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Unicron and the Terrorcons

Unicron

"The past shall consume the future, the dead shall consume the living, AND CHAOS SHALL REIGN SUPREME!"

Voiced by: John Noble

An ancient evil and a mechanical god of sorts who possesses a rivalry with his counterpart Primus. Defeated eons ago, his influence continues to the present day and is a force that couldn't care less about the Autobot/Decepticon conflict.

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• Abusive Precursors: As Optimus puts it, he's, metaphorically speaking, the parent of humanity and all life on Earth. He agrees with Optimus on this, and then declares us all parasites unworthy of living.
• Agony Beam: His eye lasers double as this, which he uses to torture Megatron throughout Predacons Rising.
• Alternate Self: While the comics' Transformers Multiverse establishes G1 Unicron to be a "Multiversal Constant" simultaneously existing different universes, this version of Unicron is unrelated.
• And I Must Scream: His final fate. He opens the reliquary that held the Allspark, not noticing that Optimus emptied it, and the vessel sucks out Unicron's own spark and traps it.
• Arc Villain: While typically the series' Greater-Scope Villain, Unicron takes center stage as the main villain of the "One Shall Rise" three-parter.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Optimus believes that since Unicron's initial defeat, he's "transcended physical existence".
• Back for the Finale: He reawakens when the Autobots restore Cybertron; however, his body is unresponsive thanks to the Matrix of Leadership, which forces him to take the next best vessel, which so happens to be Megatron's corpse.
• Badass Boast: "Unicron is power incarnate." among others.
• Bad Boss: Naturally, since he's an Omnicidal Maniac who wants to destroy everything. He's so awful that Megatron actually pulls a Heel–Face Turn after a stint of being Unicron's slave makes him lose his taste for conquest.
• Beard of Evil: As is tradition for him.
  • Weird Beard: It's made of rock plates.
• Big Bad: Of Predacons Rising, where he awakens due to the revival of Cybertron/his brother Primus, intent on destroying him and the AllSpark, even if it mean destroying all Autobots and Decepticons, including Optimus Prime and Megatron.
• Bloody Murder: Dark Energon is his blood. Aside from being a dangerous substance in its own right, it is well-suited to creating weapons. Unicron himself was capable of Spontaneous Weapon Creation using Dark Energon when he was possessing Megatron's body.
• Brought Down to Badass: In "Predacons Rising" he's not in a planet sized body like he usually is, but when limited to Megatron's body he's still powerful enough to quickly defeat Predaking.
• Cain and Abel: The Cain to Primus' Abel. Unicron longs to kill his brother by destroying Cybertron, and in lieu of that, wants Primus' inheritors, the Primes, exterminated.
• Chaos Is Evil: He's an evil, destructive god representing chaos where his benevolent and creative brother represents order, and he makes a lot of boasts that contain the word "chaos".
• Curb-Stomp Battle: In "Predacons Rising" he dishes out one on Predaking. He's caught off guard thanks to Megatron lying to him about Predaking's loyalty, but right after Unicron's Dark Energon weapons allow him to easily beat Predaking unconscious.
• Dark Is Evil: Unicron is primordial being of darkness and chaos, and the malignant Dark Energon is his blood.
• Demonic Possession: Does it to Megatron, albeit after a lot of effort. And by the time he does, he's too late to stop Optimus from unleashing the Matrix against him. He does it again in Predacons Rising, and it's considerably easier as Megatron is "dead".
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: After losing a battle with Primus, he was left to be trapped in the center of the Earth where he plans to destroy humanity and their civilization. Sound familiar?
• Dragon Rider: After raising his army of Terrorcon Predacons, he takes one of them as his steed for the journey to the Well of All Sparks.
• The Dreaded: Given the other tropes, it's unsurprising that everyone, including Megatron, is more than eager to stop him, knowing the extreme danger he poses to everything.
• Eldritch Abomination: He's as old as time itself. His blood's properties can resurrect the dead as berserker zombies, power up a Transformer, possibly kill a human with exposure, weaken Cybertronians if they are exposed to too much, and allow one to hear the thoughts of Unicron himself and see the future. Season 2 expands on this a little, despite him seemingly dormant once again, as his blood is used to repair the Nemesis, which works but inadvertently makes it sentient (it used to be Trypticon) and later used as a component in forging the Dark Star Saber- which shatters the Star Saber. Season 3 expands on it slightly further, showing that mixing it with Synthetic Energon causes Decepticons to mutate and become vampiric.
• Evil Counterpart: To his brother, Primus. And the parallels are even stronger in this universe than they usually are. Both of them are responsible for the survival and possible creations of a planet, Earth for Unicron, and Cybertron for Primus, respectively. The difference being, that Primus willingly allowed his spark to become one with Cybertron's core and created the Well of AllSparks to spawn new generations of Cybertronians, whereas Earth formed around Unicron's body whilst he was in stasis, and the creation of the planet and its inhabitants was completely unintentional and unwanted on Unicron's part.
• Evil Is Not a Toy:
  • Megatron finds out the hard way that waking up Unicron doesn't earn him or the Decepticons any favours, scrambling into an Enemy Mine to survive with them.
  • Dark Energon itself is risky to use, and has the potential to harm its user. Megatron has to use a form of graded exposure to not poison himself immediately, and when Knock Out and Starscream combine it with Synthetic Energon, they accidentally create a form of Cybertronic vampire/zombie hybrid.
  • Most telling of all, even incorporating Dark Energon into one's body without fatally poisoning yourself makes your body tied to Unicron, allowing him to possess Megatron after forcibly resurrecting him. Megatron spends most of Predacons Rising mentally begging for death.
• Evil Sounds Deep: As is tradition.
• Eviler than Thou: When Megatron tries becoming his Herald, he cites this trope to basically tell him to get lost and basically forces him into an Enemy Mine with the Autobots to survive. In Predacons Rising, he takes control of Megatron's body and makes it very clear that he's in charge, so Megatron will get nothing but oblivion when he's of no further use.
• Evil Is Hammy: Probably the hammiest version of Unicron ever.
  Unicron: Minions of the Prime, prepare for oblivion!
• Fantastic Racism: Unicron derides humanity as "parasites" and dismissively describes Predaking as a "primitive life form".
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Unicron is an evil god and he has an ego to match. Insisting that he didn't need Megatron caused him and the Decepticons to ally with the Autobots to stop him.
• Fighting a Shadow: Since Unicron is Earth, he can form countless copies of himself from surface materials; the Autobots can destroy as many of those as they can, but Unicron will survive.
• Final Boss: Of Season 1 and Predacons Rising.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The few times he isn't looking at someone, he's staring straight at the camera, as if he's very aware that the people outside the TV are watching him.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: As usual, Unicron has no sense of vision. His ultimate goal is [to destroy Primus, then the rest of the universe] and the in-between of it all is grandstanding, ego-tripping, and stepping on any resistance. Even when Optimus points out that humanity is a spawn of Unicron's greatness, rather than expressing the slightest curiosity in how humanity could be useful in furthering his agenda, he bumps humankind up to number two on his list of targets after Optimus and deems them parasites.
• Genius Loci: As is tradition, but Prime adds a special twist: Unicron is Earth, the planet having formed around his remains. He exists as a spirit which can control the minerals in the ground to form copies of his original body.
• Giant Mook: Even the regular stone copies of Unicron are larger than the average Transformer, but in addition to these, Unicron is also capable of forming skyscraper-sized versions of himself that are much, much harder to take down.
• God Is Evil: Since he's the progenitor of humanity and all life on Earth, he counts as this.
• God of Evil: For Cybertron, at least.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He's only appeared in three episodes to date and is rarely mentioned, but he's undoubtedly a more serious threat than Megatron. The Dark Energon Megatron used to revive himself came from Unicron, the Terrorcons really belong to Unicron, and in the tie-in video game Thunderwing is one of Unicron's creations.
• Hive Mind: Combined with I Am Legion; Unicron can make multiple versions of his old body that are all share a single, unified mind, and thus at least seem to talk in complete unison.
  Unicron may be one, but we all are Unicron!
• Humans Are Insects: What he declares upon deciding to destroy them.
• I Work Alone: In response to Megatron's offer to became his Herald, Unicron belittles him as useless for not having killed Optimus and declares he doesn't need Megatron's aid. When possessing Megatron's body in "Predacons Rising" he makes his point clear that they are NOT working together, Megatron is Unicron's vessel. Unicron controls him, and Megatron controls nothing.
• Jerkass: In addition to being a God of Evil and Omnicidal Maniac, Unicron is a huge dick, responding to Megatron's loyal supplication with nothing but insults and angrily derides humanity as nothing but parasites when he finds out that sentient life came into being on his body while he slept. He's also a Bad Boss, torturing Megatron while possessing him, despite the fact that there's nothing Megatron can do to actually harm Unicron.
• The Juggernaut: While possessing Megatron in Predacons Rising, Unicron is the single most powerful Transformer in the series, even managing to defeat the previous holder of that title, Predaking, without much trouble. The only thing that actually stops him is Optimus forcibly removing Unicron's Anti-Spark from Megatron's body.
• Kick the Dog: His declaration that all life on Earth, especially human beings, is parasitic and that they will be exterminated. This is even nastier as he outright acknowledges they are indirectly his progeny, having formed on Earth, which formed around him.
• Knight of Cerebus: He has no funny traits whatsoever, and the drama - already serious for this series - only intensifies whenever he's around; although he's beaten in "One Shall Rise", Optimus ends up an amnesiac and abducted by Megatron after beating him. In Predacons Rising, he actually causes Megatron to lose his only funny trait of being a Deadpan Snarker, drives him to attempted suicide and causes him to have a Heel–Face Turn.
• Large Ham: He's the God of Evil and obviously takes it in stride.
• Mook Maker: Since Unicron is the Earth itself, he's capable of spawning apparently infinite stone copies of his original body from the ground. That's right, the whole planet is his Mook Maker and all the mooks are Unicron.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • In "One Shall Rise", rejecting Megatron's offer of servitude pushed the Decepticon leader to instead aid the Autobots in defeating him.
  • Once again in Predacons Rising, when his torture of Megatron cements the latter's Heel–Face Turn.
• Obviously Evil: The "chaos bringer" is unlikely to be good or have redeeming qualities.
• One-Man Army: He's capable fighting off many enemies in his way, whether it be Autobots or Decepticons. This was shown as he managed to painfully pummel down Optimus while still possessing Megatron through painful torture. Even when the Autobots, Decepticons and Predacons are forced to work together to face off against Unicron's army of Terrocons, their efforts are almost in vain as Unicron had provided the Terrocons enough willpower to overcome their enemies.
• Omnicidal Maniac: As is tradition. Unicron seeks the destruction of all life that isn't him, with special emphasis on Cybertronians (the creations of his hated brother, Primus) and humanity (whom he loathes as "parasites" for having come into being after his body became Earth).
• Purple Is Powerful: His eyes, blood, and the electric discharge used by his copies are all purple.
  • Purple Is the New Black: He's heavily associated with the colour purple, the way a goth might dress in all-black.
• Physical God: Sort of. He's implied to have been once been this before Primus and the Thirteen Primes defeated him. He's now gone past this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lambasts Megatron for his sheer arrogance, thinking he can help him, and not finishing off the last "disciple of Primus".
• Red Baron: The Chaos Bringer.
• Robo Family: Not mentioned in-series but he's the brother of Primus.
• Satanic Archetype: For Cybertronians. But to Earth he is more of a God as the devil. Or at least the Demiurge of Gnosticism.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: For once in this franchise, averted. Unicron is Earth itself, making him truly planet-sized for the first time. His physical body might be in the planet's core but his mind is dispersed throughout the planet, making him essentially Earth.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Completely unintentionally. After his defeat at the dawn of time, the entire planet Earth naturally formed around him over billions of years.
  • Invoked Predacons Rising. The Anti-Spark, Unicron's soul, is trapped in the indestructible reliquary that once contained the Allspark.
• Shock and Awe: His duplicates use electrical blasts as a weapon.
• Spell My Name with a "The": In the Italian dub, he's constantly referred as "The Unicron".
• Spikes of Villainy: All over his body.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation: While possessing Megatron's body, he uses Dark Energon to create weapons.
  • BFG
  • Javelin Thrower
  • Sinister Scythe
• Telepathy: To a limited degree; in Predacons Rising, he reads an unconscious Predaking's mind to find the location of a mass grave filled with dead Predacons.
• Unexplained Accent: Has hints of a Scottish accent in Predacons Rising.
• Voices Are Mental: Averted Trope. Megatron's possessed body does not speak with Unicron's voice, using Megatron's actual voice actor Frank Welker instead.
• When the Planets Align: His first awakening is triggered by a planetary alignment of every single planet in our solar system.

