Comic Book / Transformers: Last Bot Standing

The final chapter of the Transformers story.

"You know what 'starting again' means for Cybertronians. A beginning for us is just an ending for too many others. We've had our time. But here? On this planet, things are starting again. And if there are others out there, once they discover what this place is...then the three of us better be here, and be ready."

— Rodimus

Transformers: Last Bot Standing is a comic book from IDW Publishing released in May 2022. The series is written by fan-favorite writer Nick Roche (The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers) and artist E.J. Sui (Transformers: Infiltration).

The fight on Cybertron has long since ended, yet the war between the Autobots and Decepticons is never-ending. Its legacy lingers at the edges of the universe and at the end of time. So when a Transformer from the long-dead civilization pays a visit to the planet Donnokt, just on the verge of an industrial revolution, things will never be the same.

So now...the last remaining Cybertronian, stalked by the sins of their entire race, must save the world one final time.

With IDW Publishing losing the Transformers license at the end of 2022, they decided that if they're saying goodbye to the Transformers, they're going out with a bang.

IDW shows us a hypothetical last story for the Transformers set in the far-flung future, asking, "When the last stars flicker and fade, who will be the only Cybertronian left?"

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This series provides examples of:

• Accidental Murder: In the backstory, Strongarm had a nervous breakdown at some point after Rodimus and his crew landed on Donnokt and tried to steal their shuttle to escape the planet. Rodimus tried to clip the shuttle's wings and force her to land… and instead accidentally caused her to fatally crash.
• Adaptation Amalgamation: As with most TF continuities, the series includes a wide variety of characters from all ends of Transformers media.
• Adaptational Villainy: All of the Survivors, especially bots like Wheelie and Override have sunk to converting organic life into pseudo Energon.
• After the End: It's stated this story occurs long after the Great War and the times of the Autobots and Decepticons, and of many of the other galactic species, such as Humans and Nebulans, as well.
• Alas, Poor Villain: While the Visitor (Nitro) tries to attack Fembrance and is killed by Rodimus for it, his fate is framed in a tragic light; he's clearly motivated by desperation rather then malice, and he tries to talk Rodimus down from fighting in Fembrance's defense out of a desire to not fight a fellow Cybertronian. He even cries out in shock and guilt when he scores a hit on Rodimus.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Shib's family, though fairly well-respected, is reclusive and lives apart from the rest of Fembrance, a reputation that it's had for many generations. It's the price paid by Shib's ancestors in order to keep their promise to Rodimus, trusting no one but their own direct descendants to continue the tradition.
• Ancient Astronauts: Subverted, for the most part. Rodimus, and company, decided not to intervene and guide Donnokt's primitive inhabitants in building a civilization, figuring this already went disastrously for other species like humans. The only direct intervention he did was give Shib's ancestors makeshift cyber-keys he made for them to guard and only use in case other surviving Cybertronians ever visited in the future.
• Alien Blood: The Visitor bleeds sickly green Energon instead of the usual blue or pink seen in other Transformers, giving an idea of just how bad of shape he is in. Turns out its "Biofuel", meaning his system is pumping the liquified remains of what was once a living organic being. Yeesh..
• Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Given that Transformers are near-extinct, the Visitor tries to invoke this with Rodimus, saying that they're the same and that they shouldn't fight. Rodimus kills him anyways to defend Fembrance.
• Apocalypse How: Class X-3. The Great War was one for most of the known galaxy it seems, with most of the resources of the known universe depleted by the conflict, countless planets (including Earth) destroyed, and many indigenous species most likely brought to extinction. Eventually, the war abruptly ended when the Transformer race couldn't afford to keep fighting because they didn't have the materials left to bring them back from death. By the time of the story, only a handful of stars are left compared to the millions that should be there, and even those are starting to die out.
• Arc Words: "The planet Donnokt. Even now... here... at the end... of time... of space... of everything... it always starts... the same way..."
