closely. According to the Allspark Almanac 2, Dirge and Thrust get coneheads of their own to complete the homage. Of course, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream don't get boxheads, but whatever. |
| 417 | ** [[spoiler:Sari's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf3qEBrKojg first upgrade]] in ''[=TransWarped=]'' is another homage to Gurren Lagann, namely the way her arms and legs suddenly expand is almost identical to the way the Gurren's do when it [[CombiningMecha combines]] with Lagann.]] |
| 418 | ** Optimus, Bulkhead, and Prowl are dead ringers for Hammerstein, Mongrol, and Joe Pineapples (respectively) from ''ComicBook/ABCWarriors''. Blitzwing rather resembles Blackblood. |
| 419 | ** Ultra Magnus' toy received a redeco to become Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, an homage to G1's Roadbuster, who had a nearly identical vehicle mode to Animated Magnus. |
| 420 | ** Mainframe is ''such'' an homage to the original G1 character that, like the original (an altmodeless Action Master), he never transforms. The writers say that he ''does'' have an altmode, but it's an immobile supercomputer. |
| 421 | * HonestJohn: Swindle doesn't even bother with a fake name, he's just that honest. |
| 422 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Issac Sumdac thought that Megatron was an Autobot. To be fair, that part wasn't entirely unreasonable since he had no real knowledge of the Decepticons beyond witnessing Starscream battle the Autobots. However, when Megatron starts putting flamethrowers into the Dinobots (who are running amok when this info is made aware) and begs Sumdac not to tell his "Autobot friends", it's baffling that he wouldn't find that even a little suspicious. |
| 423 | * HostageForMacGuffin: "Transform and Roll Out" at one point has Starscream attempt to force Optimus into surrendering the [=AllSpark=] by threatening to kill several humans. |
| 424 | * HulkSpeak: Grimlock has a limited vocabulary and always refers to himself as "Me Grimlock". |
| 425 | * HumansAreBastards: Soundwave thinks this, since he arrogantly assumes machines are far superior to humans and shouldn't be slaves to humans. Soundwave tries recruiting Bulkhead with this anti-human ideology by pointing out how Sari didn't want to be friends with the latter anymore because she got a cooler toy for her birthday. Though Soundwave tampered with communications to turn Sari and Bulkhead against each other. |
| 426 | * HumansAreWhite: It does a better job of averting this than previous entries. |
| 427 | * HuntingTheRogue: Wasp is a victim of the FrameUp variant, as he's set up as a fall guy by Longarm. While a JerkassVictim, by the time the series begins his mind is pretty much gone and all he wants is revenge on Bumblebee. When he escapes, the Autobots on Cybertron alert Optimus Prime's team on Earth to be on the lookout. |
| 428 | * HybridizationPlot: Prometheus Black's biotechnology company was constantly outperformed by Isaac Sumdac's robotics, and when a last-ditch attempt to sell his technology as a viable alternative failed he went into a rage and accidentally turned himself into the supervillain Meltdown. When he next appears, he's gotten it into his head that biotechnological hybrids might be powerful enough to battle even the likes of the Autobots, and demonstrates with a fish monster and a bat monster created from two of [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness his former employees]]. He intends to create even more, but is stopped by the Autobots and police captain Fanzone. |
| 429 | * HypocriticalHumour: Wreck-Gar complaining that Sari can't make up her mind in "Human Error" when he himself has a habit of doing whatever he's told regardless of how much it contradicts his previous instructions. |
| 430 | [[/folder]] |
| 431 | [[folder: I-M]] |
| 432 | * IApprovedThisMessage: Part of Sentinel's anti-Decepticon propaganda in "This Is Why I Hate Machines". "I'm Sentinel Prime, and I approve of this message." |
| 433 | * IconicAttributeAdoptionMoment: |
| 434 | ** In the second part of the pilot movie, the Autobots have Teletraan I scan the vehicles outside so that they can blend in with what they assume is the cybernetic population, leading to Optimus, Ratchet and Bumblebee receiving their iconic semi-truck, ambulance, and sports car alt-modes. |
| 435 | ** Megatron initially has a body based on his monstrous, spikey look from the first Michael Bay film, including the alt-mode of a Cybertronian jet/spaceship. However, after being reduced to a head, Megatron‘s still functioning, partially repaired head gains a new shape similar to his G1 incarnation’s bucket-like helmet, then when fully repaired by the Allspark key, Megatron adopts a new blocky, G1 inspired body, but with a dual rotor gunship alt-mode. |
| 436 | * IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight: |
| 437 | ** In "Transwarped, Part III," Ratchet to Omega [[spoiler:when Starscream's controlling him]]. |
| 438 | ** Also twice in "Human Error". Done by Sari first to her father and later to the Autobots. |
| 439 | * IHaveAFamily: The Professor in "Three's a Crowd", when he thinks Bulkhead has turned into a PointyHairedBoss (Bulky was just pretending so Dirt Boss wouldn't ''really'' go after him). |
| 440 | * ILied: Megatron to Professor Sumdac when the latter finally learns the truth that he is a Decepticon. |
| 441 | * ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Ratchet says in "The Thrill of the Hunt" that he is a medi-bot, not a field commander. |
| 442 | * ImpactSilhouette: Bulkhead and Blitzwing often crash through walls and leave behind holes in their shapes. |
| 443 | * {{Incoming}}: |
| 444 | ** From the first part of "Transform and Roll Out" |
| 445 | -->'''Optimus Prime''': Would it kill you guys to say something like "Watch out", or, I don't know, "Heads up" or... |
| 446 | -->'''Ratchet''': Incoming! |
| 447 | ** "Mission Accomplish" has Optimus yell "Incoming" in response to seeing Starscream fall towards himself and the other Autobots. |
| 448 | * 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. |
| 449 | * IneffectualLoner: Prowl keeps trying to be antisocial and self-reliant, but is inevitably beaten down by the power of lessons. |
| 450 | * IneffectualSympatheticVillain: The Society of Ultimate Villainy, for the most part. They wouldn't have gone far were it not for Swindle helping them. |
| 451 | * InhumanableAlienRights: |
| 452 | ** Powell uses this to get Masterson off the hook for attacking Optimus and Sentinel in "The Return of the Headmaster". |
| 453 | ** Fanzone and the Autobots turn this back on Powell in "Black Friday" when he attempts to get the Autobots arrested for threatening him and damaging a piece of equipment that belonged to him by a technicality. Fanzone not only refuses to arrest the Autobots, but also threatens to arrest ''Powell'' if he continues making a scene. |
| 454 | * InitiationCeremony: Mixmaster and Scrapper get the 'painful' version when they officially join the Decepticons: Megatron literally brands both of them. |
| 455 | * InkSuitActor: |
| 456 | ** In Creator/TaraStrong and [[http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/0/0d/Animated_carly.jpg Carly Witwicky’s]] case it’s a coincidence, due to the latter being based off a character who was designed decades before the show was produced and back when the former was a still a child. |
| 457 | ** Optimus’s [[https://orig00.deviantart.net/e7a5/f/2015/180/0/1/tfa_optimus_human_error_by_kaitlinexe-d8z8e2v.png human form]] from “Human Error”, looks rather similar to his voice actor, Creator/DavidKaye. |
| 458 | ** Wreck-Gar's facial features were modeled after that of Music/WeirdAlYankovic, who voices him. |
| 459 | * InsigniaRipOffRitual: After Shockwave frames Wasp in "Autoboot Camp", Sentinel removes his Autobot insignia as Cliffjumper is taking him away. |
| 460 | * InstrumentOfMurder: Soundwave has an electric guitar that turned into his attack bird Laserbeak. He also has Ratbat, who turns into a keytar. |
| 461 | * IntroDump: The first scene featuring the main Decepticons mentions their names so we know who they are. |
| 462 | * IShallTauntYou: Bumblebee uses this against Blitzwing in "Megatron Rising", angering him enough to switch from Icy to Hothead in midair - meaning he transforms from plane to tank and falls out of the sky. "Oh slag! NOT AGAI-" |
| 463 | * IsItAlwaysLikeThis: Newcomer Jazz, on being attacked by a mass-produced robot army. |
| 464 | * 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. |
| 465 | * ISurrenderSuckers: When [[BadLiar Ramjet]] tells you he's completely disarmed and helpless, he isn't. Sentinel, who'd never met him, didn't pick up on it, but Prowl did. |
| 466 | * IsThatAThreat: This exchange from "This Is Why I Hate Machines". |
| 467 | -->'''Ratchet''': Omega Supreme is one of us. An Autobot. Harm one circuit on him and you'll answer to me. |
| 468 | -->'''Sentinel Prime''': Are you threatening me? That's treason, soldier! Arrest him! |
| 469 | * ItHasBeenAnHonor: In the first season finale, Optimus tells the team he can't think of anyone he'd rather have by his side as they're about to go into battle. Bumblebee, however, notes he wouldn't mind having the Elite Guard there too. |
| 470 | * ItIsDehumanizing: When Ratchet and Fanzone end up teleported to Cybertron in "This is Why I Hate Machines", several of the Autobots there react to Fanzone with horror and disgust and refer to the human police officer as "it". |
| 471 | * JawDrop: Bulkhead does this twice, and it literally ''falls off'' the second time. |
| 472 | * {{Jerkass}}: Sentinel Prime is very condescending and assholish through and through. He spends every minute insulting Optimus and the other Autobots and is [[FantasticRacism fantastically racist]] towards organic beings. Ultra Magnus really is a ''terrible'' judge of character. |
| 473 | * 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. |
| 474 | * JiveTurkey: Jazz. "Traffic lights. Solid." |
| 475 | ** [[WordOfGod Marty Isenberg]] stated in an interview that he was supposed to sound like a {{beatnik}}. |
| 476 | * JobStealingRobot: Prometheus Black holds this view of Isaac Sumdac's creations in "Meltdown" (with the crowd at his "man vs. robot" fight agreeing with him). Captain Fanzone is a milder case, as he believes policework is meant for humans rather than robots. |
| 477 | * JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Prowl interfaces with [[spoiler:Omega Supreme to free him from Megatron's control]]. |