Terrorcons

Voiced by: Frank Welker

With the use of Dark Energon, any Cybertronian corpse can be reanimated into these mindless abominations. Mix Dark and Synthetic Energon, and you get vampire zombies.

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• Always Chaotic Evil: Terrorcons are all mindless, violent killing machines attack everything they saw, apart from someone infused with Dark Energon and possess a strong strong will. And of course they are completely obedient to Unicron himself. Makes sense since they are revived by the blood of Unicron.
• Dracolich: The Predacon Terrorcons in Predacons Rising.
• Dumb Muscle: They aren't very smart, but they're so strong they don't need to use brains, and their masters can direct them to follow orders unquestioningly to hatch strategies.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: The first batch have been dead for millions of years.
• Glowing Eyelights of Undeath: Owing to the Dark Energon.
• Mecha-Mooks: Undead ones, too.
• Nested Mouths: The result of Synthetic and Dark Energon mixing in the same body, which then passes it on to all those it infects.
• Non-Human Undead: Cylas ends up being the only exception to the rule.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Megatron plans to use them to invade Earth, but this didn't happen. He later ends up with a small-scale Zombie Apocalypse onboard his ship.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The whole "robot zombies" thing even gets its very own Lampshade Hanging. With CYLAS, you can add human-Cybertronian hybrid into the mix (albeit with the human part very much alive and longing for death), and also Airachnid, who has a spider motif. See Our Vampires Are Different as well.
  • "Predacons Rising" adds zombie Predacons to the mix.
• Our Vampires Are Different: CYLAS and those infected by him are as much like vampires as zombies. Some are even capable of remaining sentient even after being infected. The vampirism thing was due to the Dark Energon that infected them having been combined with Synthetic Energon.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Undead robots.
  • Voodoo Zombie: They were revived through a process equivalent to necromancy.
• Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration: Type II, unsurprisingly.
• The Undead: As indicated by eight of the tropes in this section.
• Throat Light: A purple one, owing to Dark Energon.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Unicron raises up Zombie Predacons and uses them to Zerg Rush Cybertron's core.

Humans

Jack Darby

"I get it, the first rule of Robot Fight Club is no one talks about Robot Fight Club."

Voiced by: Josh Keaton, Jun Fukuyama (Japanese)

The main human protagonist, he was living a quiet life in a remote Nevada town until he accidentally stumbled into a fight between Arcee and a couple of Vehicons. Young but level-headed, he often tends to be the voice of reason among humans and Autobots alike. He has no real exceptional skills to offer, but is ready and willing to step up to any challenge that has been presented.

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• Audience Surrogate: He serves the role as this.
• Badass Normal: Despite being a small, squishy human, he is able to use bravery and his wits to remain relevant in an engagement. As for specific examples:
  • He uses a fire-starting kit to ignite energon to destroy Airachnid's ship, steals Silas's radio to contact Fowler even while surrounded by armed men and Silas himself, manages to direct a swarm of Scraplets to take down an Insecticon and later tricked the sentient Nemesis into rebooting itself with some Deadly Dodging.
  • His tenacity and reliable nature is the reason Optimus chose him to hold the Key to Vector Sigma, knowing that Jack could handle the responsibility implied. It basically makes him an honorary Prime.
  • The plan to take down freakin' Soundwave was all him. Miko and Raf were following his orders.
• The Chosen One: Optimus personally chooses Jack to bear the key to Vector Sigma, making him (as Miko put it) "an honorary Prime".
• Cool Big Bro: Sometimes takes the role for Raf and Miko. Complete with Big Brother Instinct flaring frequently.
• Coming of Age Story: His arc from the pilot to "Orion Pax". Not just maturing into a stronger young man, but as an honorary Prime as well.
• Deadpan Snarker: Drops in wry lines in a dead serious tone to highlight his insecurities and cynicism to the Autobots' philosophies. He slowly grows out of it when he gains some more experience.
• Disappeared Dad: June mentions that Jack's father left them an unspecified amount of time ago. Exactly why he left has yet to be revealed though.
• Expy: His voice actor and his social status at his school are very similar to Peter Parker. His introduction to the Autobots and discovery of Arcee also have some parallels to Sam Witwicky.
• Groin Attack: Does this to Silas in one of the comics, as seen here.◊
• The Kirk: He's not as book smart as Raf, but he's a lot more level-headed than Miko.
• The Leader: Of the Autobots' human allies, typically when Fowler isn't around.
• Like Brother and Sister: With Miko.
• Nice Guy: Other than being a bit of a smart-mouth, he's overall pretty decent and mature for someone his age.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Inverted; he's the human sidekick to robots Arcee and Smokescreen.
• "Not So Different" Remark: A rare positive example; Ratchet claims that Jack is pretty similar to Optimus in his youth.
• Only Sane Man: He's the only one of the trio who seems to understand why being involved in giant robot battles is not necessarily as awesome as one might think.
  • He's even had to talk some sense into the Autobots at times.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Before he met Arcee and the Autobots, he was attending Memorial High School. Before the end of season 2, he was still enrolled there.
• Out-of-Character Moment: Lets Smokescreen talk him into walking into a potential combat zone in "Legacy". He immediately lampshades it upon reaching their destination. Happens again in "Darkmount, NV", where he's the one to foolishly break radio silence by sending a text to his mother, alerting the Cons to his location. In his defense, his mother is the only family he has left among other obvious reasons to be worried sick, but even Miko knew better.
• Out of Focus: He has a much smaller role following the conclusion of his main story arc in "Orion Pax".
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Even though he isn't personally doing the asskicking, he gets a good one in "Deadlock".
  Jack: Surprise! (Miko jumps through the Groundbridge in the Apex Armor)
• Refusal of the Call: He refuses it the first time, but Miko's appearance forces the issue. He refuses it again after a rousing time dodging death and dismemberment aboard the Decepticon ship, but Arcee gets him to come back. His mom also pushed him into refusing the call, but by this point he stood his ground.
• Resigned to the Call: After he accepts his role as one of the Autobots' human friends, he becomes a straight example of this trope. He'd certainly enjoy not having to watch out for ominous vehicles and members of an armed militant group working within the US, but he values his friendship with Arcee and the Autobots more than that.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Savvy Guy to Miko's Energetic Girl.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Does this temporary after the skirmish inside the Decepticon ship mentioned above.
• Team Pet: He's a human companion in a Transformers series. It comes with the territory. He's mainly Arcee's pet, but also Optimus's and Smokescreen's to a certain extent.
• Tuckerization: Named for executive producers' Alex Kurtzman's son Jack and Jeff Kline's daughter Darby.

Miko Nakadai

"Was there a fight? Can I come with next time?!"

Voiced by: Tania Gunadi, Nozomi Furuki (Japanese)

An exchange student from Japan seeking to escape the boredom of a regimented schedule, she was initially wondering if Jasper, Nevada was really the place to escape from boredom. To her horror, she was dead wrong...for a while. A bonafide adrenaline junkie, Miko loves being a part of this intergalactic war and desperately wants to join in on anything and everything related to it, whether she's realistically useful or not. She idolizes Bulkhead and sees him as the coolest bot on the team, often encouraging him to take more initiative.