• Bait-and-Switch: When we see a Transformer crash on the planet, the reader believes it's Rodimus. It turns out it's another Cybertronian that shares the same body design as him; the real Rodimus is already living in secret as Shib's wagon.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Transformers go extinct, and they stay that way. However, Rodimus defeats the last of the Decepticons and uses his knowledge to help Fembrance's people use the Energon vein for good, allowing the town to thrive. After some time, he takes the remaining Cybertronian tech, the surviving stasis-locked Visitors, and leaves Donnokt in a starship on a one-way trip into the planet's orbit. By doing this, Rodimus will ensure the Transformers' destructive legacy will end, as he's content to guard Donnokt in case other Cybertronians arrive until he finally goes into stasis lock and dies. The story ends with Shib looking up at the night sky, with the light from Rodimus' starship becoming the first star in a long time.
• Bookends: From a meta-level, E.J Su was the artist of the first IDW Transformer mini (Transformers: Infiltration) and is the artist on the last IDW Transformer series.
• Bullying a Dragon: Subverted. After Rodimus kills the Visitor, the terrified people of Fembrance all point their guns at him. He just calmly asks if they're really about to shoot at a giant robot that just ripped apart another giant robot with his bare hands with normal guns. The townsfolk immediately lower their arms. Once night time comes, they have another go at, which Rodimus plays along with.
• Burial in Space: Rodimus salvages the remaining Cybertronian tech to build a starship designed for a one-way trip to a perpetual orbit around Donnokt. Effectively serving as a space tomb for himself and the last Transformers.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Shib's key-shaped necklaces filled with blue liquid. They're actually makeshift cyber-keys filled with some of the last true Energon in existence, and she later plugs it into Rodimus to rejuvenate him enough to fight the Survivors properly.
  • The steam-powered cars that have popped up in Fembrance. They're powered by raw Energon mined from the nearby hills, which Rodimus eventually uses as makeshift explosives against the Survivors.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Once Rodimus is restored to his full strength, Wheelie immediately belts out a haiku consisting only of the word "damn".
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Roche's notes and sketches in the back of first issue show he used Clint Eastwood and Max von Sydow as the visual basis for Rodimus' older looking face.
• Crazy-Prepared: Realizing that there may still be other Cybertronians out there who might find Donnokt and discover its Energon potential, Rodimus devises a contingency plan by entrusting Shib's ancestors with the makeshift cyber-keys, only to be used should that possibility ever arise. Given that the Survivors eventually do discover the planet, that plan turns out to have been well-founded.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • Any Donnokt natives who get turned into biofuel.
  • Gripper fell off a cliff while driving… but didn't die right away and because Rodimus and company didn't have any supplies, resources, medical equipment, or even weaponry to Mercy Kill him with, they just had to watch as he slowly expired in agony. It's enough to drive Strongarm into a breakdown.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • After being rejuvenated by an infusion from the makeshift cyber-keys, Rodimus completely takes apart a huge swath of the Survivors simply by virtue of being properly fueled instead of using their biofuel.
  • Rodimus versus Wheelie. The former has just been recharged and slaughtered several Survivors. The latter has been reduced to a head and spark attached to a life support system on wheels. Rodimus literally punts him into orbit.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Wheelie's desperation and survivalism has reached the point that he's willing to live as just as a head and a spark jury-rigged up to a mobile life-support system rather then just rest in peace.
• Dawn of an Era: In contrast to how the Transformers are circling the drain, Donnokt is on the verge of an industrial revolution and this is shown in story with motorized vehicles beginning to supplant animal-drawn carriages as the primary means of transportation.
• Death Is Cheap: Rodimus notes to Shib that "death came easy to Transformers" as they could easily be rebuilt and brought back online, unlike biological organisms. A meta reference to this being a frequent trope in Transformers media going back to G1.
• Death Seeker: Rodimus, who's shown as just longing to die, and by doing so, bring the Cybertronian story to a close. Though not before trying to lend a hand with giving the natives of Donnokt a good chance of a future.
• Deconstructed Trope:
  • Of the Forever War trope. This story shows the reader what would happen if the fight between the Autobots, Decepticons, and even the Maximals and Predacons never stopped. The Transformers are stuck in a cycle of death and rebirth as they fight each other, draining planets and stars for their resources to fuel their neverending war, leaving countless civilizations and races dead and gone. Almost all stars in space have gone out, along with any other planet caught in the war. The surviving Cybertronians don't want to fight anymore and resort to converting whatever is suitable for energy as Energon is long since gone.