| 478 | * {{Keepaway}}: Five Autobots trying to keep an angry Starscream from the Allspark in "Transform and Roll Out". Lampshaded by Sari. |
| 479 | * KidAppealCharacter: Bumblebee (duh) and Sari. |
| 480 | ** In "Bee in the City", Bumblebee is mistaken for several other "kid appeal" types across various other ''Transformers'' canons; [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 Wheelie]], [[Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise Side Burn]], [[Anime/TransformersArmada Hot Shot]], and [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Cheetor]]. |
| 481 | * KickMePrank: Sari mentions in "Sound and Fury" that she once put a "kick me" sign on Tutorbot's back. |
| 482 | * KidnappedForExperimentation: Happened at least twice |
| 483 | ** In a season one episode, Meltdown has Swoop kidnap Sari so he can both use her as a test subject and to [[IHaveYourWife get revenge]] [[EvilIsPetty on Sumdac]]. |
| 484 | ** Towards the end of season three, Blackarachnia does this to Wasp, [[{{Pun}} transforming him]] into Waspinator. |
| 485 | * KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Starscream and Prowl both die (the former permanently) in the series finale.]] |
| 486 | * KnightOfCerebus: The show has quite a few, actually, the first was Lockdown, who has his roots with Ratchet, and showed an emotional depth and seriousness that made most people grow to the series, Megatron, who basically threw out all the stops by [[EstablishingCharacterMoment murdering Starscream]] the moment he's right next to him, and Shockwave, who [[spoiler: outright ''murdered Blurr'']], not to mention his generally no nonsense attitude. |
| 487 | ** We forgot Wasp, whose insanity, unlike in ''Beast Wars'', ''isn't'' played for laughs. |
| 488 | * LanternJawOfJustice: Many of the Transformers, but especially Sentinel Prime, who's a pastiche of WesternAnimation/TheTick. |
| 489 | * LargeAndInCharge: Decepticon leader Megatron and Autobot authority figure Ultra Magnus are both much larger than the rest of their comrades. |
| 490 | * LargeHam: |
| 491 | ** Starscream constantly screams his dialogue and rarely speaks subtly. |
| 492 | ** Sentinel Prime transforms ''into'' a flexing musclepose. |
| 493 | ** Slightly more subtle, but [[LosingYourHead head!]]Megatron's magnificent one-liners ("I blame myself", "I suspect it was an inside job", etc.) surely qualify. |
| 494 | * LastVillainStand: After the destruction of the Omega Supreme [[EvilKnockoff knockoffs]], the capture of Lugnut and Shockwave, the [[spoiler: death of Starscream]] and [[spoiler: Prowl's HeroicSacrifice]], Megatron charges in at Optimus for one last battle. After a swift scuffle, Optimus defeats Megatron, who tells him to end him. Instead, Optimus arrests Megatron and takes him back to Cybertron. |
| 495 | * LaughablyEvil: Blitzwing's "Random" persona provides for plenty of laughs because of how nuts he is. |
| 496 | * LeanAndMean: Starscream and Oil Slick are both skinny Decepticons. |
| 497 | * LeetLingo: |
| 498 | ** The Headmaster, often straying into TotallyRadical. "Total OWNAGE, n00b!" |
| 499 | ** Professor Sumdac has since tried to adopt this as his personal catchphrase. Thankfully, he failed. |
| 500 | ** There's something resembling a [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] here in a dialogue between Headmaster and Optimus Prime: |
| 501 | --->'''Headmaster:''' I am so leet! |
| 502 | --->'''Optimus Prime:''' Yeah? Well, I have no idea what that means! |
| 503 | * LeftHanging: Sari's backstory is easily the biggest unresolved issue, although there are a few others (see WhatHappenedToTheMouse). |
| 504 | * LegionOfDoom: The Society of Ultimate Villainy, which is comprised of the most fail-tastic human adversaries plus Swindle, who lives up to his name rather well. |
| 505 | * TheLifestream: The Well of All Sparks is pretty much the Cybertronian afterlife. |
| 506 | * LineOfSightName: There are at least three examples. |
| 507 | ** Grimlock took his name when Megatron was lamenting that his chances at getting free were, "Grim. Locked in this laboratory." "Grim... Lock... Me Grimlock!" |
| 508 | ** When the Constructicons were born from the [=AllSpark=] fragments, Scrapper noticed the "Mixmaster" brand on his partner, who decided it was too long and just be called Mix. Scrapper got his name from seeing a sign with "Scrap" written on it, but Mix thought it was too short and also adjusted it. |
| 509 | ** Wreck-Gar took his name from what people were shouting at him. "Worthless-wreck-walking-pile-of-garbage"." Angry Archer thought it was too much and shortened it to Wreck-Gar. |
| 510 | * LittleNo: Optimus utters one in "Endgame" when he discovers [[spoiler: Prowl is dead]]. |
| 511 | * TheLoad: |
| 512 | ** Bumblebee, for all his charm and humor. While he is okay at fighting human supervillains he is utterly ''useless'' when fighting Decepticons on his own, as his one weapon (nodes that shoot out beams of electricity) are too weak to even make any of them flinch. [[spoiler:Well, until he gets the limiters on them taken off and they become the most powerful weapon on the entire team.]] |
| 513 | ** Averted with Sari, who is somewhat of a liaison between humans and the Autobots as well as having a key empowered by the [=AllSpark=]. |
| 514 | * LonerTurnedFriend: Prowl. |
| 515 | * LongRunners: In-universe, the Ninja Gladiator series of video games is over 100 years old. The first game apparently came out in the NES era and evidently its popularity has been extremely long-lived. |
| 516 | * LockedIntoStrangeness: Isaac Sumdac has a white S-shaped stripe in his hair. He got it when [[spoiler: Sari was "born".]] |
| 517 | * LosingYourHead: As inflicted by the Headmaster on Bulkhead, Sentinel Prime and Starscream. Not to mention Season 1 Megatron, and Waspinator, left in multiple pieces. |
| 518 | * LotsOfLuggage: "Nature Calls" had Prowl taking Sari and Bumblebee camping. Bumblebee ends up packing a lot of electronic devices. An incredulous Prowl asks how he managed to store them all. |
| 519 | * LotusEaterMachine: The Autobots end up in one of these where they become human thanks to [[spoiler: Soundwave]] in "Human Error". |
| 520 | * MacrossMissileMassacre: Blitzwing can pull these off in a pinch. Lugnut can pull off a similar move with a payload of bombs. |
| 521 | * MadScientist: |
| 522 | ** Meltdown does experiments on people that turn them into super-powered beings or deformed mutants. |
| 523 | ** The Headmaster invents technology that he uses to steal and control Cybertronians' bodies. |
| 524 | ** Oil Slick is a Decepticon chemist specializing in making poisons. |
| 525 | ** Blackarachnia uses her cunning to try and cure herself of her organic form and is also responsible for Blitzwing being a triple changer. |
| 526 | ** Ratchet seems to view Perceptor, Wheeljack, Mainframe, and Highbrow as this, with a "My God, what have you done?!" type reaction to every little thing they do. Although given how they created Omega Supreme to live the life he did, Ratchet might have a point. |
| 527 | * MagicSkirt: Sari's dress. And thank god, because she's eight. |
| 528 | * MagneticPlotDevice: Pretty much everything important to the series involves the [=AllSpark=] and Sari's key in at least some capacity. |
| 529 | ** [[UnpredictableResults and they do whatever's most conducive to the story at hand.]] |
| 530 | ** The writers have explicitly stated they don't plan to give an explanation for its existence for fear of it being uninteresting, [[VoodooShark too bizarre]], or [[PlotTumor take up much more plot than its worth]]. |
| 531 | * MagnetismManipulation: Ratchet has a pair of magnets in his forearms. As a medic, their initial use was loading damaged Autobots onto his sick bay, but they're quite useful in combat. Interestingly, he also had an [[{{EMP}} Electromagnetic Pulse Generator]] that functioned entirely differently, instantly knocking out any Transformer in its beam. He could also combine his magnetism with teammate Bumblebee's [[ShockAndAwe electric Stingers]] to make an EMP... somehow. |
| 532 | * MakeMeWannaShout: Starscream eventually develops an eerily appropriate sonic scream ability from the [=AllSpark=] fragment in his head. It's never really explained how he does this, and it's never even brought up again after "[=TransWarped=]". |
| 533 | * MakeSureHesDead: After Starscream's first resurrection, Megatron kills him and tells Lugnut to make sure he's off-line. Lugnut confirms that his spark chamber is empty, and they promptly chuck the body into a river. Starscream gets back up anyway thanks to his [=AllSpark=] fragment. |
| 534 | * ManipulativeBastard: |
| 535 | ** Megatron manipulates Isaac Sumdac into furthering his agenda and giving him a new body by deceiving him into believing that he is on good terms with the Autobots. |
| 536 | ** Starscream, too. He plays Lugnut and Shockwave like datatrax. In fact, a throwaway line by him in the first episode may indicate that most Decepticons are like this... hence their name (well, those that aren't thuggish muscle anyway). |
| 537 | * ManipulativeEditing: Done by Porter C. Powell to Bulkhead in the tie-in comic ''The Arrival'' during the story "The Insincerest Form of Flattery", where Powell edits footage of Bulkhead decrying his line of SWAT vehicles named after the Autobot without his permission so that Bulkhead appears to be approving of them. |
| 538 | * MeaningfulEcho: "You can trust this face, can't you?" in the pilot. Ratchet and Omega Supreme get their own in the Season 3 premiere - "We do what we must, even if, sometimes, it doesn't make sense." |
| 539 | * TheMedic: Ratchet and Red Alert. The instant healing properties of Sari's key often displaced Ratchet's skills and put her in this role. |
| 540 | * MediumAwareness: Slightly played with in the Japanese dub. For a crossover version, Bumblebee jokingly thinks about calling for [[Series/TomicaHeroRescueFire Rescue Fire]] when the Autobots are responding to a building fire, and Bulkhead responds that that's a different show in part 3 of "Transform and Roll Out" (considering that ''Rescue Fire'' aired in the same timeslot before Animated's debut). Later in that same part, when Optimus was contemplating on getting the [=AllSpark=] to safety, Starscream attacks the Bots while yelling that the show's not over yet (truthfully, he could be referring that they weren't victorious yet). |
| 541 | * MerchandiseDriven: Eventually; somewhat averted when the series first debuted, as the toyline was actually delayed several months due to Hasbro wanting to continue pushing merch from the [[Film/Transformers2007 live-action movie]]. The toy line would catch up, though, and one store-exclusive redeco even got featured late in the third season. |
