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Cybertronians
Rodimus
- Child Soldier: The Cybertronian equivalent of one. He recalls that he was brought to life while the Great War was ongoing and has no memory of Cybertronians not at war. Though he states this didn't make it feel normal.
- Badass Cape: The tarp that covers over him vehicle mode becomes this when he transforms into robot mode.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Roche's notes in the back of the first issue show he used Clint Eastwood and Max von Sydow as the visual basis for Rodimus' older looking face.
- Dented Iron: He looks fairly weathered and beat-up. Though given how unfathomably old he might be, he could be looking worse all things considered.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: He spent the majority of the first issue in alt-mode as Shib's family wagon
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Rodimus went from a heroic Autobot soldier and possibly leader fighting evil to a lone straggler living quietly and permanently transformed into vehicle mode as Shib's family wagon.
- Last of His Kind: Is one of the last Cybertronians in the universe.
- Noodle Incident:
- Why Rodimus is hiding out on Donnokt in the first place is currently unknown. A flashback shows he, alongside a few others, was on the run by some Decepticons before landing on the planet, though why he's still there is unclear.
- Rodimus only calls himself just that, Rodimus, but not Rodimus Prime. It implies he gave up his title as a Prime for unknown reasons.
- Off with His Head!: This is how he kills the Visitor/Nitro.
The Visitors:
In General
The last known remnants of the Cybertron species, led by Steeljaw they are made up of both former Autobots and Decepticons. They travel from planet-to-planet in hopes of finding a new home and any possible new fuel source.
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Given Cybertronians are critically endangered they exhibit this attitude to Rodimus when they first meet. Nitro even pleaded they were "brothers".
- Beyond Redemption: In Rodimus’ eyes. The Great War wiped out almost all life in the galaxy, if not the universe, and the Visitors having turned to using biofuel just cements that the Cybertronians need to accept extinction.
- Canon Immigrant: All of them, save Wheelie and Nitro note , are characters who didn't originate in G1 Transformers media;
- Scylla and Moon are from Beast Wars II
- Wedge is from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2001)
- Override is from Transformers: Cybertron
- Steeljaw, Cyberwarp, Riotgear, and Treadshock are from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
- Sharpclaw is a character created by Roche's daughter who appeared in IDW's Transformers (2019) series.
- Wildwheel is from Transformers: Cyberverse
- Dented Iron: All of them show general signs of wear-and-tear, from not being able to properly transform to their general senses being dulled by lack of sufficient energy.
- Dying Race: They, and Rodimus, are all that's left of the Transformers species.
- Fantastic Racism: Their view of organic life, they even view older Transformers like Rodimus once having friendships with organics as perverse.
- The Fog of Ages: They only have the vaguest memories of the Great War. Due to their advanced ages, they have to delete much of their memories to make space and conserve energy. They don't even know who Rodimus is, or other legendary Transformers like Optimus and Grimlock.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: All Steeljaw, Wheelie, and the Survivors want is for Cybertronians to survive, after all the hardship they've suffered. Given that this involves turning the natives of Donnokt into glorified livestock for biofuel and upon discovering the last Energon deposits, extract as much as they can at the expense of everything on the planet, it's a lot less admirable than it sounds.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Beneath all the Ape Shall Never Kill Ape posturing, the Survivors don't exactly get along as well as they claim to be doing. They are barely held together by Steeljaw and a mutual interest in survival.
- Tragic Villain: Once you get down to it, the Visitors aren't bad bots at least for the most part, and they even see each other as a family because all they have now is each other. Their desire to consume Donnokt's people as sustenance doesn't hold any maliciousness either; the Visitors are just trying to survive and don't have any other options left. Even Steeljaw, the most villainous of them, ultimately just wants to see his race live on.
- Transmutation: Because Energon, the energy that Cybertronians need to keep working, is extinct, the Visitors resort to other means to survive. After altering their bodies, they can process organic materials into a green sludge called "Biofuel", which they eat. It's no different from how a person eats food. However, when we say any organic material, we mean any; this includes people, and Donnokt, the planet they just landed on, has a good supply.