  • Of the Time Abyss trope. While the Transformer race is theoretically immortal, as they've been fighting for millions of years, the resources that the Cybertronians use to keep them that way are finite. When the Transformers ran out of resources to fight over and spare parts to repair themselves, they died off until Rodimus became the last Cybetronian left... or so he thought.
• Decon-Recon Switch: Despite everything mentioned above, Rodimus proves both to Shib and the Survivors why the Autobots were seen as the "good guys". Even sacrificing a slim chance at reviving Cybertron in favor of giving the sentient beings of Donnokt a better future.
• Demoted to Extra: Override is little more than crowd filler, compared to her prominent role in the original Transformers: Cybertron.
• Dented Iron: The years haven't been kind to the Cybertronians. Rodimus and the Visitor who meets him are in rough shape, with dents and chipped paint, and it's obvious there aren't many of them left.
• Distant Prologue: By issue 4, it becomes clear that Rodimus had first arrived on Donnokt millennia, if not millions of years before the Survivors. Long enough to witness not only the natives evolving to reach the cusp of industrial civilization but also the planet's Energon deposits becoming fully manifest.
• Dramatic Irony: The Survivors eventually find out that they're standing on a motherlode of Energon, enough to not only keep themselves alive, but also to potentially rebuild Cybertron. Unfortunately, their bodies have been so thoroughly rewired to process biofuel that without ample time and the necessary equipment, they're unable to absorb even a morsel of it.
• Dying Race: The Cybertronians as a whole.
• Earth That Was: Rodimus bitterly remembers Earth having "blew up" as a casualty in the Cybertronian war.
• End of an Era:
  • While Donnokt is on the verge of an industrial revolution, on the other hand, the Cybertronian race is on its last legs. The times of the Autobots and Decepticons are long since over, and the Cybertronians remaining (like Rodimus and the Visitor) are barely making it.
  • A meta example. Last Bot Standing also marks the end of IDW's hold on the Transformers license, marking an end to over a decade of stories and characters fans have grown to love and cherish.
• Establishing Character Moment: Our introduction to our main characters is Shib, her family, and Rodimus (in vehicle mode) studiously and happily carrying out a delivery… just to get splattered with mud by Stambo and Brennet and subsequently learn that those two are stealing business from them, establishing them as a family clinging to old ways in a world changing fast.
• Face Death with Dignity: A villainous variation: after Steeljaw realizes that there's no longer a way for him to either get enough biofuel or convert back to processing Energon, he decides to go out on his own terms-by blowing the entire planet and everyone on it to bits.
  Steeljaw: "Sharpclaw, sister—let us die like Cybertronians. Let us die like Decepticons. It's over."
• Fallen Hero: Wheelie as noted by Rodimus. Once a heroic Autobot who served alongside Rodimus, now he helps lead a group of Cybertronians who harvest sentient life for biofuel. This applies to just about all but Rodimus by that point, as the Survivors have long devolved into the the very thing the Autobots stood against.
• Faux Horrific: Rodimus reacts with visible disgust and horror at the Veteran being Wheelie
• The Fog of Ages: All the Cybertronian characters have scattered memories of the war due to their advanced ages, deleting information to make space and conserve energy. The Survivors only remember in very vague terms.^note They don't even know who Optimus Prime is. This is actually a concept that was introduced in IDW's previous 2005 continuity, called "information creep". Rodimus is a notable exception, however, for still being able to remember a decent patchwork, though this is justified by him having been in what amounts to standby mode for a long time Wheelie, meanwhile, has as good a memory as Rodimus, though given he's just a head on life support, there's less energy to expend.
• Forbidden Zone: Subverted in issue 4. In an old recording kept by Shib's family, Rodimus had attempted to warn her ancestors against using the Energon from the surrounding hills, only to then backtrack. Realizing that sooner or later, the natives of Donnokt would discover it and use it as fuel anyway.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In issue 1, the Visitor/Nitro, detects strange readings from the steam-powered cars around Fembrance and Rodimus' vehicle form while scanning the town for "biofuel". Not only is it an early hint that there's Energon on Donnokt, but also hints that Nitro and the other Survivors had their bodies modified to track down and consume biofuel instead.