| 542 | * MerchandisingTheMonster: After being fired from Sumdac Industries, Porter C. Powell starts selling toys of Soundwave, himself a former toy turned into Megatron's robotic liberator that had previously taken control of all the technology in Detroit to wipe out the human race. Surprisingly, it sells like crazy—even Sumdac himself buys one (though it's more to make up for the fact that the original Soundwave, a birthday gift for his daughter, was designed by Megatron when he was tricking him into thinking he was a friend). Unsurprisingly, when the real Soundwave uses these new toys to take control of the Autobots and cause even more havoc, Powell is bankrupted by the massive refunds he gets hit with. |
| 543 | * MercyKill: [[spoiler: Megatron asks this from Optimus when he finally defeats the former in battle in the finale episode "Endgame, Part II". Optimus decides a lifelong sentence in stasis would be a harsher punishment]]. |
| 544 | * MexicanStandoff: The climax of "A Fistful of Energon" has all sides aiming at each other and forced to call it a draw. |
| 545 | * MinionShipping: [[SycophanticServant Lugnut]] and [[HuskyRusskie Strika]] are married. |
| 546 | * MisfitMobilizationMoment: The Substitute Autobots consist of reluctant recruits Wreck-Gar, Scrapper, and Snarl. |
| 547 | * MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: Arcee in the finale, due to Shockwave's hacking. |
| 548 | * MissingMom: Averted. While Sari initially appears to have one of these, it's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:she's actually a robot-human hybrid who was created when Isacc Sumdac's DNA was combined with a protoform, thus no female was involved in her "birth"]]. |
| 549 | * MistakenIdentity: In the second-last episode, Slipstream spots Starscream flying over Detroit, and heads over to shoot him down; when she sees it's Optimus wearing a jet pack built from one of Starscream's old bodies, she flies away while expressing her surprise about flying Autobots. |
| 550 | * TheMole: The Autobot Longarm Prime is really [[spoiler:the Decepticon Shockwave in disguise.]] |
| 551 | * MonsterRoommate: In an inversion of this trope, Sari spends most of Season 3 living with the Autobots. |
| 552 | * 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. |
| 553 | * 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. |
| 554 | * MundaneMadeAwesome: At the end of "Human Error," [[spoiler: Optimus and Soundwave have a guitar duel, done completely seriously.]] |
| 555 | * 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. |
| 556 | * MysteriousPast: The pasts of the individual Decepticons are unknown. It's at least been established that the Decepticons were a nationalist subfaction that supported imperialism and got tired of doing the military work for the civilian-oriented Autobots, but everything beyond that remains a mystery. Megatron is said to be have gained support against his predecessor for being [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a charismatic rhetorician.]] |
| 557 | * MythologyGag: Quite a lot, given that this ''is'' a Transformers series. |
| 558 | ** Some of them go ''double'' meta. Starscream's clones have color schemes similar to the Seekers of G1, but are also a sly dig at the fact that most Seeker toys are [[PaletteSwap repaints of Starscream]]. The triceratops Dinobot in G1 was named Slag (which became an UnusualEuphemism in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' and later in this show) and this one is called Snarl. In the show, Scrapper claims to have tried naming him Slag first, but the Dinobot took offense. |
| 559 | *** Slag ''was'' a name considered for Snarl, too. |
| 560 | ** Some of the returning voice actors are fairly obvious (Corey Burton reprising Shockwave, Susan Blu reprising Arcee, Judd Nelson reprising Rodimus Prime), but there's a more subtle one with David Kaye voicing Grimlock. David Kaye voicing a Transformer with a T-Rex as its alt-mode seems rather familiar... [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars yeeeeeeesss...]] |
| 561 | ** Another subtle nod to a previous version was the casting of Music/WeirdAlYankovic as Wreck-Gar. In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'' Weird Al's song "Dare to be Stupid" was used as the Junkions theme music. |
| 562 | ** In the ''Allspark Almanac II'', Huffer and Pipes' character bios (as written by one another) both hint at their G1 counterparts' quirks - Pipes says Huffer loves Cybertron and he hopes he never has to find out how he would feel about being anywhere else, while Huffer says Pipes needs a hobby and has to get out in the galaxy; G1 Huffer was a constant bellyacher who hated life on Earth and just wanted to go home, and G1 Pipes was fascinated by Earth culture and technology, having an extensive KitschCollection of Earth knicknacks. |
| 563 | *** Also in the second ''AA'', we have Volks' tendency to phrase every sentence he can as a question - a callback to the ''Generation 1'' comics' infamous Death's Head. |
| 564 | ** Several for ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': |
| 565 | *** Tigatron Stadium - a nod to the ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' character, and to the late, great Tiger Stadium. |
| 566 | *** In "SUV" Swindle mentions picking up a Negatronic forcefield emitter from the Vok on Nexus Zero. |
| 567 | *** After [[spoiler:her RoboticReveal, Sari soon gains a Cybertronian form, meaning she has an organic alt-mode like a beastformer.]] |
| 568 | *** Blackarachnia, Wasp(inator) and Rattletrap. At the end of ''Predacons Rising'', Blackarachnia is dumped in front of a gorilla, a cheetah, a rhino, and a rat. The way she says "You've got to be kidding," almost makes it sound like she's breaking the fourth wall. |
| 569 | *** The Allspark Almanac II describes several other members of the Omega Sentinels and their bonded partners. Among them is Alpha Supreme, codename ''Axalon'' and his companion Primal Major, who is transparently Optimus Primal and looks like [[https://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/d/dd/Primal_Major_by_BillForster.jpg this.]] To complete the reference, Alpha fell into a black hole while in pursuit of fleeing Decepticons, where he and his crew are believed to have ended up trapped in the past. |
| 570 | ** The first we see the Autobots is their job was repairing space bridges, which is sort of a ShoutOut to Anime/TransformersCybertron to which Optimus Prime's plan was to build new space bridges. |
| 571 | ** Sari eventually [[spoiler:becomes (or rather always was) flesh-on-the-outside, robot-on-the-inside, just like the Pretender toys from the late 80's line.]] |
| 572 | *** Before that, Meltdown's two failed "organic transformer" experiments are expies of actual Decepticon Pretenders from the toyline, comics and ''Anime/TransformersSuperGodMasterforce''; the lawyer-turned-bat-thing is based off of Bomb-Burst, while the accountant-turned-shark-thing is based off of Submarauder. |
| 573 | ** Roadhandler is one of Yoketron's old pupils, and was trained in the art of wrestling - this is a reference to the G1 Roadhandler's stint as a professional wrestler in the G1 comics. |
| 574 | ** Both times Soundwave's body is destroyed, [[NotQuiteDead he survives as a small core]] that resembles his G1 self's cassette mode. |
| 575 | *** In "Human Error Part 1", he announces "[[WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie Autobots inferior. Soundwave superior.]]" |
| 576 | ** In "Transform and Roll Out, Part 2", the Autobots thought the robots and vehicles are the dominant species, just like in the first issue of Marvel Comics' ''[[Comicbook/TheTransformersMarvel Transformers]]''. |
| 577 | ** Scrapper and Mixmaster are depicted as having a thing for cars, which calls back to Side Burn constantly pursuing and hitting on red cars in ''Anime/TransformersRobotsInDisguise''. |
| 578 | ** When voicing Ultra Magnus, Jeff Bennett appears to be doing a fairly accurate impression of the late Robert Stack, who originally voiced the G1 Magnus in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie''. |
| 579 | ** The one time Megatron fires his fusion cannon before getting his body rebuilt, it makes the exact sound that [=G1=] Megs' cannon made. |
| 580 | ** In Red Alert's profile, it's mentioned that one of her medical achievements was finding a cure for [[https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Gold_Plastic_Syndrome Gold Plastic Syndrome]], implied to be a wasting disease on Cybertron. |
| 581 | ** In the ''G1'' series, Shockwave was the only Decepticon who remained on Cybertron. He retains that status in this series, but since the Autobots control Cybertron, Shockwave is reimagined as a [[TheMole double agent]] posing as an Autobot. |
| 582 | *** Which is itself a reference, to the G1 character Punch, who had a vehicle mode and two ''robot'' modes, one of which was supposedly a Decepticon, Counterpunch, just as Shockwave has two robot modes (except in Shockwave's case, the Decepticon is the real personality). |
| 583 | ** When Bumblebee is shown playing Ninja Gladiators, the face in the background is that of [=TORQ III=], an ArtificialIntelligence taken over by Megatron in the ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' episode "Day of the Machines". This stage is then shown off at a larger scale, complete with[=TORQ III=], in the ''Allspark Almanac II''. |
| 584 | ** In the ''Allspark Almanac II'' entry on Ninja Gladiators, one of the WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}} mentioned is Hojoni, a NotZilla who made a cameo appearance as a movie advertising billboard in the ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' episode "[[Recap/TransformersG1Kremzeek Kremzeek!]]". |
| 585 | ** The comic book story "The Stunti-Con Job" has the Stunticons pose as autobots, which was basically what they did in their debut episode, the two-part [[Recap/TransformersG1TheKeyToVectorSigma "Key to Vector Sigma"]]. |
| 586 | ** The Elite Guard's ship is named Steelhaven, the name of the ship that the autobot Headmasters (and other groups) came to Earth in, in [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel The Marvel Comics series]] from the eighties. |
| 587 | [[/folder]] |
| 588 | [[folder:N-R]] |
| 589 | * TheNapoleon: Dirt Boss is incredibly short and would rather give orders than take them. |
