Fanfic / Code Prime

Title Card.

Arcee: You might actually do it. You might actually defeat your father and make this world a better place, and I sincerely hope that you do, but that begins and ends with putting the team first! Not your personal score card!

Lelouch: I will destroy the empire of Charles Zi Britannia! I'll do whatever it takes to make this world better for Nunnally!

Arcee: Then stop acting like a Britannian prince, and start being a soldier, an Autobot!

Code Prime is a fanfiction series by Iron117Prime. It is a crossover between Code Geass and Transformers.

Following Megatron's attempts to destroy the Ark at the end of Fall of Cybertron, both Autobots and Decepticons find themselves on Planet Earth. The Ark crashlands into the Pacific Ocean as the Autobots go into hiding. The Decepticons, however, establish total control over Earth thanks to Megatron ruling the Holy Britannian Empire from the shadows, having encountered a young Charles and Victor Zi Britannia in the past.

In the present day, Lelouch vi Britannia, an exiled prince of the Holy Britannian Empire, finds himself swept up in a conflict between a Japanese resistance cell and the military. The Autobots, after spending years in hiding, decide to finally reveal themselves when Viceroy Clovis orders the extermination of the Shinjuku Ghetto, leading to a meeting between the exiled prince and the old rebellion, as well as the truth behind the rise of the Britannian Empire. With this meeting, the wars waged by Lelouch, who seeks to destroy the empire that left him and his sister Nunnally for dead, and the Autobots, who still desire to protect the planet from the Decepticons' clutches, slowly merge into a single struggle against tyranny itself as they become a family to one another.

Code Prime is also seen as an Intercontinuity Crossover from both Code Geass and Transformers as characters and elements from other continuities, such as Oz the Reflection and Robots in Disguise, are included. The first entry in the series is R1: Rebellion, which began on December 19, 2018. It was completed on November 22, 2020 with 36 chapters. The sequel R2: Revolution began on January 15, 2021, and was completed on October 3, 2023 at 38 chapters. On June 28, 2023, the author announced that there would be an R3, later revealed to be titled Resurrection, but also confirmed that he will be taking a break from the series to focus on other projects. The story as a whole is currently more than 1 million words with over 70 chapters.

Beginning in 2023, Iron117Prime's fics are being edited and reuploaded to Archive Of Our Own. R1 is the first of his fics to be reuploaded, and can be found here.

Beware Unmarked Spoilers for the first ten chapters of R1. And in R2, beware spoilers for the whole of R1.

General trope examples:

• Adaptational Context Change
• Adaptation Expansion
• Adapted Out
• Asshole Victim
• Dies Differently In Adaptation
• Even Evil Has Standards
• Famous Last Words
• Foil
• Mythology Gag
• Shout-Out
• The Reason You Suck Speech
• Wham Episode

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Code Prime Series wide tropes