  • In the flashback to Rodimus and his crew arriving on Donnokt in issue 2, Gripper expresses a fondness for all-terrain driving and exploring nature. We later learn he died on one of his reckless driving expeditions when he fell off a cliff by accident.
  • Also in issue 2, it's shown in passing that Steeljaw is content to have the Veteran kept in stasis as long as possible. And unlike his later show of deference, he seems to resent having to be in their company. This is a hint as to his true colors as a dyed-in-the-wool Decepticon, and how his talk of Ape Shall Never Kill Ape isn't entirely genuine.
• Fountain of Youth: Rodimus is initially shown looking aged and worn-out. Shib's cyber-key necklace not only gives him a much-needed jolt but even makes him look younger. Eventually, exposure to Donnokt's raw Energon rejuvenates him to the point of resembling how he looked like in his prime.
• From Cataclysm to Myth: The final clashes between the Autobots and Decepticons over time became little more than legends and tall tales used to scare children, as far as many on Donnokt seem concerned. Shib, like her ancestors however, knows more or less what actually happened.
• Frontier Doctor: Brel Tonder, the Nice Guy town doctor of Fembrance and an old family friend of Shib's.
• Future Imperfect: Thanks to sheer time and distance, plus energy-starvation forcing the compartmentalizing and deleting of data, the young Survivors have only a rudimentary-at-best understanding of Cybertronian history. They don't even remember figures like Optimus Prime or Grimlock.
• Grand Finale: A hypothetical one to the Transformers franchise as a whole but also to IDW's tenure of the license.
• Great Offscreen War: The war between the Autobots and Decepticons has been over for eons by the start of the series but was seemingly so destructive most of the known universe seems depleted of resources. Barely remembered tales of it are used to scare children.
• Green Rocks: "Fizzbang", the seemingly coal-like substance being mined by Donnokt's natives as fuel for their nascent industrial revolution. It's revealed to be the last known Energon in the galaxy.
• He's Back!: The Energon key repowers Rodimus, restoring his form and his old strength.
• History Repeats: What Rodimus is afraid of, and not just because of the Survivors' plans for Donnokt's natives. Their realization that there are large Energon deposits on the planet risks not only rekindling the ancient dream of rebuilding Cybertron at the expense of the locals, but also restarting the vicious cycle of war and devastation all over again.
• Hope Springs Eternal: The Transformers by the end may be gone for good, yet through the natives of Donnokt the Autobots' mission is finally fulfilled.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen:
  • Rodimus has gone from a heroic Autobot soldier fighting evil to a lone straggler living quietly and permanently transformed into vehicle mode as Shib's family wagon. The Survivors, meanwhile, are worse, having devolved into little more than glorified scavengers and parasites.
  • This also extends to how the Transformers arrive on Donnokt. While Rodimus landed through a battered, yet fully-functional Cybertronian shuttle, the Survivors later on are shown having to make do with using a giant juryrigged bullet with little more than old star-charts and guesswork to travel from one world to the next.
• How We Got Here: Rodimus' flashbacks show not only how he got to Donnokt generations earlier, but also the final clash of the war between Autobots and Decepticons.
• Hulk Speak: Downplayed. Rodimus’ speech initially comes off as stilted and more robotic due to his systems awakening after so long, though this fades away as he gets his bearings and gets the Energon jolt from Shib’s necklace.
• Human Resources: Not human but the idea is the same with Energon a distant memory and most of the universe depleted of resources, the surviving Transformers having taken to converting biological lifeforms into a fuel source for them.
• Humanity's Wake: Rodimus is among the very few who even remember that humanity, let alone Earth, ever existed. Wheelie meanwhile, apparently liked it enough to have taken up speaking in haiku.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: What Rodimus has become, determined to bring an end to any threat his fellow remaining Transformers would pose to other worlds.