| 590 | * {{Nanomachines}}: Experimental 'microbots' going haywire indirectly wake up the Autobots during the pilot. Powell has them repurposed to consume garbage in "Garbage In, Garbage Out", but the first sample is exposed to Allspark radiation and starts consuming everything: luckily, they can't swim. |
| 591 | * NeckLift: Raising someone by their neck is done by Blackarachnia to Optimus (after borrowing Bulkhead's strength), Starscream to Bumblebee and Megatron to both Constructicons. |
| 592 | * NeutralNoLonger: |
| 593 | ** Scrapper and Mixmaster start out as neutral Cybertronians until Megatron bribes them with oil to side with the Decepticons. |
| 594 | ** Wreck-Gar starts out as unaffiliated, tries to be an Autobot before Ratchet insults him, and briefly joins the Decepticons after a chance encounter with Lugnut. To be fair, Ratchet apologizes to Wreck-Gar about insulting him when he tried to be an Autobot and convinces him to switch back to being a hero. |
| 595 | * NeverMyFault: Sentinel blaming Optimus for Elita-1's "[[LeftForDead death]]" when it was his own responsibility they went to the organic planet in spite of the journey being forbidden in the first place. |
| 596 | * [[NeverTrustATrailer Never Trust An Opening]]: |
| 597 | ** The opening to the Japanese dub of Animated suggests that [[spoiler: [[strike:Iron]]Armorhide and Arcee]] have bigger roles than they actually do in the series. And the humans seen throughout the series? Nowhere in the Opening... not even the Sumdacs. |
| 598 | ** It also has the Autobots and Decepticons battling each other in various locations across the world, which they did do in [[Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 G1]], but not in Animated. It also shows [[spoiler: Arcee and Blackarachnia fighting each other]], when they never even meet in the show. And then there's that weird, shadowy, robot... guy... thing, wearing a cape at the beginning of the intro. Who the hell is that?! |
| 599 | ** 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. |
| 600 | * NeverSayDie: 'Slag' or 'take offline' are generally used instead, with the occasional exception - Bumblebee quotes Rattrap in the premiere ("We're all gonna die, aren't we?"), Starscream threatens that all of Detroit "will perish" in his mission to find the [=AllSpark=], and when Optimus tells Ratchet he has to [[spoiler:use his EMP on an overloading Sari, he flat-out says "It could kill her!"]] Sari herself later mentions that Soundwave "tried to kill me". |
| 601 | * NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Sari's key does exactly... Whatever is needed this episode. From repairing offline bots, to unspecified upgrades, to controlling any machine, to tracing pay-per-view signals, to [[spoiler:removing [=AllSpark=] fragments from speeding trains]]. |
| 602 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Bumblebee really screws up in "Autoboot Camp" by accusing the innocent Wasp of being a Decepticon spy. |
| 603 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: Megatron probably would have beaten the Autobots and gotten the Allspark... had [[TheStarscream Starscream]] not placed an explosive on his back and blown his arm clean off. |
| 604 | * NiceMeanAndInBetween: |
| 605 | ** Jazz, Sentinel Prime and Ultra Magnus. Jazz is a NiceGuy who [[spoiler:eventually quits and becomes Team Prime's EleventhHourRanger after Sentinel's stunts during "This Is Why I Hate Machines"]]. Meanwhile, Sentinel is a {{Jerkass}} HateSink who enjoys berating and insulting the heroes. Ultra Magnus is not a total jerk like Sentinel, but he's not as amiable as Jazz. |
| 606 | ** The Constructicons present a villainous example. Scrapper is the most amicable of the three, to the point where [[spoiler:Sari is able to recruit him as a temporary Autobot]]. Meanwhile, Dirt Boss is a [[TheNapoleon napoleonic jerk.]] Mixmaster isn't as nice as Scrapper, but he's not as much of an asshole as Dirt Boss is. |
| 607 | * {{Ninja}}: Prowl, Jazz, Master Yoketron, supposedly Oil Slick and (formerly) [[spoiler: Lockdown]] all practice a Cybertronian equivalent of martial arts. |
| 608 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Besides being robot ninjas, Jazz is also a SoulBrotha, and Prowl and Bumblebee were once turned into zombies. Lockdown has a huge claw for a right hand, making him the "pirate" to Prowl's "ninja", as well as a BountyHunter with a skull for a head and an undertaker's tux. To say nothing of the Dinobots, who are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. |
| 609 | ** Let's not forget that Prowl decided to become the ''complete opposite of a ninja'' by getting a Samurai-armor upgrade in "A Fistful of Energon"... which later returns in "Five Servos of Doom" and seems to be a permanent upgrade. |
| 610 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Optimus and Bumblebee would've made it to the Elite Guard if they didn't bother to help their fellow Autobots (Bumblebee for accepting the blame on Bulkhead's behalf for knocking a tower onto Sentinel, and Optimus for taking the heat for Sentinel's idea to go to the restricted planet). Isaac Sumdac spends Season 2 as a prisoner due to helping that poor disembodied robot head in his lab. |
| 611 | * NoGravityForYou: In the pilot, Optimus temporarily disables the ship's artificial gravity while fighting Megatron, giving him and the team slightly better odds. |
| 612 | * NonindicativeName: Due to the "no Autobots fly but Jetfire and Jetstorm" rule, several background Autobots like Sky Garry and Powerglide, both of which get {{Hand Wave}}d; Sky Garry directs air traffic and Powerglide flew spaceships in the Great War. |
| 613 | * NoodleIncident: The 'unfortunate incident' involving a police drone and Captain Fanzone's wife brought up by Isaac Sumdac in "Total Meltdown" (given the way it's mentioned, it probably wasn't anything too awful). |
| 614 | * TheNoseless: Technically speaking, it seems like none of the robots have actual noses, but rather have a nose-like structure that is formed by their helmets. When Bumblebee's is taken by Wasp, at the end of "Where Is Thy Sting?", his full face is shown, with no other facial features outside of his mouth and optics. |
| 615 | * NoPowerNoColor: In reference to Optimus Prime's death in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', all Transformers fade to gray upon death. This is {{justified|Trope}} by the concept of Transformers having "electronic paint jobs" that let them change color at will, with the implication that their normal color schemes are such paint jobs that deactivate to reveal their real gray colors underneath when they die. After Blurr is crushed by the disguised Shockwave into a cube and handed off to be disposed of, it's noteworthy that the cube is still Blurr's powder blue coloring, hinting that [[AndIMustScream he's still alive but immobile]]. |
| 616 | * NothingIsTheSameAnymore: Season 3 has higher stakes than the previous seasons and isn't as lighthearted. There's also [[spoiler:Sari being aged up to adolescence after using the [=AllSpark=] Key to upgrade herself.]] |
| 617 | * NotQuiteFlight: The Autobots are mostly confined to the ground, but Prowl has his {{Jetpack}} and Optimus is surprisingly effective with his grappling hooks when fighting airborne opponents. The most creative example, though, is the multi-stage rocket in "Nanosec" where Bulkhead fires his wrecking ball to launch the duo of Prowl and Bumblebee, Prowl giving Bumblebee a boost with his jump-jets, and Bumblebee using his turbo boosters to get even higher than that, into the ''upper atmosphere''. Who needs jet engines anyway? |
| 618 | * NotSoHarmlessVillain: When most people heard that Waspinator was going to be in Season 3 most fans thought he was going to be comic-relief like his ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' counterpart, not an ex-JerkAss who's been mentally [[BreakTheHaughty broken past repair]], a hulking monster twice the size of Prime, and a completely insane ImplacableMan (as, like in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', blowing him up just annoys him). |
| 619 | * OddCouple: Optimus and Grimlock. Prowl and Bumblebee/Bulkhead. Ratchet and Captain Fanzone. |
| 620 | * OfficerOHara: Wreck-Gar meets an Irish-accented cop while trying to work out who he is in "Garbage In, Garbage Out". |
| 621 | * OfficialCouple: |
| 622 | ** Lugnut and Strika are apparently married (in the ''[=AllSpark=] Almanac'', Lugnut describes Strika as being his consort). |
| 623 | ** The ''Almanac II'' also gives us [[WesternAnimation/BeastMachines Rattletrap/Botanica]] and [[PairTheSpares Warpath/Flareup.]] |
| 624 | * OhCrap: The look of ''pure abject horror'' on Optimus Prime's face when the restored Megatron (whom he'd thought dead since the first episode) bursts out of Sumdac Tower is priceless. This is a 'bot who understands ''exactly'' how completely and utterly screwed he is. |
| 625 | ** The Elite Guard get a big one when, after insisting for the entire episode that there are no Decepticons on Earth, they face off with Starscream, who is more than willing to show the lot of them a taste of what Optimus has been up against. |
| 626 | *** 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]]!* |
| 627 | ** The Decepticons get their own when the Autobot ship transforms [[spoiler:into a revived Omega Supreme]]. |
| 628 | *** And again in [[spoiler:"Transwarped" (the Season 3 premiere):]] |
| 629 | ---->[[spoiler:'''Starscream:''' Omega Supreme?!?! [[UnusualEuphemism ...We're slagged.]]]] |
| 630 | * OnceDoneNeverForgotten: Bulkhead continually brings up the fact that Professor Sumdac was, well, ''deceived'' into rebuilding Megatron. |
| 631 | * OppositeSexClone: Slipstream is one of Starscream's clones and is also female. |
| 632 | * OrganTheft: Lockdown indulges in the robot equivalent by taking parts from Cybertronians. |
| 633 | * OutOfFocus: Captain Fanzone went from a major character in Season 1 to a rarely appearing recurring character by Season 3. Humans in general were pretty much written out of season 3, in an attempt to make the show less about them and more about the titular giant robots, though it's justified, as the Decepticons are beginning to act more and more openly and aggressively, forcing the Autobots to focus their efforts on stopping them. |
| 634 | * OverlyNarrowSuperlative: In "Mission Accomplished", the Autobots justify their decision to select Fanzone as Sari's new legal guardian in light of her father's disappearance and an order from the Elite Guard to leave Earth by informing Fanzone that he's number one on their list of the humans they trust the most. They then quickly add that the list isn't very long and that it includes Meltdown and Nanosec. |