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• Action Girl: She becomes this later in the series when she gains a hold of the Apex Armour.
• Aesop Amnesia: No matter how many times she's told not to go flying out through the groundbridge and into danger, she ends up doing it. Her motives for doing so have improved from selfish to a misguided desire to help, however.
• Badass Normal: She wants to be this, but is more often a liability as she rushes into a dangerous situation. It's later shown that she behaves like this because she thinks that Bulkhead can protect her from any threat, and if that belief is lost, she quickly becomes overwhelmed. Although an honorable mention goes to her actions in "Hurt," where she took the initiative and killed Hardshell using Wheeljack's ship, saving him from being killed. He later tells her "Welcome to the Wreckers."
  • Badass Boast: In response to Starscream's umpteenth boast about killing Cliffjumper: "Big whoop. I snuffed Hardshell."
• Be Careful What You Wish For: By the end of "Hurt", Miko gets her wish of being more actively involved in the fight against the Decepticons by using the Jackhammer to offline Hardshell before he can kill Wheeljack, which causes Wheeljack to say she should be a Wrecker. But neither of these things make her feel any better.
  • She also wanted to visit Cybertron towards the end of Series 2. Starscream captures her and the others, and places them in oxygen pods to be used as hostages for bargaining, with the consequence that they will die if Team Prime says no.
• Break the Cutie: She is pretty well traumatized by the end of "Rock Bottom," though it doesn't seem to affect later episodes.
  • "Hurt" seems to have broken her for good, thankfully Arcee helped her get through it.
• Character Catchphrase: Suh-weet!
• Character Development: Zig-zagged as she isn't quite as bad of a liability after season two and gets a few character building moments, but she still jumps into situations she should not be a part of in the first place throughout the series.
• Compressed Vice: For the sake of Hypocritical Humor at the end of "Scraphead" episode, Miko gains a fear of spiders. While this phobia is not unusual for humans and even can be considered the stereotype girl fear, it appeared only at the end of this episode and never brought up again. And later Miko doesn't have practically any reaction (let alone fear) to Airachnid, a sadictic spider-Decepticon, so that fear was created for an one-time gag.
• Empowered Badass Normal: She ends up taking control of the Apex Armor in a few spots, while still notably smaller than most Cybertronians it makes her Nigh-Invulnerable and levels the playing field in a fight.
• Expressive Hair:
  • Noticeable in "Operation Bumblebee Part 1" when her pigtails visibly droop when they try to cheer Bumblebee up by turning on the TV just in time to see a commercial for the car Bumblebee takes his altmode from (he was stuck in a Shapeshifter Mode Lock at the time).
  • Also in "Scrapheap", her pigtails move when Bulkhead screams, and later both her pigtails and ponytail fly up when she thinks she sees a spider.
• Expy:
  • Personality-wise, it seems she's taken a few cues from Pepper Potts.
  • She's also a bit like Sari at times with the personality of Animated Bumblebee.
• Faux Action Girl: At first. She talks the talk and has ambitions to get in on the action, but as an untrained, small human female, she's utterly outclassed against the adversaries she faces, and often ends up as The Load. She eventually ascends to Action Girl later on when she gets the Apex Armour.
• Genki Girl: She rationalizes this in the fourth episode as a result of strict upbringing. First chance she got, she took the exchange student gig for greener pastures. Nevada wasn't the best choice for that, but it worked out pretty well.
• Girlish Pigtails: That stand on end when she's startled.
• Hartman Hips: Another sign of her gender are her lean waistline and broader hips.
• Hero-Worshipper: It becomes apparent very early in the series that Miko sees Bulkhead as the greatest thing ever since the Internet was invented.
• It's All About Me: At first, she put her fun at the top and was very proud of the fact that she's The Load and brings problems because it was exciting. Fortunately, she gets better.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: The fact that she's a human girl normally gets in the way.
• Ink-Suit Actor: She's basically a CGI model of her voice actress.
• It's Personal: Went all out against Hardshell for nearly killing Bulkhead.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's more than often rather pushy, selfish, and pays very little heed to others' advice, but would never abandon her friends (especially Bulkhead) willingly.
• Jumped at the Call: "Dude, what are you waiting for?! Go with!"
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: She owns two cats named ChiChi and Ding Dong.
• Leeroy Jenkins: They should seriously consider putting a leash on the girl. She's getting better, though not much.
• Lethally Stupid: All the headaches she causes for the Autobots and her human friends are by accident, never intentional. Because she doesn't realize it's her fault, she never learns and just keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over. She also has a tendency to lash out at people when they point this out instead of heeding their words.
• The Load: Mainly because of the Leeroy Jenkins behavior.
• The McCoy: Among the three main kids, she's the one to "act first, and ask questions second".
• Misery Builds Character: Gets some major growth of character when Bulkhead becomes crippled in "Hurt."
• Naïve Newcomer: Has one problem dealing with the idea that War Is Hell.
• Not a Game:
  • The other characters keep trying to get her to understand this in regards to the Autobot-Decepticon war. It doesn't sink in until after the events of "Hurt".
  • And even then she still asked Wheeljack if she could join him and the Wreckers on a dangerous mission. At least she asked this time? And it wasn't for an adrenaline rush.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Tania Gunadi voices Miko using her normal voice, which means Miko is a Japanese exchange student who speaks with an Indonesian accent.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Inverted; she's the human sidekick to robots Bulkhead and Wheeljack.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: She spends nearly all of "Hurt" severely pissed off, depressed, and desiring some revenge on Hardshell for nearly killing Bulkhead, and succeeds.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Less so after going through Break the Cutie.
• Plucky Girl: Even if she's trapped in a cave and suffocating from the lack of fresh air, she does not quit.
• Pretty Freeloader: Emphasis on "pretty", extra emphasis on "freeloader".
• Reckless Sidekick: Very reckless. At least half a dozen incidents where characters were put in legitimate danger are due to her. By the second season, she has got better in her recklessness, but still seems to have a hard time understanding that a combat situation against Decepticons is not where she belongs (i.e. when she insisted on going with the 'Bots to capture and secure the Decepticon Space Bridge... in space).
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Energetic Girl to Jack's and Raf's Savvy Guys.
• Shipper on Deck: For Arcee and Wheeljack, to Jack's confusion.
• Team Pet: Bulkhead's pet. She even lampshades it, commenting that Wheeljack needs to get his own (pet) human to really fit in.
• Terrible Artist: Her drawing of Arcee's vehicle mode in the first episode is... not impressive.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Tomboy to Sierra's girly girl. Both are teenage girls who have relationships with Jack, but Sierra is a typically feminine girl while Miko enjoys violence and is very boisterous.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a rambunctious and boisterous Action Girl wannabe (and later becomes one) who hangs around with the Wreckers (as she is also One of the Boys) and is very enthusiastic about joining them in battle and sees it as fun. She is probably the one out of the three human children in Team Prime who conforms to female roles the least. Yet she has a lot of girly traits to balance that out. She has partially pink hair and pink in a lot of her wardrobe. She is a Phoneaholic Teenager and Kind Hearted Cat Lover with a valley girl speech pattern, and has a lot of emotional fragility which is shown when she's brought to tears whenever Bulkhead or one of the Wreckers is in peril.
• Too Dumb to Live: She persists in involving herself in combat situations when she really shouldn't, including trying to bash a Vehicon with a rock while Bulkhead has it pinned (which considering said Vehicon has a head made of metal alloy far tougher than any on Earth, works about as well as could be expected). Jack calls her on this attitude the first chance he gets.
  • She is getting better as of "Flying Mind".
    • With an extra dose positive of Character Development in "Hurt". And gets smarter as well, managing to surprise Hardshell with Wheeljack's ship and kill him. Though this is later subverted by "Chain of Command".
• Took a Level in Badass: With a little help from Wheeljack's ship, she becomes the second human in show to take a Cybertronian (specifically Hardshell) offline. Permanently.
  • She takes another level in "Chain Of Command" when she uses the Apex Armor (and being the first human to do so, at that) to beat up Starscream and a pair of Seeker Vehicons.
• Twofer Token Minority: She's an exchange student from Japan and one of the few female characters.
• Undying Loyalty: She really cares about her friendship with Bulkhead, even to the point of nearly suffocating herself in "Rock Bottom" to try to free him.
• Why Did It Have To Be Spiders?- Doesn't help that the spider in question actually hunts humans for sport and becomes vampiric at one point. Miko's probably going to be having nightmares about Airachnid for a very long time.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Uses wrestling techniques such as a dropkick to deliver a smackdown to Starscream and two of his Seekers while wearing the Apex Armor in "Chain of Command".
• Wrong Genre Savvy: She seems to think she is in a more lighthearted Transformers continuity. She eventually learns her lesson the hard way.

Rafael "Raf" Esquivel

Miko: "You know how to hack? But you're, like, two years old."
Raf: "Twelve... and a quarter."

Voiced by: Andy Pessoa, Motoko Kumai (Japanese)

The youngest of the human kids, he was present when Bumblebee came to aid Arcee against a group of Vehicons. Abnormally smart for his young age, he is still very young and easily overwhelmed. He grew up in a large family who rarely have time to listen to him, which is why he bonds so closely with the normally quiet Bumblebee.