• Iconic Outfit: Averted with Wildwheel, who no longer has his traditional hat and metallic poncho.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Rodimus is shown to take no pleasure in killing his fellow Cybertronians in order to save others from them. Upon taking out Steeljaw, he rips out his blasters, seeing that there are no more Transformers left to stop.
• Internal Deconstruction: The Transformers are Mechanical Abominations trapped in a cycle of endless death and rebirth, grinding entire solar systems into dust to feed their eternal conflict until factions lose all distinction or meaning and there is nothing left to fight over or repair themselves with, damning themselves to a slow slide into extinction as their robotic bodies break down and run out of power. As they enter the final death throes of their civilization, the survivors become predatory, barely-functional raiders preying on "lesser" races, except for Rodimus Prime himself, who maintains his morality and defends said races, even if it means slaughtering his own kin.
• It Is Beyond Saving: Rodimus considers the Survivors' plans for keeping the Transformer race going including the hope of using the Energon on Donnokt to rebuild Cybertron, while turning the natives into farmed biofuel as only reinforcing the belief that his entire species must come to an end, lest it repeat the same cycle.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: The Survivors refer to every organic being as "it" as they do not see them as people, but as biofuel.
• Jerkass: Stambo Flentz and Brennet, a pair of rude, spoiled rich boys who are using the newly-invented cars to outcompete Shib's delivery business... when they aren't just raising hell by driving like maniacs through town. They've got nothing on the Sheriff, though.
• Job-Stealing Robot: More like Job-Stealing Motorized Vehicles, but the idea is the same. Shib and her family find their delivery business hitting hard times thanks to the industrial revolution Donnokt is going through and Shib's fear of modernizing allowing steam-powered vehicles to outcompete their simple wagon (i.e., Rodimus in dormant vehicle mode).
• Last of His Kind:
  • Rodimus appears to be this, or at least one of the very last ones. He's certainly the last Cybertronian to have any sense of moral integrity and heroism, beyond mere survival.
  • The natives of Donnokt are implied to be one of the last sentient species left in the galaxy, if not the only one left.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The descriptions of how the last generation of Transformers have a flawed understanding of their own history and memories is an implied justification for the miniseries's loose approach to continuity.
• Living Is More than Surviving: Rodimus refuses to join the Survivors and let them reconfigure his systems to accept biofuel given that this would mean turning the native life into said biofuel and potentially restarting the same cruel cycle. He would rather die with his integrity as an Autobot than betray everything he stands for.
• Medical Rape and Impregnate: Rodimus is absolutely and rightfully horrified when Steeljaw casually reveals the Survivors intend to not just feed on the natives of Donnokt as biofuel, but farm them by using some of the adults as breeding stock to create more "cattle".
• Megaton Punch: Rodimus's battle with Wheelie, if you can call it that, ends when Rodimus dropkicks Wheelie into orbit.
• Motive Decay:
  • Eventually, as the war between the Autobots and Decepticons petered out, many of the remaining Cybertronians focused on simply surviving and with the apparently complete depletion of Energon in the known galaxy, are extracting whatever fuel they can just to keep going. Rodimus realizes that this alone would make the Survivors a threat to Donnokt, no matter how pitiful they have become. This is further exemplified in the corrupted mantra Wheelie invokes:
  ...feeding is the right of all sentient beings!
  • Even the classic Autobot belief that Cybertronians must change their ways to adapt is warped to justify the Survivors' efforts to preserve the Transformer race. With Steeljaw going so far as to proudly call farming the natives of Donnokt into sustainable biofuel exemplary of their ability to change.
• Mythology Gag:
  • While the comic is deliberately designed to be slotted into any continuity one wishes, Rodimus's design and characterization clearly take influence from his portrayal in the original IDW continuity, such as the fact that he calls himself Rodimus but evidently isn't a Prime (at least not anymore). Meanwhile, the basic idea of an aged and withered Rodimus alone in a future era where he has outlived his contemporaries is inspired by the Marvel UK comics, specifically the Flash Forward story Aspects of Evil.
  • The two animals who pull Shib's "wagon" are named "Sparks" and "Firebolt": Firebolt was the name of Hot Rod's Targetmaster partner, and "Sparks" was the name Firebolt occasionally went by in the Marvel comic.