| 635 | * PanickyExpectantFather: Spike Witwicky goes through this in the episode "Garbage In, Garbage Out", the one episode where he ever gets any dialogue. He is visibly nervous about his wife Carly being ready to give birth and desperately asks for someone to help them get to the hospital. Ratchet is forced by Sari to help the expecting couple out as a way of working on his people skills, but the Autobot's grumpy attitude and the chaos caused by Wreck-Gar only worsen Spike's fear for the safety of his wife and yet-to-be-born child. In the end, they decide to take a cab. |
| 636 | * ParentalBonus: {{Shout Out}}s to ''Film/{{Airplane}}!'', ''Film/DieHard'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' and so, so many more... |
| 637 | * ParentalSubstitute: While they mostly act like her older brothers (especially Bumblebee and Bulkhead), the Autobots take Sari's safety very seriously. It becomes more or less official at the start of Season 2 when the 'bots take her in after Sumdac's disappearance. The fact that the interactions the Autobots (namely Optimus) have with Sari regularly sound like the interactions between parents and their children only drives this plot home. |
| 638 | * PercussiveMaintenance: Blackout repairs the space bridge he broke after stomping on the ground near it by... stomping on the ground near it ''again'', implied to be an ability of his (that is, causing electronics to fail and being able to reactivate them, hence the name). |
| 639 | * PeoplePuppets: Anyone controlled by a Headmaster unit or Dirt Boss's Headmaster-derived drill bit. |
| 640 | * PersonalGainHurts: Sari learns time and time again that it isn't always right to use the [=AllSpark=] Key to make things go her way. |
| 641 | * PetTheDog: Sentinel offering Optimus a spot in the Elite Guard in "Decepticon Air". Although it doesn't last long before he's kicking again. |
| 642 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: Both Brawn and Dirt Boss are very strong in spite of being shorter than most Cybertronians. |
| 643 | * ThePlan: Megatron pulls one of these off in "Endgame, Part 1,". |
| 644 | * PlayingWithFire: One-third of Blitzwing (and occasionally another third), and as of the third season, Hot Shot and Jetfire ([[MeaningfulName duh]]). |
| 645 | * PlotRelevantAgeUp: [=TransWarped=]: [[spoiler:Sari in Season 3, courtesy of the [=AllSpark=] Key. Before she was about 8, now she looks about 16.]] |
| 646 | * PortalNetwork: The space bridges enable Cybertronians to teleport anywhere. |
| 647 | * PowerCopy: Blackarachnia and her previous form, Elita-1 were both able to temporarily download other Cybertronians' abilities. |
| 648 | * PowerIncontinence: This happens in "[=TransWarped=]" to [[spoiler:Sari after the [=AllSpark=] Key starts to overload her body.]] |
| 649 | * PowerTrio: The Elite Guard. Ultra Magnus: Superego, Jazz: Ego, Sentinel Prime: Id. Blitzwing arguably forms his own trio, with the calm face being Superego, the angry face being Id, and the crazy face being Ego [by combining the others' traits at random]. |
| 650 | ** The Dinobots could count, never being seen separately outside of ''Human Error, Part II''. |
| 651 | * PraetorianGuard: The Elite Guard are powerful soldiers affiliated with Ultra Magnus. |
| 652 | * PresidentEvil: According to the second Allspark Almanac, [[Franchise/GIJoe Cobra Commander]] is a former president of the United States - his face was even added to Mount Rushmore! |
| 653 | * PrideBeforeAFall: "Return of the Headmaster" is all about this for Sentinel. |
| 654 | * PromiseMeYouWontX: When Sentinel calls Optimus after his run-in with the Headmaster, he makes him promise not to laugh. Of course, when Optimus sees what's happened... |
| 655 | * PsychoForHire: Lockdown does jobs for the Decepticons and has a disturbing fondness for stealing his victim's parts so he can add them to his own being. |
| 656 | * PunctuatedForEmphasis: |
| 657 | --> '''Starscream:''' [to Megatron] "THIS! IS! '''ALL!!! YOUR!!!''' '''''FAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUULT!!!!!'''''" |
| 658 | -->'''Prowl''' [to Lockdown, much more quietly] "Give. Me. Yoketron's. Helmet." |
| 659 | * PutOnABus: The plan for Season 4 was for Sari and Bulkhead to take up permanent residence on Cybertron, becoming at best [[CommutingOnABus recurring guest characters]]. Bulkhead would have been replaced on Earth by Ironhide. |
| 660 | * QuirkyMinibossSquad: |
| 661 | ** [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Team_Chaar Team Chaar,]] appearing in one scene set on the other side of the galaxy which wasn't even very plot-relevant. |
| 662 | ** Also the SUV, although they were only a group for one episode. |
| 663 | * RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Unlike other incarnations where he leads a group of trained warriors, this time Optimus leads a group of bots that were a simple repair crew that just had to be in the right place when the Allspark appeared. |
| 664 | * RaisedByRobots: Sari spends most of the second season living and being brought up by the Autobots in their warehouse. |
| 665 | * RandomTransportation: 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. |
| 666 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Bulkhead delivers one to Wasp in "Where Is Thy Sting?". |
| 667 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Fanzone and Ultra Magnus are both understanding of the Autobots and their good intentions. |
| 668 | * RecurringExtra: [[ContinuityCameo The Witwicky family]] from [[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers the Generation 1 cartoon]] make occasional appearances, most of them being silent background cameos. |
| 669 | * RedEyesTakeWarning: All the Decepticons. In fact, when the Constructicons ''became'' Decepticons, their eyes turned red. Blackarachnia's, too. |
| 670 | * 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 Creator/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]]. |
| 671 | * ReferenceOverdosed: The ''Almanacs'', again, if not the show itself, have scores of pop culture references, even ones not remotely connected to Transformers. |
| 672 | * RelocatingTheExplosion: |
| 673 | ** "Nanosec" had Bumblebee take care of an unstable container of destronium by throwing it into space before it blew up. |
| 674 | ** "A Fistful of Energon" has the Autobots do this to get rid of Starscream's prototypes for Sunstorm and Skywarp when they are revealed to be living bombs as part of a plan to destroy the Autobots and Megatron in one fell swoop. |
| 675 | * RemakeCameo: Creator/PeterCullen, the original voice of Optimus Prime, did voiceovers for commercials about the show's series premiere. |
| 676 | %%* TheRemnant: The Decepticons. |
| 677 | * RescueEquipmentAttack: |
| 678 | ** Ratchet is a CombatMedic who uses his medic tools as weapons. His main "weapons" are two electromagnets whose primary function is to transport bots. And his second "weapon" is an EMP-generator which basically a Cybertronian's analog of anesthetics (which can cause LaserGuidedAmnesia if overdosed). [[BountyHunter Lockdown]] realized that very quickly. |
| 679 | ** Optimus Prime, whose alt mode is a fire truck, is able to use foam to attack enemies (generally blinding them in order to leave them open for follow-up attacks or to allow a retreat). Also inverted in that his primary weapon is his axe, which is actually meant (and sometimes used) for breaking down walls and hacking down doors for rescue and evacuation purposes. |
| 680 | * RescueRomance: Both {{subtext}}-y robot romances, Optimus/Blackarachnia and Ratchet/Arcee, make heavy use of the males saving and [[MyGreatestFailure failing to save]] the helpless females. |
| 681 | * ResistanceIsFutile: Said word for word by Soundwave in '"Human Error". |
| 682 | * TheReveal: [[spoiler: Sari is a human/Cybertronian hybrid.]] |
| 683 | * RightBehindMe: In "[=TransWarped=]", Henry Masterson speaks ill of the Autobots, then turns around to see Optimus Prime standing behind him. |
| 684 | * RightForTheWrongReasons: Meltdown asserts that Isaac Sumdac merely ''got lucky'' with his success in robotics. [[spoiler: He's right, but he probably didn't realize that Sumdac's "luck" consisted of being the one to find Megatron's disembodied, offline head.]] |
| 685 | * RoboFamily: Jetfire and Jetstorm refer to each other as brothers due to being 'born' from a mitotic spark. |
| 686 | * RobotDog: Sparkplug is a robot dog that Sari keeps as a pet. |
| 687 | * RobotSuperhero: ''Animated'' takes this theme further than any series prior. The Autobots are made the official superheroes of Detroit; stopping normal crime and fighting human supervillains, at least until the Decepticons start overshadowing them in threat. |
| 688 | * RobotWar: Soundwave keeps trying to start one, and it's just not happening. |
| 689 | * RoboticReveal: [[spoiler: In the Season 2 finale, Sari's arm is injured, revealing a metal joint and circuitry. The following season reveals that she is a Cybertronian protoform Isaac found that copied his DNA when he touched it and took a Human alt-mode.]] |
| 690 | * RoguesGallery: Of mostly humans, allowing the Decepticons to stay that much more threatening by their lack of overuse. |
| 691 | * RollerbladeGood: Optimus and Bumblebee have wheels on their feet which they can use this way. Sari has actual rollerblades, and [[spoiler:later gets laser-skates with her upgrade.]] |
| 692 | [[/folder]] |
| 693 | |
| 694 | [[folder:S-Z]] |
| 695 | * SadisticChoice: |
| 696 | ** Starscream does this in the pilot by making Optimus choose between recovering the [=AllSpark=] or saving the humans he's endangering. |
| 697 | ** Bumblebee also does this to Nanosec in the villain's debut episode by making him choose between retrieving the container of destronium from him at the cost of aging even more or letting him get away with the destronium so that using the suit wouldn't continue aging him. |
| 698 | * SassySecretary: Or rather, a robot programmed to sound and act like one. |
| 699 | * SapientShip: Though most of the cast qualifies as Sapient [[MechanicalLifeForm (Inorganic)]] Vehicles, it turns out [[spoiler: that their ship is really Omega Supreme, war hero and savior apparent. For whatever reason, his offline body was used for Space Bridge repair (almost certainly because of his friend Ratchet; Sentinel Prime was under the impression that Omega had been dismantled after the war), and they later brought him back on-line.]] |