---

• Adorably Precocious Child: At times, Raf really shows his young age. In "Darkness Rising" his first scene was him playing with a toy car and making engine noises. In "Scrapheap", he talked about wanting to see snow and was later wandering around the base pretending he was in a blizzard.
• All There in the Manual: "Raf's Notes" explains that even he doesn't know why Bumblebee makes sense to him, he just does. He also goes on to mention that it's probably the same reason he could understand computer code at age three. You can just hear the fan theories coming out... especially coming after Transformers: Animated.
• Ambiguously Brown: As his name suggests, he is actually Latino. This is a case of Truth in Television, as not everyone who's Latino has tan skin, black hair, and brown eyes, and it's quite common for people to mistakenly assume so for those who do look like that.
• Anime Hair: Primus only knows how he keeps it like that.
• Awesome Backpack: A distinguishing feature for him.
• Badass Adorable: Despite being the youngest, smallest and weakest human physically, Raf has actually proven to be the most competent and reliable of the Autobots' human friends. His common sense usually keeps him out of trouble (for the most part; no human is ever completely out of trouble in a Transformers series), he's the most rational of the three humans, and his formidable computer skills and knowledge of human technology have proven invaluable to the Autobots so far. When Ratchet actually shows a little fondness for you and even admits that you're pretty much his only human friend, you must have done something right.
  • "Out Of His Head" deserves a mention for sheer badass. Raf attempts to take on Bumblebee, possessed by freaking Megatron while Megs is attempting to resurrect himself. Raf leaps onto the cable connecting Bumblebee to Megatron's body to try and rip it off. It doesn't actually work, but let's just repeat that Raf was willing to take on Megatron to save his friend. Dude's got bearings.
  • In "Triage", he works with Ratchet to create a computer virus that beams the entirety of the Iacon Database from the Nemesis' computer to the Autobot base's computer, giving the Autobots an edge against the Decepticons. It's a marked example of how useful he is as a teammate.
  • In "Deadlock", he creates a Groundbridge which turns Soundwave's own Weaponized Teleportation against him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Do not, under any circumstances, threaten Bumblebee in his presence. A scraplet learned that the hard way.
• Blind Without 'Em: No glasses, no vision.
• Child Prodigy: At 12 years old, he's on the cusp of becoming a Teen Genius.
• Curtains Match the Window: Brown hair, brown eyes.
• Demoted to Extra: From the latter half of Season 2 onward, Raf suffered a rather diminished role compared to that of Jack, Miko, and Fowler. This is also seen in him getting the least amount of Character Development throughout the series. A pity considering he made a great partner for Ratchet and had a strong showing in the first season.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: His mother calls him by his full name of "Rafael Jorge Gonzales Esquivel" in "The Human Factor".
• Good Counterpart: He's the good counterpart to the Decepticons' own Techno Wizard, Soundwave.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight, given the target audience, but really treads the line in averting it.
• Inexplicably Awesome: No definitive explanation was given for why he can understand Bumblebee, though fan theories abound.
• Grade Skipper: Though his current grade level is unspecified, he apparently skipped his way right past middle school and shares at least one class with both Miko and Jack.
• Latino Is Brown: Averted. Raf is clearly meant to be Latino but is more on the white side.
• Mission Control: He serves this role especially when Ratchet is otherwise occupied, most notably in "Orion Pax" and the four part Iacon Relic episodes.
• Nerd Glasses: He's really smart with them.
• Nice Guy: He's a genuinely sweet kid who wants to support his friends as best as possible.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Inverted; he's the human sidekick to robots Bumblebee and Ratchet.
• Playful Hacker: Repeatedly removes pictures of the Autobots from the internet and replaces them with silly gifs. On the other hand, he's much more serious when dealing with combat situations.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Although not to the same extent as Jack, Raf is the Savvy Guy to Miko's Energetic Girl.
• Shorter Means Smarter: Shortest guy of the trio of kids and the one with the most computer knowledge.
• The Spock: Downplayed example as he gets quite excited in some cases, but when it comes to business he's all professional.
• Team Pet: Bumblebee's, and lately Ratchet's shown some fondness for him too, to the point that he actually picks him up from school when Bumblebee's T-Cog is taken and can't transform.
• Techno Wizard: By human standards at least.
• Translator Buddy: Bumblebee's, for the humans.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice has noticeably deepened over the course of the series, most evidently in the season 3 opener. This is obviously due to Andy Pessoa's own voice deepening.

Special Agent William Fowler

"Well, I'll be a bald eagle."

Voiced by: Ernie Hudson, Kenji Nomura (Japanese)

A human liason to the Autobots, Fowler's job is to monitor their activity and report back on issues of interest. Their agreement is to let the Autobots handle Decepticon activity, but at various points he has called on their help dealing with the dangerous MECH organization. Often grouchy, regardless he has a good deal of respect for Optimus, his team and the human kids, and has grown to trust them to make the right calls.

---

• Ace Pilot: He may be retired, but he's still really good with a plane. In "Darkest Hour", he jumps into a helicopter and flies directly into an entire fleet of Decepticons. Alone. And survives. And puts up a hell of a fight at that. Even after the chopper is damaged, he still manages to take down a good number of Cons and even rescue June from one. See also the below trope.
• Badass Normal: He may just be a human, but he's able to withstand Decepticon torture for an unknown amount of time without cracking, not to mention dogfight Laserbeak in a Huey helicopter. He can also fly a jet without a flight suit, thanks to a cabin-pressure stabilizer that Rachet has built into the cockpit to keep his organs from exploding.
  • In "Nemesis Prime", he chooses to go into a battleground between Optimus and Nemesis Prime, sneaks into the MECH base (including knocking out at least three sentries), and fistfights Silas (while admitting he's out-of-shape) to buy Optimus time against his doppelganger.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: An airborne variation with Wheeljack against a legion of Cons, in "Darkest Hour".
• Big Damn Heroes: In "Crisscross", he showed up with a bunch of Black Helicopters to save Arcee, Jack, and June from Airachnid.
• Big Good: Of Team Prime in a sense. He's basically the CEO of the Autobot base, which was provided by the US government, and Optimus often turns to him for help during the team's many battles, be it air support, red tape, or evacuating humans. Though Fowler defers to Greater-Scope Paragon General Bryce.
• Composite Character: Had the Unit: E spinoff progressed as planned, there were plans for him to become this continuity's version of Bulletproof Vess.
• Da Chief
• Eagleland: Flavors of Type 1, with him being a proud patriot.
• Expy: Of Colonel Franklin from Cybertron.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With the Autobots in general, but especially Optimus and Bulkhead.
• Foil: Has one in Silas.
• Formerly Fit: A retired Army Ranger who's a bit out of shape.
• Good Is Not Nice
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: He tries it on a MECH mook when standing on top of Optimus' altmode. The mook hits a branch and presumably dies.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Most of the time, he's yelling at Optimus about whatever new incident is going down (often misblaming them for it), and when conversing with Bumblebee, he started talking slower as though Bumblebee couldn't understand him. However, he's a valued ally and friend to the Autobots and he grows fond of the kids, even showing a great deal of respect to Jack's mom.
• Intergenerational Friendship: This goes both ways for him. Though he is nominally a figure of authority in general and for the kids in particular, he treats them less like children and more like young adults, giving them room to develop and grow, which in turn usually turns out to mean good things for Team Prime. He also has this with the Autobots, where the roles are somewhat reversed in the sense that they are literally older than every human they know. However they all treat one another with respect, even if Fowler sometimes ends up yelling for Prime a lot when calling in about an emergency. He has two particularly close relationships when it comes to the team. His friendship with Optimus comes from the fact that both are leaders and thus in positions of authority, and have to deal with all that the positions entail. Meanwhile his friendship with Bulkhead is based on mutual respect for their time in equivalent parts of their respective elite forces (The Army Rangers for Fowler and the Wreckers for Bulkhead), as well as their deep commitment to friends, family, and country. The relationship between Fowler and Bulkhead was low-key at best during season one, but during season 2, when they get to discussing Fowler's past as a Ranger and the fact that they've both come to see one another as more than just allies (plus Fowler giving one hell of a pep talk to Bulkhead when he was at his lowest ebb in the episode), their friendship becomes more apparent. Bulkhead still refers to Fowler by name, but Fowler eventually takes to giving Bulkhead the somewhat hilarious nickname "Two-Ton", which Bulkhead seems to take in stride.
• The Men in Black: A government agent with knowledge of a group of Aliens Among Us? Sounds familiar.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He once tries to provide backup to Optimus and Bumblebee when Skyquake is fighting them. They have the fight under control when he arrives, however, and as a result, Skyquake gains a vehicle mode. And his Big Damn Heroes moment gives Airachnid a vehicle mode too, but it was that or allow her to kill Arcee, Jack, and June. By the time it happens again when he tries to attack Dreadwing, it seems as though it's become a full-on Running Gag.
  Agent Fowler: Oh, not this again!
  • In "Minus One", he manages to accidentally reveal where the new Autobot base is, allowing the Cons to capture Ratchet, with other dire repercussions likely to follow.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Tends to do this after electrical shocks, usually mentioning his grandmother. He even ends up referencing LOLCats at one point.
• Not So Stoic: He's clearly choked up when Bulkhead has nearly been killed by Hardshell, and is on the verge of tears both when the Autobot base is destroyed, and when bidding the team farewell as they leave for Cybertron.
• Ranger: Mentions he was one during his fistfight with Silas in "Nemesis Prime".
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Whilst he may become frustrated at some of the consequences that having warring alien robots on Earth can bring (specifically, about keeping the whole ordeal secret and whether further government intervention would be required should things escalate), he still takes on board what the Autobots have to say, gives them free rein to deal with the Decepticons their own way (without human casualties), and will readily assist them if they need it.
• Retired Badass: Used to be a US Army Ranger, and had some pilot training too given his comments while flying his jet.
• Running Gag: The vehicles he's piloting/riding in tend to get scanned by Decepticons who desperately need an Earth alternate-mode a lot.
  • Also, he has a habit of getting shocked and then saying random things.
• Say My Name: Often opens communications to the Autobots with "PRIME!", especially when he's angry.
• Scary Black Man: Downplayed, but he gets his moments.
• Stout Strength: He throws a decent punch for a guy with a prominent beer gut and was able to lift a grown man by the throat (see Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique above).
• Universal Driver's License: Has driven multiple vehicles in the show, including aircraft.