  • As she leaves to rescue the miners, Shib alludes, unknowingly, to Optimus Prime's famous battle-cry; "roll out".
  • One of Simon Furman's Furmanisms fittingly shows up in the beginning and ending narration of the first issue, but not as expected. "It always starts the same way" can be seen as an inverse of his old chestnut, "It never ends."
    • The narrations can also hint at the running custom of Transformers stories beginning with the Cybertronians falling from space and crashing on Earth, such as the original G1 cartoon, Beast Wars, and even the live-action movies.
  • During Rodimus' flashback in Issue #1, he's chased by ships based on the Nemesis and the Darksyde.
  • When Rodimus questions if the Survivors remember any legendary Transformers like Optimus or Grimlock, they answer no. They do immediately remember Thunderclash however when Rodimus inquires about him. An old Running Gag from Transformers: More than Meets the Eye where Rodimus had a one-sided rivalry with Thunderclash.
  • Wheelie is referred to in reverent terms as "the Veteran". This, and his general role in the story, calls to mind how Swoop was portrayed in old Beast Wars media as one of the last surviving Autobots, revered by the Maximals.
  • Shib's necklaces full of blue liquid are revealed towards the end to actually be makeshift cyber-keys, which are also slotted into Rodimus' chest in the same way Sari would in Transformers: Animated.
  • When Sheriff Errod is investigating Shib's and her brothers' house, he states to the boys there's "more than meets the eye" to the family's history.
  • When Rodimus destroys the Visitors' makeshift biofuel stations Wheelie loses it and attacks Rodimus, giving a morbid and mangled take on Optimus Prime's slogan
  Wheelie: ...feeding is the right of all sentient beings!
• Never My Fault: The Survivors constantly frame themselves as simply victims of circumstance, never considering the costs or the lives they've taken. Even when threatening to blow up Donnokt's Energon deposits, Steeljaw puts the blame on Rodimus for dooming not only the Cybertronian species, but the entire world.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Steeljaw hadn't punched a hole in Rodimus' chest before throwing him down the Energon mineshaft, the Energon wouldn't have gotten into his systems to repair and supercharge him.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Done with a villain, surprisingly. Wheelie's sentimentality towards Rodimus gets the better of him and he allows Shib to say goodbye to him as a gesture of kindness. Shib, of course, uses the opportunity to power-up Rodimus with her cyber-key necklace, and Rodimus proceeds to tear through the Survivors.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Justified. The Survivors, already running on fumes, barely have enough tools and equipment to set up shop, especially without the means to manufacture more.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Rodimus chastizes the Survivors, and especially Wheelie as being no different from the old Decepticons in their desperation to keep themselves alive.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Even the most ridiculous of Transformers like Moon (formerly known as Spineshucker) or Wheelie are treated as potent threats to the unlucky inhabitants of Donnokt.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: All Steeljaw , Wheelie and the Survivors want is for Cybertronians to survive, after all the hardship they've suffered. Given that this involves turning the natives of Donnokt into glorified livestock for biofuel and upon discovering the last Energon deposits, extract as much as they can at the expense of everything on the planet, it's a lot less admirable than it sounds.
• Not Worth Killing: Rodimus goes off to save Shib from Steeljaw and Sharpclaw, instead of finishing off the remaining, barely-alive Survivors. He instead decides to bring them with him aboard a one-way trip to space, until they all finally pass on.
• Off with His Head!: Rodimus kills the Visitor by tearing his head off barehanded.
• One Last Job: The plot of the comic involves Rodimus, living a quiet and secluded life on Donnokt countless millennia after the end of the Great War, being forced to roll out and save a world one last time. The makeshift cyber-keys protected by Shib's family for generations enforce this, as these are intended to awaken Rodimus for precisely that kind of situation.
• Passing the Torch: Rodimus sticks around for a while to not only help rebuild Fembrance but also pass on knowledge about how to use Energon for good to the people of Donnokt. Evidently trusting them to do a better job than the Cybertronians ever did.
• Pet the Dog: Wheelie still has enough of a spark to allow Shib and Rodimus a private goodbye before ordering the former's execution. It backfires on him.