| 700 | ** [[spoiler: According to the second Almanac, the Elite Guard's ship "Steelhaven" is actually Sigma Supreme, the only other intact Omega Sentinel, given the same treatment[[note]]The ship's name is another MythologyGag, being the name of the ship used by the G1 headmasters in the 1980's Marvel Comics series[[/note]].]] |
| 701 | * SayMyName: |
| 702 | ** Megatron's reaction when he finds out it was Starscream who [[SomebodySetUsUpTheBomb set him up the bomb]] in the premiere. |
| 703 | ** Megatron never remembers Optimus' name, so in the GrandFinale, the Autobot leader does this for himself: |
| 704 | --->"My name is OPTIMUS PRIME!" |
| 705 | *** This plays BookEnds with the battle with Starscream in the series premiere, where Optimus says the same thing to Starscream. |
| 706 | * ScaryDogmaticAliens: The writers took the worker's revolution aspect of the Autobots from the original series & played it to [[DirtyCommunists its logical conclusion.]] |
| 707 | * ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: |
| 708 | ** Bumblebee screams like a girl in "Along Came A Spider" when he first sees Blackarachnia. |
| 709 | ** SENTINEL PRIME. Supposedly, they even got a woman to voice the scream. |
| 710 | ** Grandus, one of the biggest transformers in the entire series. Although admittedly he appears to be in full on wimp mode all the time. |
| 711 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler: Jazz,]] having enough of [[spoiler: Sentinel's attitude, follows Ratchet to Earth to join Optimus' crew]] in "This Is Why I Hate Machines." |
| 712 | * 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. |
| 713 | * SealedEvilInACan: Megatron spends Season 1 as a disembodied head trapped in Professor Sumdac's lab until he is freed by his lackeys during the season finale. |
| 714 | * SecretPublicIdentity: Unlike later shows, here the Autobots make no effort to hide themselves from the general public, instead being fairly open with the humans about why they are there and doing good deeds for the city as a show of good will (such as catching super villains in season 1). |
| 715 | * SendInTheClones: Starscream is able to create clones of himself, each of which embodies part of his personality. One is a coward, one is an egomaniac, one is a pathological liar, one's a suck-up...[[OppositeSexClone and one is a girl.]] |
| 716 | -->'''Starscream:''' So, which part of me do ''you'' come from?\ |
| 717 | '''Slipstream:''' [[YouDoNOTWantToKnow Don't ask!]] |
| 718 | * SelfDestructMechanism: Starscream uses clones as a form of Trojan horse... twice. |
| 719 | * SeriesFauxnale: "Endgame" is an interesting example; while the writers had planned a Season 4, it ends the series on a fairly conclusive note, [[spoiler: with Prowl's Heroic Sacrifice, Megatron finally remembering Optimus' name, the Allspark being restored, and the Autobots capturing the remaining Decepticons and returning to Cybertron, where they are hailed as heroes.]] However, due to Season 4's cancellation, ''Endgame'' became the true series finale; thus, it's an instance of a SeriesFauxnale actually serving its intended purpose of wrapping up the show satisfyingly in case of a cancellation. |
| 720 | * SesquipedalianSmith: Prometheus Black. His first name is rather sophisticated when compared to his more mundane surname. |
| 721 | * ShakingTheRump: The short "Starscream Heckles Megatron" consists of Starscream making fun of Megatron behind his back while he's giving a speech to the other Decepticons and acting innocent whenever Megatron turns around. The mocking gesture Starscream performs when Megatron catches him red-handed is shaking his butt. |
| 722 | * ShapeshifterGuiltTrip: Shockwave does this to Bumblebee and Bulkhead, asking if they're really willing to take down their old friend Longarm. They totally fall for it. [[spoiler:Psych.]] |
| 723 | * ShapedLikeItself: Bulkhead is as gentle as a... really gentle thing (and then there's the page quote Professor Sumdac gave us for TechnologicalPacifist). |
| 724 | * ShellShockedVeteran: Ratchet doesn't have many good memories about the war, notably in his flashback episode "The Thrill of the Hunt". Further elaborated on in his Sequel Flashback in ''[=TransWarped=]''. |
| 725 | * ShesAManInJapan: Flareup and Strika were gender-flipped in the Latin American dub of the third season. Slipstream is more ambiguous, but she has the same VA as Starscream in Italian, and a very grave voice in Latin American. |
| 726 | * ShockwaveClap: Bulkhead can cause this just by clapping, as seen in the "Mime Time" short. |
| 727 | * ShooOutTheClowns: The Headmaster 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. |
| 728 | * ShoutOut: The show runs on these; now has their [[ShoutOut/TransformersAnimated own page]]. |
| 729 | * ShyFingerTwiddling: |
| 730 | ** By [[TheBigGuy Bulkhead]], of all bots. |
| 731 | ** Bumblebee in "Nature Calls", after Prowl asks him where he found room for so much stuff in his car mode. |
| 732 | * SilentBob: Mayor Edsel is able to get his point across even though he never speaks. His eyebrow is apparently expressive. |
| 733 | * SilentPartner: |
| 734 | ** Snarl and Swoop, with Grimlock doing the talking. |
| 735 | ** Also, Wheeljack for Perceptor. |
| 736 | * TheSixthRanger: [[spoiler: Jazz]] joins the Earthbound Autobots towards the end of Season 3; a literal example since his addition to the team brings it up to six members. |
| 737 | * {{Slumber Party}}: In "Home is Where the Spark is", Sari goes to the base and her and the Autobots have a slumber party complete with a [[Funny/TransformersAnimated ghost story.]] |
| 738 | * SmallNameBigEgo: Egomaniac Starscream/Thundercracker, whose name is appropriate since the original Thundercracker had a bit of an air superiority complex himself. |
| 739 | * SmugSnake: Porter C. Powell, he talks a big game but he is also willing to throw an 8 year old out onto the streets. The only thing keeping the Autobots from squishing him is their own morality, and he is consciously aware of that. Grimlock's morality, on the other hand... |
| 740 | * TheSmurfettePrinciple: Sari is the only female among the good guys for the majority of the series. |
| 741 | ** On a smaller scale, Starscream's female clone (named Slipstream, according to WordOfGod) is the only female in a flock of five. |
| 742 | ** The [[AllThereInTheManual Allspark Almanacs]] have added a few more girls, but they also include the Omega Sentinel roster - out of twelve "Greek-letter-Supremes", only Kappa Supreme was confirmed female, and she was assigned to a rearguard action for most of her lifespan. |
| 743 | * 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. |
| 744 | ** It could be possible that having no legal records, it would be impossible for a social worker to be assigned to Sari's adoption case, since there is nothing to examine. As Sari was kept in seclusion for most of her life, she was truly off the radar. |
| 745 | * SomethingElseAlsoRises: Blackarachnia caressing Swoop's face causes him to lift his flail and swing it around energetically. |
| 746 | ** Doing the same to Grimlock causes flames to erupt from his neck/collar. |
| 747 | * SoulBrotha: Jazz follows the archetype at least in spirit. While he's very badass and certainly has the attitude of a cool black man, he's still an alien robot and therefore has no real ethnicity. |
| 748 | * SouthernFriedPrivate: Bulkhead went to boot camp straight from the energon farm, and Hot Shot and Ironhide both have distinct Southern accents. |
| 749 | * SpaceCadetAcademy: The series has an Autobot Academy, informally referred to as "Autoboot Camp", where young bots get trained for duty. Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Wasp were all in the same class. Bulkhead and Bee graduated, while Wasp was caught for a crime and expelled, leaving him very embittered. |
| 750 | * 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!" |
| 751 | * 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). |
| 752 | * 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. |
| 753 | * SplitPersonality: Blitzwing has ''three'', and... |
| 754 | ** PersonalityPowers: ...a different power for each, as well as different vehicle modes. |
| 755 | ** Technically, he has two powers and two alt-forms; one of his personalities alternates between both interchangeably and uncontrollably. |
| 756 | * SpoilerOpening: The Japanese opening, while very pretty, spoils most of the major subplots of Season 2. |
| 757 | * StevenUlyssesPerhero: |
| 758 | ** Nanosec (Nino Sexton) and Headmaster (Henry Masterson). Also Angry Archer (A. A. Archer) and Professor Princess (Penny Princess, [=Ph.D.=]). |
| 759 | ** And comics-only villains Stiletto (Stella Healy) and Crossroads (Roland Cross). |
| 760 | ** While this isn't technically canon, Slo-Mo's design was based on TFA team member Samantha Lomow. |
| 761 | * TheStarscream: Starscream is dealt with as a traitor deserves--the next time Megatron sees him after Starscream blows him up in the pilot, Megs blows him up. When that fails, he blows him up again. The only reason Starscream lived to see Season Two is because he got an [=AllSpark=] fragment that made him unkillable. |
| 762 | * TheStoic: Prowl shows much less emotion than the other Autobots. |
| 763 | * StonersAreFunny: Beachcomber is revealed in the second Almanac to indulge in many Cybertronian drugs. He is also portrayed by many fans to be [[FriendToAllLivingThings very nice]] and occasionally forgets what he's talking about, resulting in many an odd conversation. |
| 764 | * 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. |
| 765 | * SuperMode[=/=]PoweredArmor: |
| 766 | ** An upgraded [[spoiler:Sari]] gets it in "[=TransWarped=]". |
| 767 | ** While not powered ''per se'', Prowl later permanently retains a duplicate of his one-shot samurai armor upgrades. |
| 768 | ** The new ''Allspark Almanac Volume 2'' reveals that Optimus would've gotten an upgrade had there been a season 4. [[note]]See it [[http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/193/3/c/Powermaster_Optimus_Prime_by_darksage78.jpg here]].[[/note]] |
| 769 | * SwordOverHead: Optimus's finishing blow against [[spoiler: Megatron in "Endgame". But with a hammer.]] |
| 770 | * SyntheticVoiceActor: Perceptor has one of these, and it sounds a lot like Stephen Hawking's. |
| 771 | * TVHeadRobot: Tutor Bot has a monitor for a head. |
| 772 | * TakeMyHand: Bumblebee to Sari in the pilot. |
| 773 | * TakeOurWordForIt: What ''did'' Sari tell Optimus about where babies come from? All we know is that it was apparently enough to traumatize Optimus Prime. |