June Darby

Voiced by: Markie Post, Hitomi Nabatame (Japanese)

Jack's mom. She works as a nurse at the local hospital and has raised Jack ever since his father left. Because of that, she raised Jack to be very responsible in his schoolwork, job and friendships, but is still very concerned for his safety. She was initially kept out of the loop, not fully realizing where Jack's motorcycle came from, but eventually came to see the full scope of events her son is involved with.

---

• A Day in the Limelight: "Crisscross" and "Metal Attraction", which revolve around her introduction to the team and her overprotective tendencies as a mother; "Plus One", which has a lot of Ship Tease for her with Fowler.
• Back for the Finale: She disappears in season two after the "Orion Pax" arc until the season finale. After playing a minor role in the third season, she returns in the final episode of the series proper to see the Autobots off as they leave for Cybertron.
• Broken Masquerade: Jack tried to tell her the truth once, only for Arcee not to cooperate and she figured he was joking around. Being taken captive by MECH and witnessing Arcee and Airachnid duking it out, she caught on pretty quick.
• Chekhov's Gunman: She's a nurse, which just seems like a fill-in job title. She keeps Raf alive long enough for Ratchet to figure out how to rig a permanent solution.
• Commonality Connection: In "Metal Attraction" she says hello to Ratchet and he gives her a polite nod, surprising given his normal attitude to humans most of the time, probably because they are both medics.
• Hospital Hottie: Fowler's certainly taken notice.
• My Beloved Smother:
  • She has her moments of this, especially after she learns about how her son has spent several months involved in a war between giant alien robots.
  • This also crops up after Megatron nearly kills Raf. She initially tries to cut herself and the children off from the Autobots entirely, but is later convinced of the Autobots' willingness to help humanity. Like mother, like son, it seems.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She's willing to hear Optimus and the others out, but she makes dead-on points about how dangerous the war is for the children to be involved. Once Bumblebee proves they're fully willing to protect her and the kids, she comes around.
• Secret-Keeper: As of "Crisscross", she now knows of the Transformers' existence and Jack's involvement with them.
• Ship Tease:
  • With Fowler. Word of God says they likely got together after the end of the series.
  • She playfully acts disappointed that Optimus is away from base on one occasion, to the discomfort of her son. Though of course some fans saw read so much more into a sarcastic, throwaway line...
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Calls all the Bots out after Megatron nearly kills Raf for the reason that they were careless enough to drag three children into the war.
  • And again in part 1 of "Orion Pax", when Ratchet reveals they will have to send Jack into space (Cybertron, to be precise) to access Vector Sigma, where she and Fowler ask why Jack specifically has to go. She's not pleased that Optimus entrusted Jack with this mission, either.

MECH

Silas/Colonel Leland Bishop/CYLAS

"I am Silas.. But of more consequence to you, we are MECH."

^{Click here to see CYLAS}

Voiced by: Clancy Brown, Unshō Ishizuka (Japanese)

The leader of the advanced technological rogues calling themselves MECH, he is a steely individual with the scars to prove his life experiences. He was resolving to make guerilla attacks to acquire advanced military hardware, at least until his first encounter with the Cybertronians. Now his ultimate goal is to unlock their technological secrets and use it for his own nefarious purposes.

---

• And I Must Scream: In "Thirst", CYLAS turns out to be alive and strapped to the table as a guinea pig for Synth-En experiments, unable to get help from anyone. Which got worse when Knockout decides to employ Dark Energon into his system, turning him into a raving Terrorcon craving for Energon to survive. When Airachnid kills him, Cylas thanks her for ending his suffering.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Just barely given the nasty piece of work he is, but by the end of Thirst, the once proud and sinister MECH leader has been utterly broken by his experiences, and he uses his last moments alive to thank his killer for ending his pain.
• Ax-Crazy: Not so much as a regular human, but after being fixed into Breakdown's corpse and suffering brain damage he starts going mad. Then Knock Out starts experimenting on him and he really goes off the deep end.
• Arch-Enemy: To Fowler.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: When fighting Bulkhead in Breakdown's body, he makes keen observations of Bulkhead's fighting style.
• Back for the Dead: Turns out to be alive in "Thirst", where he's used as a guinea pig for a dark energon/synthetic energon mix, becomes a Terrorcon, and is finally killed by Airachnid.
• Badass Normal: As shown when he fought Agent Fowler. The Autobots also consider him just as much of a threat as any of the Decepticons.
• Bald of Evil: Had his head shaved when he was put into Breakdown's body.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: After he's put into Breakdown's body, Silas declares that he's fit only for the company of titans. During that time, he's demoted to Megatron's foot soldier, beaten up by Bulkhead and Smokescreen, and sent away to become Knock Out's plaything.
• Big Bad Ensemble: With Megatron and Airachnid for the majority of the shows run until season 2.
• Character Catchphrase: "Open (insert pronoun) up."
• Code Name: "Grill" establishes that his real name is Colonel Leland Bishop, former spec ops.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: He had Breakdown vivisected to try and learn about how Cybertronians work, then later tried to do the same to Arcee.
• Colonel Badass: He was one before he formed MECH.
• Combat Pragmatist: "First rule of combat: Never leave the enemy with the spoils."
• Composite Character: Silas seems to be an Expy of Adam Rook/Lazarus from the Dreamwave comics, being a rogue scarred military terrorist with plans to exploit Cybertronians for his evil whims. However his role as a human madman who eventually sides with the Decepticons and becomes a cyborg to save his life is like Dr. Arkeville from the original cartoon, while being the head of a high-tech organization seeking to create his own transformer and fusing himself to the body of one out of a god-complex comes from Scorponok's Headmaster Abraham Dante in the IDW comics. Also his final fate eerily similar to Hunter O Nion after he became Sunstreak's Headmaster in the same series-a tortured guinea pig for Decepticon science who thankfully is given a Mercy Kill.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: As CYLAS.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  (to a bragging Starscream) Do you ever not speak?
• Death from Above: The Damocles laser satellite, Silas' pet project in the military before he was discharged, was designed with this in mind. Fowler even calls it the "weapon of a madman".
• Demoted to Dragon: After becoming CYLAS, he's entirely happy to become one of Megatron's flunkies.
• Dying as Yourself: In "Thirst", courtesy of an uncaring Airachnid, who frees him from the influence of the Dark Energon that had been infecting him just before he dies.
• Emergency Transformation: Gets installed into Breakdown's corpse by his men to save him.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After being put into Breakdown's body.
• Evil Gloating: Brags to Optimus about the strength of his Evil Knockoff, Nemesis Prime. Unfortunately for Silas, the correlation between villainous gloating and... ehrm... crushing defeat quickly becomes obvious.
• Evil Sounds Deep: He is voiced by Clancy Brown. After he's fused into Breakdown's body, he ends up developing a metallic echo, which might just be the speakers but it still adds to the effect.
• Foil: Compared with Megatron. Silas almost never loses his cool, while Megatron loses his temper at least once an episode.
  • Also to Fowler. Two serious, capable, highly trained and experienced military men. Fowler still serves his country and his planet as liaison to the Autobots, while Silas left the service in disgrace and now works towards a darker purpose. The fight between the two in "Nemesis Prime" makes their duality very clear.
• Faux Affably Evil: He speaks in a polite and cordial tone, albeit in a brisk, military sort of way, which serves as a stark contrast to his complete sociopathic disregard of all human life, even going as far as to let civilians die just for the sake of gaining a chance to claim Cybertronian technology for himself, best shown when he used June Darby as a hostage and was fully willing to let Airachnid to kill her if it meant he would get a chance to experiment on Arcee to salvage her technology. And in "The Human Factor", he takes time to thank the scientists who revived him by integrating him with Breakdown's corpse right before slaughtering them all with his newfound powers.
• Fun with Acronyms: Once integrated with Breakdown's corpse, he presents himself to Megatron as CYLAS, or "CYbernetic Lifeform Augmented by Symbiosis".
• Genius Bruiser: As the commander of (or, at least, a high-ranking officer in) a high-tech terrorist group, it would be more of a surprise if he wasn't this. Finally gets to demonstrate his CQC chops in "Nemesis Prime". Even more so when he's put into Breakdown's corpse.
• A God Am I: When installed in Breakdown's corpse.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Has a few notable ones.
• Go Out with a Smile: When finally killed by Airachnid, he thanks her with a peaceful smile before dying.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His own creation, Nemesis Prime, falls through the roof of his base and on top of him.
• Humanoid Abomination: As an organic plugged into and controlling the pieced-together corpse of Breakdown, the Decepticons certainly see him as one.
• Irony: When Starscream offers an alliance, he treats him as a foot soldier instead of an equal partner, and in the end has him dissected. Receives pretty much the same treatment from Megatron and Knock Out in "The Human Factor".
• Killed Off for Real: Silas spends quite a bit of time cheating death When he's crushed by Nemesis Prime, his body is hooked up to Life-support and placed in Breakdown. After he overdoses on a Synthetic/Dark Energon cocktail he comes back as a zombie and then he's finally terminated in a fight with Airachnid.
• Kill Sat: He developed the Damocles satellite which can fire a continuous beam from orbit with "pinpoint accuracy" enough force to destroy buildings.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Quite willing to back off and process the intel he's collected once the original mission is no longer viable. No meaningless sacrifices here.
• Lack of Empathy: It's evident in his first appearance that he has a severe case of this, not caring that the current state and its surrounding neighbors would be irradiated by the DNGS melting down caused by the train crash he intended to make. Not to mention he admits sacrificing innocent human lives is worth gaining info on Cybertronian biology.
• Large and in Charge: He's noticeably burlier than the normal MECH grunts.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Silas dissects Breakdown and tries to capture Arcee for the same purpose. He ends up as Knockout's guinea pig and it's implied that this was ultimately going to happen to him had Airachnid not killed CYLAS first.
• Mad Eye: In Thirst, one of his eyes appears human, whereas the other eye is greyed out and has a smaller pupil.
• Man in the Machine: Becomes this after the failure of Nemesis Prime.
• Mind Rape: Spends the better part of "Thirst" with Dark and Synthetic Energon messing with the brain his mind is jacked into.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Optimus notes that Silas's ideology was similar to Megatron's worldview when the Decepticons were founded.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: A few of the bots assume that when they first meet him he'll be a pushover; they're very wrong. Starscream also assumes that during their Villain Team-Up he'll be the one in charge when it's obviously not the case. The final example would be when Knock Out is torturing him while Starscream provides humiliating commentary and neither assume that he's able to do anything back, being a mere guinea pig that's ''surely'' okay to experiment on with a SuperSerum and Dark Energon in spite of flimsy restraints. Needless to say, they paid dearly for this.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Leland Bishop.
• Original Position Fallacy: Seems to think he'll be treateted with the same respect by the Decepticons that he is among his M.E.C.H. peers. Not even close.
• Our Vampires Are Different / Our Zombies Are Different: Both, owing to the Dark Energon and Synthetic Energon flowing through his body, and the fact that he's fused to a Cybertronian corpse.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: He's certainly borrowed at least some of the aesthetic and ideology, though it's unclear just how far it goes as the show didn't go into his backstory enough to do that. Given his resources and his "new world order vs. newer world order" speech in his first appearance, however, he could be something far worse.
• Spanner in the Works: To the entire Decepticon cause in "Thirst". After Starscream and Knock Out accidentally set him loose, he is responsible for a small-scale Zombie Apocalypse in their ship that kills off quite a few of their troops, then releases Airachnid by accident and infects her just before dying. This causes the Insecticons to fall under her control and rebel, forcing Soundwave to beam them off ship and thus depriving them of Elite Mooks, reducing them to half their military strength.
• The Stoic: Silas generally keeps his cool. Generally.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: During his alliance with Starscream. Silas clearly doesn't see Starscream as an equal, or even as an actual ally, and doesn't really try to hide this.
• Terrorist Without A Cause: Possibly.
• Transhuman Treachery: Upon being transferred into Breakdown's body.
• Ungrateful Bastard: When MECH revives him in Breakdown's body, he thanks his subordinates who performed the procedure... then executes them.
  Silas: "Thank you all for your dedication and a lifetime of service. But I now seem more suited to keep the exclusive company..." (deploys gun) "...of titans." *BLAM*
  • Inverted in "Thirst". Silas thanks Airachnid for ending his suffering, though naturally, the latter doesn't care.
• Villainous Breakdown: An extended one ranging from the end of "Nemesis Prime" to "Thirst," marked by frequent remissions and relapses.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: He's very good at this.
• Villain Team-Up: He likes these a lot.
  • He does it with Airachnid in "Crisscross."
  • And again in "Operation Bumblebee" with Starscream, though Silas eventually calls it off when they lose access to Bumblebee's T-Cog... by taking Starscream's and leaving him unconscious in the woods.
  • Once more in "The Human Factor," when Silas, now inhabiting Breakdown's body, attempts to join the Decepticons by handing Megatron control of his Damocles satellite. When the satellite ends up destroyed, however, Megatron decides to hand him off to Knock Out for experimentation.
• Western Terrorists: He's a former Special Tactics colonel gone rogue, who's assembled a team to construct high-tech weapons to take over the world. He has no regard for any lives he'd sacrifice.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: It's probably safe to say that being almost killed by debris, followed by being hooked up to a Cybertronian probably unhinged him a degree - the earlier Silas would certainly have been more pragmatic than to kill his underlings, especially considering they'd just saved his ungrateful hide.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After being put in Breakdown's body, he kills off his underlings now that he doesn't need them anymore.
  • Is on the receiving end later in the episode, with Megatron giving him to Knock Out to be experimented upon as punishment for his failure.

