This particular installment of Deviations tells of an alternate version of The Transformers: The Movie where Hot Rod was prevented from meddling in Optimus Prime's final battle with Megatron, resulting in Optimus taking out Megatron without any hindrances and the events of the movie following a different path.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: Wheelie, Wreck-Gar and the Junkions are omitted.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Everyone is far ruder to Hot Rod than they were in the movie, where none of them hold his part in Prime's death against him and just go with business as usual. This is especially notable in the case of Ultra Magnus, who at various parts of the story threatens Hot Rod with physical violence or accuses him of treason (for having visions of a universe where Optimus died and he received the Matrix).Hot Rod: I was trying to help Optimus win this war. Where were you during the heat of battle? I didn't see you anywhere close to the frontline.
Ultra Magnus: Back down, soldier, or you'll be picking my knuckle shards out of your grill shaft. - Author Tract: The writer of this comic clearly isn't a fan of Hot Rod... nor most of the rest of the Autobots introduced in The Movie considering the aforementioned writing out of Wreck-Gar and Wheelie and, barring Kup and Blurr (who is only spared due to being a brief cameo), the rest are pointlessly and unceremoniously killed off.Hot Rod: I wanted to protect Optimus Prime but it feels like every decision I make is the wrong one.
- Combining Mecha: One of Megascream's enhancements is combining with Soundwave, Astrotrain, Thrust, and Dirge.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Megatron gets killed by Optimus Prime and his body is left behind on Earth. As a consequence, the damaged Decepticons dumped out of Astrotrain also end up devoured by Unicron instead of reformatted into Scourge, Cyclonus and the Sweeps.
- Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Springer and Perceptor end up dying in an explosion, when they survived the original movie as well as the entirety of the season that followed.
- Hot Rod ultimately sacrifices himself to take out Megascream, when the source material had him survive to the end even after he relinquished the position of leader of the Autobots to a resurrected Optimus Prime in the cartoon episode "The Return of Optimus Prime".
- While it's never mentioned in the comic, Jazz and Cliffjumper either perish in Unicron's innards or are destroyed when his body explodes, since this timeline has no Autobot group entering Unicron and saving them when Moonbase One is devoured.
- Soundwave, Astrotrain, Thrust and Dirge, as part of Megascream, perish alongside Starscream.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: Starscream was obliterated by Galvatron during his coronation in the original animated film. In this comic, he takes Megatron's place as Decepticon leader reformatted by Unicron and ends up annihilated when Hot Rod uses the Matrix to destroy him.
- Hate Fic: A lot of fans and critics alike noted that the comic seemed to largely be the author's Take That! against the Season 3 characters (especially Hot Rod) and read like a fanfic attempt to "correct" the events of the movie rather than establish a real "what if" event. It also doesn't seem like the Season 2 cast gets much in the way of respect, as several of them (Perceptor, Astrotrain, Thrust, and Dirge) also wind up kicking the bucket or are reduced to mere cameos like Blaster or Blitzwing.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The story ends with Hot Rod sacrificing himself to stop Megascream and Unicron.
- In Spite of a Nail: Other than Optimus Prime and Kranix remaining alive as well as some characters who didn't die in the original animated film getting killed off, there are very little differences from the original events of the source material. Unicron still reformats the leader of the Decepticons (in this case, Starscream) into his herald and still ends up destroyed by the Matrix of Leadership.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- The very premise of the comic is that it entails a version of the events of The Transformers: The Movie where Optimus Prime did not get killed during his fight with Megatron. By the end of the story, Prime still lives.
- Optimus Prime and Kup rescue Kranix from the Quintessons before they are able to carry out executing him as they did in the original animated film.
- Stylistic Suck: Due to a scripting error, the Decepticons thrown out of Astrotrain (sans Megatron) are visible during Starscream's coronation in the movie. This comic pays homage to that by having the Insecticons attend Starscream's coronation, and Thundercracker among Megascream's troops. Also, just like in the movie, the Dinobot Snarl is absent in the comic, still for unknown reasons.
- What If?: The events of the movie end up following a different path because Kup holds Hot Rod down before he can interfere with Optimus Prime's fight against Megatron.Optimus Prime: Yield Megatron! Now! Don't make me destroy you!
[Megatron attempts to shoot at Optimus. Optimus returns fire, killing Megatron]
Optimus: Forgive me.