Cyberwarp
- Adaptational Villainy: In RID '15, Cyberwarp was the Token Good Teammate among Cyclonus' cronies. Here, she's far less noble, as she notes that she enjoys chasing down organics.Cyberwarp: They always run. I always enjoy it.
Moon
- Adaptational Species Change: Moon wasn't a Cybertronian in Beast Wars II.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Soon after realising that Rodimus is right, he undergoes a Redemption Equals Death to protect Shib from a girder thrown at her by Wildwheel.
- Animal Mecha: As one can see, he's a robotic rabbit. His alt-mode is him switching from a bipedal posture to a quadrupedal one. According to Steeljaw though, this is a recent appearance he's taken on.
- Eye Scream: When Wildwheel hurls a girder at Shib, he leaps into its path and gets speared right through the eye.
- Redemption Equals Death: Soon after he realizes that Rodimus may be in the right, he jumps in front of Shib to protect her from a girder thrown by Wildwheel, which impales him through the eye. His final words are him telling Wildwheel that he understands Rodimus' point.
- The Resenter: Moon quietly hates the previous generations of Cybertronians for damning those like himself to witness the potential end of his entire race. Which is probably why he ends up sympathizing with Rodimus.
The Visitor/Nitro
- Alas, Poor Villain: Not really a villain per se, though he is allied with Steeljaw— and when it looks like he's about to attack Fembrance, Rodimus jumps to its defense, brutally decapitating the poor sap as he begs for mercy.
- All There in the Manual: He went nameless in the first issue, only being called "The Visitor" in Roche's notes in the back of the first issue. In the second issue we learn his name was Nitro.
- Canon Foreigner: Unlike the other Visitors, he's a completely original character.
- No Name Given: Went nameless in the only issue he appeared but revealed in subsequent issues his name was Nitro.
- Off with His Head!: Rodimus kills him via decapitation.
- Palette Swap: The Visitor shares a body design with Rodimus, with a different head and colored white, yellow, and light blue.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Visitor's arrival on the planet is what forces Rodimus to show himself as Shib's wagon, exposing him to Shib and the rest of the Fembrance's townsfolk. Also, their appearances alone show how bad things have gotten for the Cybertronian race.
Override
- Adaptational Backstory Change: No indication she was the leader of Velocitron, or if it even existed, unlike her previous incarnations.
- Adaptational Villainy: Her counterpart in Transformers: Cybertron was one of the main heroic Autobots in the series.
- Cool Car: Maintains her futuristic racing sports car alt-mode.
- Demoted to Extra: She's just another mook in Steeljaw's unit in comparison to her prominent role in Transformers: Cybertron.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Override vanishes from the story without explanation. It's possible she was part of "Unstoppimus" and was simply discolored, but unlike the other member of the gestalt she's not traditionally part of a combiner team.
Riotgear
- Big Guy: He and Treadshock are the two most imposing members of the Visitors.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Rodimus ends him when racing back to Fembrance by dropping a boulder on his head.
- Dented Iron: His transformation cog keeps sticking, requiring a kick from Override to complete his transformation.
Scylla
- Animal Mecha: Her alt-mode is a mechanical squid.
Sharpclaw
- Animal Mecha: Her robot mode is wolf-themed.
- Heel Realization: She realizes towards the end that while the days of the Transformers are truly over, that doesn't mean the natives of Donnokt also have to die with them.
- Robo Family: Stated to be Steeljaw's sister.
- Sarcastic Devotee: Follow's Steeljaw's commands but, to his annoyance, doesn't refer to him as "commander" or "sir".
Steeljaw
- Animal Mecha: Like his RID'15 incarnation, his 'bot mode is wolf-themed, complete with sporting a metallic tail.
- The Dragon: It's clear that while the Veteran is the Survivors' leader, Steeljaw is the one actually calling the shots.
- Hypocrite: For all his posturing and claims of having moved on he still remains a dyed-in-the-wool Decepticon. And if he can't have Donnokt's Energon, no one can.
- Robo Family: He and Sharpclaw are siblings.