MECH Surgeon

Voiced by: Josh Keaton

One of Silas' top men and an expert on Cybertronian dissection.

---

• Alas, Poor Villain: See You Have Outlived Your Usefulness.
• Badass Labcoat: One of his distinguishing features.
• Distinctive Appearances: He can be told apart from the generic MECH goons by his prominent goggles and his military-coloured labcoat.
• The Dragon: To Silas.
• The Faceless: Like all other MECH operatives. We never see their faces, not once. Fowler suspects this is due to the fact that they're still enlisted men, and if their identities were found out they could be tried for treason. Silas is an exception because he has officially left the US army.
• Killed Off for Real
• Mad Scientist: He does quite a bit of the science work, though that's not to say that Silas is incompetent at scientific matters.
• No Name Given: He's only even referred to by his alias in the credits.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Silas goes mad and murders him and his colleagues, after declaring that his becoming an Empowered Badass Normal means he is now beyond them.

Other Humans

Sierra

Voiced by: Alexandra Krosney, Chisato Mori (Japanese)

A classmate of Jack (and by extension, Miko and Raf), she didn't really pay him much mind until he talked with her while on his motorcycle. Unaware of Jack's involvement with alien robots, they've had a few hiccups as they grow closer together. She is sometimes accompanied by a female friend who wears clothes similar to hers.

---

• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: She's apparently the cheerleading captain of Jack's high school.
• Between My Legs: How the race in "Speed Metal" is started◊.
• Character Development: She was very much an Alpha Bitch in her first appearance, though by the time she showed up again, she had softened quite a bit towards Jack.
• Hartman Hips: A very slight case.
• Magic Skirt: Averted. When Vince and Jack race out in the wilderness, Sierra and her friend's skirts get blown away by the gust of wind the vehicles leave in their wake, but thankfully they hold them in place as the breeze hits and their skirts start to billow.
• Recurring Character: She has shown up in a dozen or so episodes, but only a few does she even have lines.
• Satellite Love Interest: About all we know about her is that she likes Jack and he likes her. The reality is she hasn't really stuck around long enough in any episode for us to get to know her, only being around for a couple scenes in a couple episodes is more reasonable than being in every episode and still fulfilling this trope.
• Secret Chaser: Not so much, but she was curious about why she never sees Jack anywhere else besides school.
• Those Two Girls: Sierra is rarely seen without her friend.
  • Coordinated Clothes: She and her close friend both wear similar outfits.
  • No Name Given: We don't learn her friend's name.
  • The Voiceless: Her friend has no dialogue.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Sierra last appears in the fourth episode of the second season, and is never seen or even spoken of again. This is especially jarring after Jasper is evacuated and destroyed in "Darkmount, NV", and while Jack is frantically trying to contact his mom, he doesn't spare a single moment of concern for Sierra's fate.

Vince

"Not bad for a pedal car."

Voiced by: Brad Raider, Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese)

Jasper, Nevada's resident jerkass, Vince is a bully who takes part in illegal street races. Has his eye on Sierra, much to the annoyance of Jack.

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• The Bully: He’s this to Jack. He is never seen NOT picking on him.
• Butt-Monkey: Less so as he's not a frequent character. Gets shown up at a race, then kidnapped by the Decepticons, then has burgers and fries stuffed in his car by Jack and Smokescreen after he throws burgers at them.
• Evil Redhead: Downplayed. He’s not exactly evil, but he is a redhead and a JerkAss.
• Expy: Surely you noticed the similarity to Guy Gardner?
• Jerkass: Often picks on Jack, especially when it comes to street racing with one of Jack's rides (which is actually a robot in disguise).
  • Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: See Ungrateful Bastard.
• Mistaken Identity: Knock Out mistakes him for Bumblebee's partner, renders him unconscious, and kidnaps him.
• Redhead In Green: Is a ginger and wears a green army jacket.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Vince didn't know who his kidnappers were and thus probably didn't know how much danger he was really in. That said, when rescued, the closest Jack gets to a thank you is a derogatory remark about Bumblebee, who Jack was riding in at the time. Bumblebee reciprocates by kicking a load of dust up in Vince's face. Later, he throws burgers at Jack and Smokescreen because he can.

General Bryce

"Please explain why we haven't been served Megatron's steel head on a silver platter."

Voiced by: Robert Forster

Agent Fowler's superior and good friend.

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• Big Good: Being Fowler's superior. Possibly of Unit: E as well.
• Expy: Fans noticed that his visual appearance and midwest US accent is similar to Captain Fanzone, the local human authority of Transformers: Animated.
• Nuke 'em: It's not likely Bryce alone is the one calling the shots in the situation, but judging by Fowler's reactions, he was very supportive of the proposal of nuking Darkmount.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Is the next up in the chain of command and although he may be skeptical of the Autobots' good intentions, he's friendly with Agent Fowler, calling him "Bill" and being willing to listen to him.

Vogel

"Welcome to Earth!"

Voiced by: John DiMaggio, Tetsu Inada (Japanese)

A construction worker who appears in "Tunnel Vision" and plays a fairly major part towards the end of the episode.

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• Badass Normal: No amazing feats like the three human kids? No strength or combat experience? No problem. He helped both parties fend off a Decepticon attack with whatever he can find, including a sweeper train.
• Car Fu: Rams Knock Out with his sweeper train. Twice.
  • Gets some minor deconstruction in that the first time this happens, it end with the brakes of his vehicle being shot out by the Insecticon. The second time, it's used to both incapacitate Knock Out and also stop the train.
• Cloudcuckoolander: See Conspiracy Theorist. He constantly blabbers of aliens and Mole Men and everyone around him deems him to be way out of his mind...
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: ...until Miko and Jack explain of alien robots in disguise, causing him to finally join them, especially since he correctly rambled about aliens.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Believes in aliens and Mole Men.
• Jumped at the Call: Subverting the Cassandra Truth, when Miko and Jack lay out the robot war going on, he's enthusiastic to lend a hand.

Ancient Cybertronians

Primus

An ancient god of Creation, he is a deity and ancestor of all Cybertronians. Locked in a perpetual stalemate with his counterpart Unicron, defeated him by creating the Thirteen Primes. Once peace was established he merged with the core of Cybertron, giving life to the planet by providing an abundance of energon. The war corrupted his core, forcing him to shut down for millions of years to repair the damage and he bestowed the Matrix of Leadership to Optimus for safekeeping.