| 774 | * TakeThat: Someone on the writing staff clearly wasn't a fan of [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush the Bush Administration]]: |
| 775 | ** The title of the Season 2 episode, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Accomplished_speech ''Mission Accomplished'']], whose plot concerns the Elite Guard (incorrectly) believing the Decepticon presence on Earth is over. |
| 776 | ** After [[spoiler: Shockwave offlines Ultra Magnus and Sentinel takes his place]], Sentinel starts producing thinly-veiled propaganda that ends with him declaring "I'm Sentinel Prime and I approve this message". |
| 777 | * TakingTheBullet: Bumblebee does this at least twice: he takes a blast from Starscream for Sari and a dose of Meltdown's acid for Bulkhead. |
| 778 | * TheTalk: Sari gives it to Optimus in "Transform and Roll Out". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2rKHVIxgB8 'How is it you're able to make these new, smaller organics?']] |
| 779 | ** Spun into a BrickJoke at the beginning of season 3, [[spoiler:where Sari's "birth" is revealed.]] |
| 780 | * TearfulSmile: Sari after Optimus's [[FirstEpisodeResurrection revival]] in "Transform and Roll Out". |
| 781 | * {{Technopath}}: [[spoiler: Post-Upgrade Sari]] in Season 3 can control machines. |
| 782 | * TechnologicalPacifist: Professor Sumdac insists that his company does not make weapons. |
| 783 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: Starscream and Megatron wind up stuck in the aftermath of season 2. They are forced to work together throughout the season 3 opener and neither Decepticon does much to hide their contempt from the other. |
| 784 | * TemptingFate: |
| 785 | -->'''Starscream:''' (flying through the sky) Things can't possibly get any worse! |
| 786 | --> (Megatron, Lugnut, and Blitzwing appear before him) |
| 787 | -->'''Starscream:''' ({{Beat}}) ... I stand corrected. (retreats) |
| 788 | -->'''Megatron:''' STARSCREAM!!!! |
| 789 | -->'''Starscream:''' Sorry! You must've mistaken me for some other talking harrier jet! |
| 790 | * TerribleTrio: Megatron has Lugnut and Blitzwing for this until he picked up the Constructicons later down the line. |
| 791 | * ThatsAnOrder: Optimus often used this phrase in early episodes, since his team was so disobedient back then. |
| 792 | * TheCloudCuckooLanderWasRight: In "Return of The Headmaster", when Sari wonders why there is no record of her, Bulkhead suggests that [[spoiler: "Maybe she came here in some kind of egg, and crashed on Professor Sumdac's doorstep"]]. [[TheReveal He's not so far from the truth.]] |
| 793 | * TheRat: Rattletrap will squeal on anyone to save his own skin. |
| 794 | * ThereShouldBeALaw: Played for laughs: Ratchet finds the idea of us selling spare parts on the open market disturbing. Of course, from his perspective, it must be like seeing internal organs on display in a shop window (and his experience with Lockdown doesn't help). |
| 795 | -->'''Ratchet:''' "It's primitive... it's barbaric... there ought to be a law against it!" |
| 796 | -->'''Optimus Prime:''' "...It's just an auto parts supply store, Ratchet." |
| 797 | * TheyWouldCutYouUp: Blackarachnia joined the Decepticons for fear of ending up on a lab table on Cybertron if she returned to the Autobots. |
| 798 | * ThatLiarLies: Endgame, part 1: While Megatron facepalms at Lugnut and Shockwave's squabbling, you can just hear Shockwave yelling 'Liar, lying liar!' Seriously. |
| 799 | * TheEasyWayOrTheHardWay: Optimus to Lockdown in "The Thrill of the Hunt" (when he thought Lockdown was just a crazy human in a muscle car). |
| 800 | * ThemeTwinNaming: Jetfire and Jetstorm. Also, while they're not technically twins, Wasp and Bumblebee share a chassis model. |
| 801 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: Bulkhead's succinct summary after the unexpected birth of Dirt Boss. |
| 802 | -->'''Mixmaster''': What the scrap is ''that?''\ |
| 803 | '''Bulkhead''': [[SeenItAll If I had to guess]]: a forklift, a [[MiniMecha Headmaster Unit]], [[AnimatingArtifact an [=AllSpark=] fragment]], and a ''whole'' lotta trouble. |
| 804 | * ThouShaltNotKill: [[spoiler: Optimus Prime refuses to kill Megatron with the Magnus Hammer.]] |
| 805 | ** [[spoiler: Only because that would apparently be the easy way out. [[CruelMercy Which Megatron doen't deserve.]]]] |
| 806 | * ThrownOutTheAirlock: How Optimus survives his first fight with Megatron. |
| 807 | * TitleDrop: |
| 808 | ** The three-part premiere episode "Transform and Roll Out" has Optimus actually say "Transform and roll out" on two occasions. |
| 809 | ** Yoketron does this in "Five Servos of Doom" when he mentions the episode's title while training Prowl to dodge several attacks. |
| 810 | * TokenMiniMoe: Sari is the one main character who is a little girl. Somewhat less in season 3, [[spoiler:where her upgrade makes her age up into an adolescent.]] |
| 811 | * TomatoInTheMirror: Sari eventually learns that [[spoiler:she's half-Cybertronian.]] |
| 812 | * TonightSomeoneDies: Sort of. The DVDCommentary for a second season episode has one person asking if anyone really dies, and another one responds that no one does until season three... [[spoiler:And in the last episode of the series, Starscream and Prowl are both killed off.]] Can't say they aren't honest. |
| 813 | ** [[SendInTheClones Can't]] [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_clone_%28Animated%29 they?]] |
| 814 | * TooFastToStop: Bumblebee's first go with the turbo-boosters in "Nanosec" results in his speed going out of control and being unable to slow down or stop. |
| 815 | * TookALevelInBadass: |
| 816 | ** Prowl has gone through a specific character arc for him to complete his "cyber-ninja" training. |
| 817 | ** Optimus Prime has had to dig in his heels in order to properly face off against Megatron. |
| 818 | ** Bumblebee received a literal upgrade to his previously worthless stingers (which nicely explained how they were so powerful in flashback). |
| 819 | * TookALevelInJerkAss: Resident {{Jerkass}} Sentinel Prime actually used to be somewhat of a nicer guy. Of course that was before [[spoiler: Elita-1 was thought to have been killed when Optimus failed to save her.]] But then just as we can sympathize with his attitude (almost), he takes an even bigger one by [[spoiler: telling Blackarachnia/Elita-1 that it would have been [[FantasticRacism better if she had died, rather than turn into a techno-organic]].]] |
| 820 | * ToylessToylineCharacter: Quite a few, both human and robot. Some of the most noteworthy examples include Cyclonus, Brawn, Strika, and Red Alert. |
| 821 | * TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The Japanese intro shows [[spoiler: Ratchet fighting Longarm, not even in his true Shockwave form]]. |
| 822 | * {{Trainstopping}}: "Mission Accomplished". On top of it being out of control, Starscream had planted an unstable [=AllSpark=] fragment on it. |
| 823 | * TroubledBackstoryFlashback: Each of the core Autobots has one or more that explain how they ended up where they were when they discovered the Allspark as well as explain their outlooks on things. |
| 824 | * TrulySingleParent: [[spoiler:Isaac Sumdac, since Sari is seemingly an OppositeSexClone by way of a Cybertronian protoform.]] |
| 825 | * {{Tuckerization}}: The Angry Archer (named after and resembling Hasbro designer Aaron Archer), Slo-Mo (named after and resembling Hasbro executive Samantha Lomow), Yoketron (named after [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hideaki_Yoke Hideaki Yoke]], a designer for the Diaclone and Microman toylines the original ''Transformers'' series was based off of) |
| 826 | * TwinkleSmile: ''Starscream'', although it only shows up in his full TransformationSequence. |
| 827 | * TwitchyEye: Occasionally, Megatron gets tired of Lugnut's fawning and is shown with a twitchy eye. |
| 828 | * UnexplainedRecovery: |
| 829 | ** At the beginning of the episode "Nature Calls", a [[ContinuityCameo familiar-looking]] construction worker is attacked by the MonsterOfTheWeek, and is implied to have died. He [[RecurringExtra still shows up again]]. However, this could be writer miscommunication: Sparkplug 1.0 has a different voice actor and ''completely'' different speech pattern from Sparkplug 2.0. |
| 830 | ** They pull this again the third season: A flashback has an appearance by a character named Warpath. However, he actually had already appeared in a smaller role in another flashback a couple of episodes earlier, namely ''[[http://tfwiki.net/w2/images2/d/d8/Transwarped-Warpath.jpg a dismembered body in the middle of a battlefield]]''. Despite this, he's still in a crowd shot set in modern-day Cybertron. |
| 831 | * UniversalUniverseTime: Par for the course with Transformers, Cybertronions always refer to lengths of time as cycles. Solar Cycle for a day, Mega Cycle for a month (year?), etc. |
| 832 | * UnnecessaryCombatRoll: Sentinel |
| 833 | * UnresolvedSexualTension: Their introductory scene together and later interactions greatly implied there was some between Optimus and Elita-1/[[spoiler:Blackarachnia]], despite the latter dating Sentinel at the time. [[spoiler:That probably explains why Blackarachnia had far more emotional baggage with Optimus and held him more accountable for what happened, even though it was hers and Sentinel's idea to go to Archa Seven in the first place.]] |
| 834 | * UnusualEuphemism: Par for the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' course. "What a glitch-head!" "''Slag'' yeah." |
| 835 | ** "It's a no-processor-er!" |
| 836 | ** And "exhaust port." |
| 837 | * UnknownRival: Unlike most Transformers continuities, Megatron barely knows who Optimus is. Prime finally angers Megatron enough to [[SayMyName say his name]] in "Endgame, Part II." Conveniently, that would turn out to be the ''last'' episode in the series, meaning we wouldn't get to see them become the destined [[ArchEnemy Arch-Enemies]] they were ''meant'' to be. |
| 838 | * VerbalTic: Wreck-Gar starts nearly every sentence with "I am Wreck-Gar!" after he obtains his name. |
| 839 | ** Getting there in the Japanese dub. Bumblebee with "''Ikimasu~!''" ("Here I go!", "Let's go!", or almost any variations), [[strike:Bulkhead]] Ironhide's "''Dosukoi!''" (spoken by sumo wrestlers), "''De aru!''" for Prowl (literally, "to be" in formal speech) and '''Hey!''' and '''Man!''' for the angry face of an American accented Blitzwing. |
| 840 | * VileVillainLaughableLackey: Megatron is cold and calculating, and is treated with the utmost seriousness. However, he's surrounded by people like the [[SycophanticServant comically sycophantic Lugnut]], or the [[FunnySchizophrenia comically unstable Blitzwing]], or the comically [[LargeHam hammy Starscream]]. |