- The Starscream: Downplayed. It's shown early on that Steeljaw quietly resents having to put up with the Veteran, making his later show of respect mostly an act. He never gets to act on it, however, on account of Rodimus throwing the Veteran/Wheelie to orbit.
- Taking You with Me: Near the end, after Rodimus ruins his plans by destroying the biofuel refinery, Steeljaw spitefully decides to detonate all of Donnokt’s Energon to blow up the planet and kill everyone, having decided that if he can’t have the Energon, no one can.
Treadshock
- The Big Guy: He and Riotgear are two of the bigger members of the Visitors.
The Veteran/Wheelie
- Dark Lord on Life Support: A Fallen Hero variant. His desperation and survivalism has reached the point that he's willing to live as just as a head and a spark jury-rigged up to a mobile life-support system rather then just rest in peace.
- Fallen Hero: Once served alongside Rodiumus on Earth where he picked up the haiku speech pattern, Wheelie now leads a group that goes against what the Autobots believed in and leading a gaggle of mostly the former enemy.
- Oracular Head: The march of time and depletion of resources has left him as just a talking head on wheels.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Subverted. No longer speaks in his traditional rhyming pattern. Now he speaks in haikus, something he picked up from Earth.
Wedge
- Adaptational Villainy: Is traditionally a heroic and eager Autobot in Transformers: Robots in Disguise and Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, but here he's an antagonist.
- Fallen Hero: His large Autobot symbol clearly identifies himself as a former comrade of Rodimus now turned into the ghoulish thing Autobots were meant to fight.
Wildwheel
- Iconic Outfit: Averted. He's missing his trademark metallic poncho and cowboy hat, presumably lost to the ravages of time.
Others
Gripper
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Gripper perished after sharp rocks impaled his body when he fell off a cliff. However, Gripper didn't die... right away, and with nothing to help him, Rodimus and Strongarm could only watch as he painfully and slowly bled out.
- Defector from Decadence: Stayed with Rodimus and Strongarm on Donnokt rather than go off and find any other remaining Cybertronians.
- Posthumous Character: Gripper's seemingly long dead by the start of the series.
Strongarm
- Defector from Decadence: Decided to stay with Rodimus and Gripper on Donnokt rather than go off and reunite with any possible remaining Cybertronians. However, after her mental breakdown, Strongarm chose to go anyways but sadly never made it off the planet.
- Despair Event Horizon: Sometime after Gripper's death, Strongarm had a mental breakdown and chose to leave the planet in their ship to find more Cybertronians, believing they deserve another chance. Rodimus tried to stop her by shooting the ship's wings down but ended up destroying the entire ship along with her.
- Posthumous Character: She's seemingly long dead by the start of the series.
- Sanity Slippage: Over many years, Strongarm slowly became restless from the self-imposed exile on Donnokt, still wanting to go out and find more Cybertronians to start again. Gripper's death was the last straw, and she finally snapped; she attempted to jack the ship they used to come to the planet to leave, but Rodmius accidentally killed her when he tried shooting the ship's wings down.
Donnokt
Shib Walkis
- Benevolent Conspiracy: Shib's line has not only been aware of Rodimus for countless generations, but also faithfully kept up their promise to protect both him and knowledge of the last Energon.
- Cowgirl: Wears the appropriate garb for the setting and has been running the family delivery business that has kept her local town supplied.
- Parental Abandonment: Both her parents died when she was young and meant she had to watch over her younger brothers.
- Promotion to Parent: With their parents dead, Shib had to step in and take over the family business while watching over her young brothers.
- Rubber-Forehead Alien: As with the rest of the residents of Donnokt, aside from pointy ears she's indistinguishable from a human.
- Secret-Keeper: She knew Rodimus was her family's wagon but the series is the first time she actually sees him in 'Bot mode and out of stasis mode. Moreover, her bloodline has known about him and the Energon on the planet for much longer.
- Technophobia: She's shown resistant to adopt new motorized vehicles to help her delivery service, also worried that the new tech may run her out business.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Shib is likely a late teen at most, and yet she helps manage their family delivery service. She's also willing to talk and listen to Rodimus while the rest of the townsfolk wanted to tie him up out of fear.