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• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Mentioned to have merged with Cybertron's core.
• Cain and Abel: The Abel to Unicron's Cain.
• Genius Loci: As is tradition.
• God Is Good: Given that the only other God in this universe seems to be Unicron...
• Greater-Scope Paragon: He's the one who made the Thirteen Primes and every single Cybertronian is basically his progeny, including Prime himself.
• The Maker: The creator of the Thirteen Primes, and by extension, Cybertronian life.
• Physical God: Was once this. Somewhat unique amongst Transformers lore in that Primus and Cybertron originally existed individually of one another, before Primus merged his spark with the planet's core as opposed to his entire body being the planet, as is the most common depiction. This allows him to be a planet without trying to depict a planet-size robot form, which has been a visual difficulty in Transformers: The Movie and Transformers: Armada.
• Robo Family: Is Unicron's brother.

The Thirteen Original Primes

Powerful creations of Primus who tipped the balance in the battle against Unicron. They are responsible for the creation of Cybertronian society and their unique qualities can be seen among their descendants.

Prima

The first Transformer ever created by Primus and the leader of the Thirteen Primes. He was known as the Warrior of Light and is the original bearer of the Matrix of Leadership.

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• Big Good: He's the main active force of good among the Thirteen, leading his team as the first prime.
• Cool Sword: The Star Saber, which can shoot Sword Beams and originally had the Matrix embedded in its hilt. Optimus wields it later on.
• The Leader: Of the Thirteen Primes.
• Light Is Good/Light Is Not Good: Originally a very noble warrior, he grew to be more and more paranoid and vindictive. His paranoia helped push the already dark Megatronus into villainy, and when the Great Cataclysm occurred, he denied the Predacons sanctuary and left them to die.
• Robo Family: His descendants are said to possess a "Primian" polarity, among whom Optimus is included. Until Covenant of Primus revealed that Optimus himself is the reincarnation of one of the Thirteen.

Vector Prime

Tasked with protecting time and space, Vector Prime watches over the multiverse from his own pocket dimension, sometimes stepping in to help.

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• Alternate Self: Technically, this goes for all of the Aligned!Thirteen compared to their counterparts in the larger Multiverse, but Multiverse!Vector Prime (in other words, the same bot from Transformers: Cybertron) has stated that his counterpart is a distinct and separate entity from himself.
• Guardian of the Multiverse: His task involves protecting time and space, making him a watcher and guardian of not just this universe, but all others like it as well.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Vector Prime's disgust with Liege Maximo plotting against the other Primes was too much for him, so he left reality for a pocket dimension.
• Space Master: He's a protector of both space and time.
• Time Master: He's obviously the Prime in charge of protecting time and space.

Alpha Trion

Voiced by: George Takei

The overseer of the Iacon Hall of records and keeper of the Covenant of Primus and the reality-bending Quill. He played the role of mentor to a young Orion Pax.

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• Adaptational Badass: In most other continuities, he's just a long-lived Transformer. In this continuity, he's a member of The Thirteen with the ability to warp reality.
• God Was My Copilot: Most are unaware that he's actually one of the Thirteen.
• I Choose to Stay: After the construction of the Ark, Alpha Trion decided not to go with Optimus, but to stay behind on Cybertron and watch over the Hall of Records.
• Posthumous Character: If his greeting a dying Optimus into the Allspark is anything to go by. However, he seems to be alive in the book The Covenant Of Primus which takes place after the series, so his manifestation might simply be an aspect of his quasi-divine status.
• Purple Is Powerful: Dons purple as part of his color scheme and is one of the Thirteen, serving as their records keeper.
• Retcon: One of the more surprising ones among the franchise. Alpha Trion was revealed to be a member of the Thirteen for this universe, meaning he's also supposedly a Multiversal Singularity (meaning there's only truly one of him across every Transformers continuity). This provides somewhat of a problem for him more than other members of the Thirteen, since he has actually had an evil Mirror Universe counterpart, who actually fought against Nexus Prime, another member of the Thirteen. This apparent contradiction has resulted in classifying only the Prime Alpha Trion as one of the Thirteen, and stating that the Prime universe is not part of the previous Transformers Multiverse—at first. Whether this makes thing more or less confusing is up for debate, especially following works like Rise of the Dark Spark and The Complete AllSpark Almanac have slowly seen it's part of the Multiverse, after all. Following The Shrouding however, this is now a moot point as Univeral Singularities no longer exist.
• Rewriting Reality: Alpha Trion can, to a limited extent, rewrite future events using his Quill and the Covenant of Primus.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Was one of the few aware that Orion Pax was the reincarnation of his fellow Prime "Thirteen" aka Optimus Prime, and resolved to watch over him. That being said, there was no indication that Optimus knew that he knew, though after regaining his memories, it's entirely possible he suspected as much.

Weird Beard: Like previous incarnations, Alpha Trion has a metal beard.

Solus Prime

The Thirteen's weaponsmith and the first female Cybertronian. She was killed in a fit of rage by Megatronus.

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• Action Girl: She fought against Unicron. Nuff' said.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She fell in love with Megatronus Prime, the Warrior of Darkness amongst The Thirteen.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Her body melted down to the very Core of Cybertron where the essence of Primus resided, creating the Well of AllSparks, in a sense making her the mother of all future Cybertronian life.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Her last words to Megatronus.
• Four Is Death: The fourth Prime to be created by Primus, and the first to die.
• Monster Progenitor: The very first female Transformer.
• Posthumous Character: The first of the Thirteen to die, and her death is well known in legend.
• The Smurfette Principle: Solus Prime is the only female Prime. Although adding to that, she's also the very first female Cybertronian to exist.
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Megatronus Prime. He ends up accidentally killing her in a fit of rage.
• Ultimate Blacksmith: Her Forge is capable of crafting virtually anything.
• Weapons of Their Trade: Her hammer can forge anything from raw materials, but only if held by a Prime. It's also gigantic even by the standards of modern Cybertronians, and so makes for an especially damaging weapon to those strong enough to lift it.

Micronus Prime

The first Mini-Con Transformer.

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• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Joined Onyx Prime in the Well of AllSparks to keep him company for eternity.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Onyx Prime.
• Monster Progenitor: The very first Mini-Con.

Alchemist Prime

The co-founder of Cybertronian civilization alongside Alpha Trion.

Nexus Prime

The first and greatest of the Combiners. His components are named Clocker, Mainspring, Chaindrive, Pinion, and Cannonspring.

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• Combining Mecha: Comprised of Clocker, Mainspring, Chaindrive, Pinion, and Cannonspring.
• Monster Progenitor: The very first combiner.

Onyx Prime

The first Cybertronian with a beast mode.

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• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: His injuries during the War of The Primes cause him to decide to journey to the bottom of the Well of AllSparks where Primus's presence would sustain him for eternity, and he would make sure that the future Cybertronian race would have variation and diversity.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Micronus Prime.
• Monster Progenitor: The very first bestial Transformer.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: His physical appearance resembles a centaur.

Amalgamous Prime

A lighthearted trickster and a master of shapeshifting.

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• Monster Progenitor: The very first Shifter.
• Robo Family: Amalgamous Prime's descendants became known as "Shifters", which includes Makeshift.
• Shapeshifter: Constantly shifts between forms.
• The Trickster: Very much his personality, especially when playing jokes on his comrades.

Quintus Prime

The creator of the Quintessons.

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• All-Loving Hero: Quintus cherished life in all of its forms and devoted his existence to creating new life that he hoped would someday form an alliance with Cybertron.
• Mad Scientist: Works all day with making things.
• Never My Fault: Quintus conspired with Liege Maximo and Megatronus to create a farm of robo beasts and used his Emberstone to give them life, initiating a chain of events which would ultimately lead to Solus Prime's death. However, he refused to accept any responsibility for his part in the matter, shifting the blame to his co-conspirators.
• Panspermia: How he created the Quintessons.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: While is fate is unknown, Alpha Trion speculates that Quintus was disposed of by his own creations, the Quintessons, when they no longer had any use for him.

Liege Maximo

Created to act as an evil counterforce to good, Liege Maximo eventually betrayed his fellow Primes to pursue his own designs.

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• Badass Transplant: According to The Covenant of Primus it was his arm that Megatron had grafted onto him in "Alpha; Omega". However, the notes for Megatron's design in The Art of Prime state it's Sentinel Zeta Prime's arm. For what it's worth, TFWiki.net has decided to go with the explanation The Covenant of Primus provided.
• Balance Between Good and Evil: Liege Maximo's evil enacts as a necessary counterbalance to the other Primes' good.
• Big Bad: His plotting leads directly to the War of the Primes.
• Horned Humanoid: Combined with his predominantly green colour scheme, it makes him resemble Marvel's Loki.
• Posthumous Character: If The Covenant of Primus is anything to go by, seeing at it states it was from his body, and hence his arm, that Megatron stole for his Badass Transplant.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Supposedly, Liege Maximo was captured and imprisoned in a distant galaxy from Cybertron by Alchemist Prime according to legend. It is later stated in The Covenant of Primus that he was killed during The War of The Primes, with Megatronus heavily implied to be responsible.
• Token Evil Teammate: As the counterforce to the wholeheartedly heroic and noble comrades of his.

Megatronus Prime/The Fallen

Formerly the Guardian of Entropy and Warrior of Darkness, he fell to corruption and was cast out from the Thirteen.