• People Farms: The Visitors plan to farm the people of Donnokt to keep themselves supplied with biofuel.
• Planet Looters: What the remaining Cybertronians had devolved into. By the final stage of the war, the Autobots and Decepticons were scrambling for so much as a morsel of Energon, while the Survivors have resorted to turning any indigenous sentient life they come across into biofuel before moving on to the next planet.
• Post-Peak Oil: More like Post-Peak Energon, but the spirit of the trope is still there. Energon, the fuel that Cybertronians need to survive, is gone, forcing the remaining Cybertronians to use alternative energy called "Biofuel." What's Biofuel? It's energy from converted organic material; any organic material, that includes the people of Donnokt. The revelation that the planet also contains the last known Energon deposits drives the Survivors into a near-frenzy.
• Promoted to Parent: Shib, on top of running her family's business, is forced to become this for her brothers after the death of their parents. Despite being barely out of her teens herself, she takes those responsibilities so seriously that she acts much older than her looks suggest.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Rodimus considers the Autobots' victory over the Decepticons in the war to be this. As he ruefully remarks in one of the flashbacks, they had indeed won, but at the cost of countless worlds, dead Cybertronians, and whole sapient races wiped out.
  We've run out of choices. And time. And... worlds. They don't get to take what's in this planet. They don't have the right to start this whole mess over again. And if there's anyone out there who wants to come looking, they don't either.
• Red Herring:
  • The Survivors mention being led by an ancient Autobot known as "the Veteran". Given that was the title a grizzled future-version of Swoop went by in Beast Wars, long-time fans would figure that's who they're talking about. It's actually Wheelie of all people.
  • In issue 1, it's shown that the natives of Donnokt have already begun using steam-powered cars later on revealed to be running on Energon, making readers assume that Rodimus could be one of those vehicles. Instead, he's been in disguise as Shib's family wagon all along.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Averted. Wheelie has eschewed his usual rhyming in favor of speaking in haiku. Rodimus is nonplussed.
• Rock Beats Laser: Averted for the most part. The Western-style guns used by the natives of Donnokt do practically no damage against the Survivors. The primitive yet newfangled steam-powered vehicles lying around Fembrance, however, turn out to be pretty effective as makeshift explosives as they're powered by Energon.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The people of Donnokt look almost human, just with sharp elfin ears, though others have flat noses and different colored skin like purple. Lampshaded by Moon when he captures Shib at one point, expressing bewilderment at the odds of finding a sentient species as humanoid as her’s.
• Schrödinger's Canon: Per Nick Roche, the series isn't set in any pre-existing Transformers continuity but meant to be a hypothetical ending for the Transformers franchise as a whole, so fans can try to insert it into their preferred continuity.
• Secret-Keeper: Shib, and most of her ancestors, were aware their family wagon was a transformed Rodimus.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In response to the points raised by Steeljaw and Wheelie about the need to save the Cybertronians from extinction, and that Rodimus has no right to judge, he retorts that he’s heard it all before, and that their justifications are nothing more than self-serving excuses. Given that the Survivors are trying to turn Donnokt's natives into more biofuel, and eventually plan on using the Energon to repeat the same mistakes, Rodimus also considers such an outcome a complete betrayal of what the Autobots hoped the Transformers race to embody.
  Rodimus: "These creatures are in cages, Steeljaw. That's not desperation. You're not the oppressed here. This was always in you."
• Space Western: The story is set on a planet that has many trappings of the Old West from miners, to a friendly town doctor, and one of the main characters being someone who runs a delivery service on what looks like an old west wagon.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Rodimus, who's comes to the conclusion that after everything that's happened, the Transformer story must come to an end.
• Shout-Out:
  • Steeljaw mockingly refers to Rodimus as a "supposed Last Son of Cybertron''.
  • Steeljaw later references the "Think, Mark" pose from Invincible (2021) during one argument with Rodimus.
  • When pumped up on pure energon, Rodimus takes on a golden Super Saiyan look.
• Space Romans: The alien sentients of Donnokt, at least in the part of the planet Rodimus and the Survivors find themselves in, are shown as not only in the midst of an industrial revolution, but also having a civilization very reminiscent of the American Wild West.