| 841 | * VillainExitStageLeft: |
| 842 | ** 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. |
| 843 | ** The Headmaster's debut episode has him get away in the end. The heroes don't bother going after them because they have to deal with the imminent overload of the fusion core he started. |
| 844 | * VillainOfAnotherStory: Most of Team Chaar qualify. They only have cameos, from minor roles in the comics to the Transwarped opening fight, but their backstory establishes them as some of the most influential Decepticons. Strika was one of the Highest Commanding officer, and leads many of Megatron's spread out troops [[spoiler:as well as the mission to get him back]]. Blackout was the most powerful Decepticon in the war, having destroyed several Omega Sentinels before being brought down in the Con's last stand. Oil Slick was responsible for the Cosmic Rust epidemic that killed soldiers on both sides and featured as the BigBad in Ratchet's backstory "Bots of Science." Finally theres Cyclonus, who never speaks and nobody knows where he came from. The medic, Scalpel, theorizes that he may be from the Future and his existence foreshadows the emergence of Galvatron and the possible coming of Unicron. |
| 845 | * 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'''!" |
| 846 | * VillainousGlutton: |
| 847 | ** Though not fat, Starscream's toy-only clone Dirge is the living representation of the former's greed, and as such is an accomplished glutton who always wants more of everything, energon goodies included. |
| 848 | ** Spittor can also digest his victims if he chooses - and Oil Slick claims that once you get past the slobbering freak and his weird tentacles, you discover a much more disgusting creature on the inside. |
| 849 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: Porter C. Powell, again. Soundwave's attempted conquest of the world is forgotten quickly enough for Powell to sell toys of him, although he spent most of it controlling machines from underground. |
| 850 | * TheVirus: Space barnacles, once they've been... altered (either by Megatron's body or Allspark energy) are shown to be highly infectious on some non-sentient robots as well as Bumblebee and Prowl in "Nature Calls". |
| 851 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: |
| 852 | ** Aside from the eponymous TransformingMecha, Decepticon spy Shockwave (not to be confused with Soundwave) has Autobot ''and'' Decepticon variations of his robot and vehicle forms. |
| 853 | ** Colossus Rhodes, who's rather [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Bane]]-ish, transforming from a frail and gaunt man into a muscular giant. |
| 854 | * 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. |
| 855 | * TheWallsAreClosingIn: In the first episode of the third season, [[spoiler:Blurr]] falls victim to this. [[spoiler: Sadly, he is transformed into a cube, though he eventually gets better in the events of "The Return of Blurr".]] |
| 856 | * WeakButSkilled: Contrary to tradition, the Autobots in this series are almost all smaller and weaker than their Decepticon counterparts. Most of the main cast of this series are armed with tools intended for non-combat purposes instead of weapons. As such defeating even one Decepticon requires a great deal of teamwork and tactical thinking. |
| 857 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: |
| 858 | ** 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". |
| 859 | ** Rodimus also gets a raw deal. He only had 4 lines, and only appeared for 4 minutes before being infected with cosmic rust. |
| 860 | * WhamEpisode: "A Bridge Too Close" and "Transwarped" both reveal that [[spoiler:Sari isn't completely human and is actually half-Cybertronian.]] |
| 861 | * WhamLine: Naturally, with all the plot twists, there are a handful. One of the most notable, in the last few seconds of the last standalone episode, "This Is Why I Hate Machines": |
| 862 | -->[[spoiler: Arcee[[note]] who is supposed to be a braindead amnesiac[[/note]] ]]: ''Ratchet...'' |
| 863 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The fate of quite a few secondary characters, most of them villains. Slipstream, for instance, isn't seen or mentioned for most of season three, then appears briefly in the penultimate episode when Optimus tests out his jetpack... and then flies off again. |
| 864 | ** Although to their credit, the writers are using the Allspark Almanacs to explain what happened to characters after their last appearance or in between appearances. |
| 865 | * WhatTheHellHero: Several times, but the most surprising example is ''Sentinel'' calling Optimus out for not telling him about Blackarachnia. "[[SarcasmMode 'Cause I wouldn't wanna be, I don't know, PREPARED FOR THIS OR ANYTHING!]]" Optimus actually tried to warn him several times, but [[{{Jerkass}} Sentinel being Sentinel...]] |
| 866 | * WhatWereYouThinking: Professor Sumdac when Bulkhead actually makes Megatron's space bridge work in the second season finale. Bulkhead gives the snappy reply of "This coming from the guy who rebuilt Megatron." |
| 867 | * WhereItAllBegan: |
| 868 | ** The Season 1 finale ends with a battle against Megatron, whose brawl with the Autobots fifty years ago was what indirectly brought them to Earth in the first place. |
| 869 | ** Also happens in the Season 3 premiere (in the exact same place, no less) and provides the page quote. |
| 870 | * WheresTheFunInThat: |
| 871 | --> Ratchet: "Why didn't you just use the EMP?" |
| 872 | --> Prowl: "Where's the fun in that?" |
| 873 | * WholePlotReference: Season 2 finale "A Bridge Too Close", very nearly at least, to ''Film/TheBridgeOnTheRiverKwai'' (!). The Decepticons capture Bulkhead, when they discover that despite appearances, he's [[spoiler:[[HiddenDepths the preeminent space bridge expert in the galaxy]]]], and press-gang him into building them a space bridge back to Cybertron. He does so out of spite for those who doubted [[spoiler:his expertise on the subject]], many of whom were his own allies. The ending differs in that [[spoiler:nobody dies, permanently at least; the Decepticons are prevented from using the space bridge to take Cybertron]]. |
| 874 | ** Decepticon Air is one big love letter to, well, ''Film/ConAir'' |
| 875 | * WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: This happens to Bumblebee at least twice in Season 1, and again in Season 3 - not to mention Sentinel in 'This is Why I Hate Machines'. |
| 876 | * WhyAreYouLookingAtMeLikeThat: Done by Bumblebee in "Transform and Roll Out" when the Autobots decide they need someone small to get the job done. |
| 877 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: |
| 878 | ** Elita-1's "death" left Optimus with a phobia of spiders and Sentinel 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. |
| 879 | ** Whilst he isn't exactly afraid of them (he just doesn't like them), Fanzone makes a pretty direct homage to the TropeNamer in "The Elite Guard" when the Elite Guard arrive on Earth: |
| 880 | --->'''Fanzone''': Robots. Why did it have to be robots? |
| 881 | * WhyWeNeedGarbagemen: "Garbage In, Garbage Out" takes place during a contract dispute between Sumdac Systems (which builds and maintains the city's trash collection robots) and the city of Detroit, resulting in the robots malfunctioning (as depicted in the trope image) and garbage piling up all over town. |
| 882 | * WithDueRespect: Such an exchange is given in "The Elite Guard" when it is explained to Jazz that Sari isn't a threat and that Sentinel's claims of all organic life being dangerous isn't worth scrap. |
| 883 | -->'''Jazz''': But Sentinel- |
| 884 | -->'''Bumblebee''': Is a glitch-head. All due respect. |
| 885 | * WithFriendsLikeThese: Sentinel was pretty arrogant and self-centered even when he was on good terms with Optimus. |
| 886 | ** Sari also asks "With heroes like these, who needs Decepticons?" in Human Error Part 2 seeing how her Substitute Autobots team is seriously unqualified to tackle down the real Autobots controlled by Soundwave. |
| 887 | * 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. |
| 888 | * YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: The Angry Archer talks like he's in a play by Shakespeare. |
| 889 | * YesMan: Sunstorm and his predecessor #2716057; It's unclear whether they're at all sincere in their constant praise, or if they're just working an angle and trying to butter everyone up. |
| 890 | ** This is a [[TheStarscream Starscream]] clone we're talking about. Of ''course'' he's working an angle and trying to butter everyone up. |
| 891 | ** Lugnut, however, plays it straight in the mold of [[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Inferno]]. |
| 892 | * YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Prowl and clone #2716057. |
| 893 | * YouCanRunButYouCantHide: Bumblebee went for the flipped-around version against Lockdown. Of course, he was biting off a lot more than he could chew. |
| 894 | * YouDoNotWantToKnow: Slipstream's (i.e. the female Starscream clone) response to Starscream about which part of his personality she represents is "Don't ask". |
| 895 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In "Endgame, Part 1," Megatron says this to [[spoiler:Starscream]] before blasting him to smithereens. [[spoiler:He survives, but not for long.]] |
| 896 | * 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!" |
| 897 | * YouMonster: Scrapper to ''[[BewareTheCuteOnes Sari]]'' after she uses the factory equipment to pummel him and Mixmaster in "Sari, No One's Home". |
| 898 | * YoureInsane: "Survival of the Fittest" has Captain Fanzone tell Meltdown that he's nuttier than a fruitcake. |
| 899 | * YoureNotMyFather: [[spoiler: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.]] |
| 900 | * YouShallNotPass: In the first season finale, with Megatron rising with a new body and the Decepticons closing in on the Allspark, Optimus tells his crew that this is where they stand and fight. This results in Bulkhead tackling the bruiser [[TheBrute Lugnut]] in the air. |
| 901 | * YouTalkTooMuch: |
| 902 | ** Bulkhead to Lugnut in "Megatron Rising". |
| 903 | ** Prowl also complains Bumblebee talks for too long in "Black Friday". One can assume Prowl would much rather prefer the [[TheVoiceless Michael Bay-verse Bumblebee]]. |
| 904 | [[/folder]] |
| 905 | ---- |
| 906 | |
| 907 | ->'''Megatron:''' ''"You're a persistent little Autobot!"''\ |
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