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• Adaptational Heroism: This version of the Fallen is a far more sympathetic character than previous portrayals have had him, where he was straight-up evil from the get go. This version is heroic and noble, if misguided, before his eventual fall. Ultimately, it's subverted in the sequel series, Robots in Disguise, as it sees him more in line with his traditional incarnation.
• Anti-Hero/Anti-Villain: Starts out as the former before, through trickery and deception, he turns into the latter.
• The Atoner: His intentions upon leaving The Thirteen. As mentioned above, it didn't last.
• BFG: He once wielded the Requiem Blaster, a cannon so powerful it is said to be capable of obliterating mountains.
• Call-Forward: Keep Megatron's actions at the end of the series in mind with those of his namesake.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He was the Warrior of Darkness when he was with the original Primes.
  • Dark Is Evil: Unfortunately, after his fall, he becomes this.
• The Exile: He leaves The Thirteen and Cybertron willingly, with the intent of using his abilities to help others and to honour Solus Prime.
• Fallen Hero: After murdering Solus Prime, he was cast out from the other Primes and was renamed the Fallen.
• Internal Homage: When Megatron became a gladiator, he renamed himself after the Fallen because he believed the name would strike fear into the sparks of others.
• Love Makes You Evil: His behaviour that led to the death of Solus Prime is thought to have been fueled by the belief that she preferred Nexus Prime over him. It's further revealed that Liege Maximo's manipulations caused him to believe she had never truly loved him, and lash out in a fit of rage.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When he realises that he has fatally wounded Solus Prime.
• No Kill like Overkill: He was the wielder of the Requiem Blaster, and Liege Maximo's body was found torn to pieces with his head destroyed by several shots from the weapon. Given that Liege plotted against the other Primes with the intention of having Megatronus take the blame for his schemes, and his manipulations ended up causing Megatronus to turn against Solus Prime and murder her in a fit of rage, it's not hard to assume that he took great time and effort to kill Liege in revenge.
• The Resenter: To Nexus. He was jealous of Solus's close friendship and admiration of him.
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Solus Prime. It ends with her death at his hands.
• Tragic Villain: His expulsion from The Thirteen was caused by the manipulations of another, and he left their ranks with the intentions of using his powers to help others, but according to legends he instead fell further to corruption.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Liege Maximo.

"Thirteen"/Optimus Prime

The visionary.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: The last of the Thirteen Primes to be created, and therefore, the youngest.
• Book Ends/Call-Forward: His merging with the Allspark.
• The Heart: Explicitly stated to be this for the Thirteen.
• Messianic Archetype: His decision to be reincarnated as an ordinary Cybertronian has shades of this. As does his decision to willingly give up his life as Optimus Prime in order to bring about a new age for Cybertron. It's also noted that it was his vision and courage that united the Thirteen and allowed them to defeat Unicron.
• Mortality Ensues: As a member of the Thirteen, he was essentially the Cybertronian equivalent of a divine being, but he willingly chose to enter the Well of AllSparks and be reborn as an ordinary Cybertronian. Said Cybertronian ends up being the future Optimus Prime.
• Reincarnation: He was reborn as the present day Optimus.
• Unperson: Sort of. He asked Alpha Trion to erase his name from the Covenant of Primus, hence Thirteen.
• You Are Number 6: Due to his decision to obliterate all mention of himself from Cybertronian history, he is simply known as "Thirteen".

Others

Scraplets

Tiny, metal termites who love living metal and are incredibly destructive wherever they go.

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• All Animals Are Dogs: When Raf finds the first Scraplet, it runs circles around him like a dog and rubs its head against him like a cat, begging for food.
• Cute Creature, Creepy Mouth: Small, round robots that reveal a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth to ravenously eat metal.
• Hungry Menace: Voracious eaters of metal. They're a threat to Autobots and Decepticons alike.
• Killer Rabbit: They appear cute to non-Cybertronians, before they detect any metal.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their mouth is full of multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Until they see another Cybertronian. Then they start eating like there's no tomorrow.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: They're found in a container on Earth, intended as a trap.
  • Sealed Army in a Can: There's a whole lot of them.
  • Leaking Can of Evil: The container is breached and it only takes room temperature to awaken the Scraplets.
• Starfish Aliens: They're cute-faced spider-legged creatures who act like robot piranhas or termites.
• The Swarm: How they attack. Like Ratchet said, "when talking about Scraplets, there is never just one".
• Took a Level in Badass: When Scraplets made their debut in the Marvel comic, they were tiny beings the size of human-made nuts and bolts, took a long time to devour a host, and were instantly killed by water. The Prime versions are waist-high to the children, can consume a victim in a matter of minutes, and are unaffected by water (they can be immobilized by cold, but it doesn't harm them otherwise). They're unable to combine into larger forms like the Marvel Scraplets, but they honestly wouldn't need to.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: They cause this reaction all the time from Cybertronians, for good reason. Bulkhead even states the trope word-for-word (with "Scraplets" in place of snakes).
• Zerg Rush: Towards anything that's metal.

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Nemesis Prime

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and I bring you this message." *blam*

Voiced by: Peter Cullen, Clancy Brown

A great breakthrough for MECH research, Nemesis Prime is a near perfect copy of Optimus Prime and controlled by a human interface.

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• Arm Cannon: Much like its template, it has two arm cannons.
• Big Badass Rig: Its vehicular mode is a rustic brown version of Optimus'.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: Much like Optimus, it features the exact same arm blades.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: To tell the difference between Optimus and Nemesis, Nemesis is rustic brown in contrast to Optimus' more pristine red and blue.
• Evil Knockoff: Nemesis is a pretty obvious one to Optimus.
• Evil Sounds Deep: It's controlled by Silas, and it sounds pretty deep whether it uses Peter Cullen's or Clancy Brown's voice.
• Expy:
  • Of the Optimus clone in the G1 cartoon episode "A Prime Problem".
  • Also of Bizarro, being an imperfect copy of a red and blue alien built by a character voiced by Clancy Brown.
• Feel No Pain: As a result of being just a mindless remote-controlled drone, Nemesis isn't actually alive and thus can't feel pain. The same can't be said for his template, Optimus Prime.
• Frankenstein's Monster: It's a human-made Cybertronian Homunculus. This is emphasized by its rusty, "undead" appearance and slower, less fluid Transformation Sequence.
• In-Series Nickname: Miko dubs the duplicate "Nemesis Prime".
• Lightning Bruiser: It's just as fast and powerful as Optimus, and also has access to Silas' close-combat skills.
• Logical Weakness: When it's not being operated by its controller, Nemesis Prime is just a giant dummy. Fowler takes advantage of this by getting Silas away from the controls, giving Optimus an opening.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Silas attempts to use Nemesis to trick Bumblebee into believing it is the real Optimus. The ruse fails after about 10 seconds, when Silas proves unable to understand Bumblebee's method of communication.
  (after Bumblebee says something) "I'm sorry, what?"
• Remote Body: Is controlled via remote control by Silas.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Nemesis Prime was made by Humans and their understanding of Cybertronian Technology, instead of the regular way Transformers are "born." Making his nature different from the norm.
• The Undead: While not a character that's brought back from the dead, its appearance certainly seems to try and invoke this, mainly due to the rusting appearance and darker colors.

Relics

Powerful items of Cybertronian origin that somehow found their way to Earth.

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• Armor of Invincibility: The Apex Armor which grants the user complete protection against cannon and missile fire, as well as Super-Strength. The catch is that while mobile on the ground, it's so heavy that the wearer can only tread across the ocean floor. For Cybertronians, they are unable to transform or use their gear while inside.
• Barrier Warrior: One of the relics is a shield generator which can deploy a powerful enough barrier to push enemies back simply by walking.
• BFS: The Star Saber and its Evil Knockoff, the Dark Star Saber. Both are wieldable by the Primes and, even so, are incredibly big and heavy.
• Chekhov's Armory: Most get used in the final battle against the Decepticons, to devastating effect.
• Deadly Gas: Toxic Energon, or Tox-en, emits this. It was created as a Weapon of Mass Destruction by Megatron and used much like chlorine in WWI. It's so dangerous, that Bulkhead is forced to destroy it so no one can use it or risk being affected.
• Fling a Light into the Future: It turns out Alpha Trion send most of those relics to Optimus to aid him in a prophecised war.
• Intangibility: The Phase Shifter is a Super Wrist-Gadget with this power. It is intuitive to a degree, enabling its wielder to phase through enemies, enemy fire or even the ground on demand. Smokescreen uses it as his main weapon.
• Lost Technology: A data cylinder containing the formula for synthetic Energon. It gets partially lost until Ratchet and Shockwave manage to reconstitute it.
• Made of Evil: The Dark Star Saber, forged out of a chunk of Dark Energon. Megatron uses it to counter the original.
• Mundane Utility: The Forge of Solus Prime may be able to craft anything the user imagines if the user is a Prime, but in the hands of a normal transformer it is still a formidable warhammer, especially when the last of its power is used to fix Optimus.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Applies to relics of Primes, such as the Star Saber and the Forge of Solus Prime, whose power can only be unlocked by the hand of a Prime.
  • In the sequel, the Dark Star Saber also exhibits some selectivity, rejecting Starscream as not worthy.
• The Paralyzer: The Immobilizer stick, which shoots a beam that freezes the target.
• Reset Button/Cosmic Keystone: The Omega Keys, which enable the operation of a device (the Omega Lock) that could restore Cybertron.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Scraplet container, intended as a trap.
• Selective Magnetism: The Polarity Gauntlet can use this quite... liberally, depending on the user's needs. It can move objects made of various metals, stick them together or pull them apart.
• Super-Scream: The Resonance Blaster, which can launch devastating sonic waves.
• Sword Beam: The Star Saber and Dark Star Saber can launch powerful energy blasts in the hands of worthy wielders. Starscream is later able to use a less powerful version.
• Ultimate Forge: The Forge of Solus Prime. In the hand of a Prime, it can be used to make anything if the user possesses knowledge of the object's inner workings.
  • Loophole Abuse: It works in the hand of a Prime. Megatron grafts such a hand onto himself to bypass the issue of not being a Prime himself.
• Utility Weapon: The Energon Harvester can absorb Energon from crystals as a mining tool... or from live Transformers, since it's their lifeblood.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The Spark Extractor, which does this to any transformer in a large radius. Since Sparks are essentially a Cybertronian's equivalent of a heart, the Extractor is a very lethal weapon.

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