• Spiteful Spit: In issue 3 Rodimus does this to Steejaw.
• Spoiler Cover: The reveal that Rodimus was the Last Cybertonian was spoiled thanks to the cover variants of Issue #1.
• Steampunk: Donnokt is hitting an industrial revolution, and a theme of the story is the rise of new-fangled steam-powered vehicles upending society, with one of the main protagonists being a simple wagon-driver who finds her business out-competed by them. It's revealed that the steam engines used in them are powered by Energon.
• Suddenly Significant City: Fembrance would otherwise be just another frontier town if not for the "Fizzbang" being mined in the nearby hills, putting it at the forefront of Donnokt's nascent industrial revolution. Which is what Rodimus is deeply concerned about, given that said "Fizzbang" is also known as Energon.
• Tagline: "When the last stars flicker and fade, who will be the only Cybertronian left?"
• Taking the Bullet:
  • Wildwheel attempts to kill Shib by throwing a girder at her, but only for Moon (who quickly had a change of heart) dives in front of Shib and winds up with the projectile fatally speared into his eye.
  • Sharpclaw, after a similar change of heart, throws herself into Steeljaw’s line of fire and subsequently dies when he tries to shoot the raw Energon vein, which would have blown up everyone and everything on Donnokt.
• Taking You with Me: Steeljaw ultimately decides to try detonating the Energon on Donnokt, taking out everything and everyone on it. Reasoning that if he can't have it, no one can.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Beneath all the Ape Shall Never Kill Ape posturing, the Survivors don't exactly get along as well as they claim to be doing, and are barely held together by Steeljaw and a mutual interest in survival.
• The Stars Are Going Out: In issue 2 Rodimus is shaken to discover most of the stars he remembered have vanished and others have changed. Rodimus heavily implies the reason they're going out is because of the energy-draining nature of the Autobot and Decepticon war. Shib mentions how the people of Donnokt saw them flicker out, one by one, as each star died and its last light reached the planet.
• Title Drop: Rodimus tells his story to Shib of how he became the "last bot standing."
• Tragic Villain: The Survivors for the most part are ultimately shown to simply be Cybertronians desperate to see their Dying Race survive another day. Even if it means making biofuel out of any sentient life they come across. Steeljaw, however, is revealed to have never given up on his Decepticon mindset upon showing his true colors.
• Troubled Backstory Flashback: After taking a hit from the Visitor, Rodimus — still slightly-dazed from spending a long time in vehicle mode — has a brief flashback to the very end of the war and the last Autobot ship, captained by him, crashing on Donnokt as the last Decepticons chase them down.
• Used Future: Cybertronian tech, like the Cybertronians themselves, is shown to be worn-down and battered, almost hanging by a thread. Further justified by how there's no more means of properly repairing equipment or making new parts.
• Villain Has a Point: In issue 3 Steeljaw raises the legitimate point to Rodimus that he has no real right to decide if their race lives or dies. Sadly the fact that Steeljaw is willing to murder innocent beings and turn them into fuel in order to preserve the Cybertronian race means he has no real moral high ground.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • Wheelie loses his mind with panic and rage after the repowered Rodimus starts taking apart the Survivors and destroying their biofuel production machine, to the point that he briefly slips out of his signature manner of speech.
  • As Steeljaw's plans go awry, he drops whatever pretensions of viewing all Cybertronians as one family he has and reveals his true colors by spitefully reverting to what he's always been: a Decepticon.
  Before your kind were food to me, you were sport. I've forgotten so much. But not what it's like to end something like you between my fingers. Purely to know how it feels. This moment is all we have. Let's make it last before I turn out the light.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Override vanishes from the story without explanation. It's possible she was part of "Unstoppimus" and was simply miscolored, but unlike the other member of the gestalt she's not a combiner.
• Would Be Rude to Say "Genocide": The Survivors never refer to their methods of using up biofuel for what they actually are turning organic and especially sentient life into said biofuel to keep themselves alive.

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The planet Donnokt. Even now... here... at the end... of time... of space... of everything... it always starts... the same way...