General

• Adaptational Explanation:
  • The fate of the Ark was never addressed in Transformers: Prime. Here, it's revealed it crashed into the Pacific Ocean and is now the Autobots' base.
  • It's never verified how Euphie, Lelouch, Kallen, and Suzaku ended up on Kamine Island in Isle of the Gods. The chapter directly preceding the events of that segment in this story, Tropical Assault, reveals that V.V. teleported them there as bargaining chips to gain the Decepticons' alliance.
  • Adding to the above, it's never really explained what happened regarding V.V. being around the Kamine Island Thought Elevator in Code Geass. Here, we get an explanation: V.V. was deliberately accelerating the growth of Lelouch's Geass so that it would go out of control sooner than later.
  • The presence of Insecticons on Earth was left unexplained in the cartoon. Here, Kickback's dialogue implies that at least some of the Insecticons were transported to Earth by the Groundbridge explosion at Shockwave's tower from Fall of Cybertron.
  • The original series never specified why the Decepticon's new base on Earth had its name changed from New Kaon in Season 2 to Darkmount in Season 3. Here, it's stated that New Kaon is the territory while Darkmount is the actual fortress.
  • It's never explained why Trypticon was searching for the Iacon Relics when he was awakened in Flying Mind beyond Megatron having made it his mission. Here, Ratchet and Lelouch theorize that he wants the relics because one of them might be able to restore his robot form (with both noting that the Forge of Solus Prime is likely capable of doing so, though even if he found it he would be unable to use it because only a Prime can do that), though it's never really confirmed.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • The Glaston Knights make their first appearance during the Battle of Narita here, whereas in canon, they were first summoned directly prior to the school festival. Only Edgar and David leave the battle alive.
  • Unicron makes a cameo in Chapters 2 and 16, appearing in C.C.'s code-induced visions.
  • While Wheeljack shows up around the same time as he did in canon, here, he decides to stick around instead of going back into space.
  • In canon, the Glinda Knights weren’t formed until after the Black Rebellion. As they are name-dropped by Cornelia in Chapter 19, it’s implied that they were formed around the time the Black Knights were.
  • Originally the Knights of the Round show up in Episode 2 of R2. Here, Gino, Anya, Nonette, and Monica make their first appearance in Chapter 20, with Luciano, Dorothea, and Bismarck showing up in Chapter 31.
  • Lelouch never gets the chance to Geass Cornelia until the end of Season 1. Here, he does so during the events of Divided They Fall, which takes place in the canonical Time Skip between Cheering Mao and Nunnally Held Hostage.
  • Kanon Maldini first shows up in Chapter 34 helping the Decepticons in their invasion of Pendragon, while he originally made his debut in Episode 3 of R2.
  • Starscream's Seeker armada made their original debut in the season 2 finale of Transformers Prime. Here, they are first mentioned to have arrived at the Nemesis in Chapter 32, before making their first full appearance in Chapter 34.
  • The Lancelot Albion and Guren EIGHT Elements, 9th Generation Knightmare Frames that appeared near the end of anime's second season, make an early appearance. While this results in the Guren Flight-Enabled Version being Adapted Out, the Lancelot Conquista ends up showing up here as the upgraded version of the Galeschin and becomes Nonette's new Knightmare.
• Aliens Speaking English: As per the norm with Transformers. It's at least explained for the Autobots as they studied the Internet to learn the planet's languages. Yet when Megatron first meets the future Emperor, the two are able to talk perfectly fine despite Megatron not having known the planet had organic life, let alone have the time to study Earth communications. Later Cybertronians who appear in the story also speak the same language as the cast without any difficulties.
• Anyone Can Die: While the author will spare characters from death, Shirley and Euphemia being notable, that doesn't mean everybody else is safe. Several characters meet their end, and even those who lived in canon aren't spared. Justified as it is a war story, meaning there will be death.
  • The battles of Narita and Port Yokosuka wipe out all of Darlton's sons in the Glaston Knights, including Claudio, who was the Sole Survivor in canon.
  • Makeshift, Kickback, and Beatrice Franks are killed off in the same chapters they're introduced in.
  • The Black Rebellion has the body count go up with Cliffjumper, Luciano, Dreadwing, Hardshell, Breakdown, Darlton, and Emperor Charles zi Britannia.
  • The first chapter of R2 sess a number of Britannia's elite being killed off by the Decepticons, including Bismarck, Dorothea, Victoria li Britannia, and Johanne Schwarzer.
  • Yoshida, who survived the Black Rebellion, is offhandedly killed in Nerves of Steel by Springload.
  • Battle for the Ark sees Skywarp and Frenzy die with Headlock, Quake, and Groundpounder.
  • Rene Laurent, Jan Manes, and Simon Mericourt of the Asura Strike Force are killed at the Battle of Slonim, where they survived in canon.
  • The body count goes up in The Fires of Rage with Rolo, Castor, Pollux, Raymond, and Gaudefroy.
  • Siege of Castle Weisswolf adds Airachnid and Quillfire to the list.
  • The Iacon Relics arc has casualties for both sides on various missions: Air Raid, Zi Dien, Urabe, and Tink for the heroes, and Springload, Glowstrike, Mao, Overload, and Blackout.
  • Light and Darkness sees Senba and Colonel Madd be respectively killed by a Dark Pawn and Sayoko, while V.V. finally dies from fatal wounds after Megatron takes his Code.
  • Damocles Rises may have the biggest body-count so far, with the villains losing Barricade, Demolisher, Lugnut, Blitzwing, Thunderhoof, Underbite, Saberhorn, Scorponok and the Combaticons, and the heroes losing Silverbolt, Chromia, Prowl, Hot Shot, Hong Gu, Asahina, Leonhardt, and Marika.
  • The Demon and Dragon Cometh reveals that Inoue, Sugiyama, Minami, and the remaining members of the Asura Strike Force (Kuzan, Alan, and Franz) were killed by the Damocles' attack. In addition, Starscream, Schneizel, the Constructicons, Guinevere and Anticlea are killed when Megatron and Predaking take over Damocles.
  • The New Prime has Rumble and Fracture get killed off. And as per the norm with Transformers, Optimus dies, but is brought back minutes later in a new body.
  • One Shall Stand sees Smilas be killed when the Driller Terrorcon destroys his base.
  • One Shall Fall has the final additions to the body count be Oscar, Oiagros, Ravage, Laserbeak, Soundwave, Shockwave, Shin, and Megatron. The comatose Trypticon is finished off for good when Smokescreen destroys the Nemesis. And much like with Optimus in The New Prime, Lelouch dies, but is revived thanks to the Primes and Marianne, with the latter's soul being destroyed in the process.
• Central Theme:
  • A recurring theme of R1 is that a person has to accept and learn from their mistakes in order to grow as an individual. Lelouch undergoes a more heroic route in this story thanks to having the Autobots tell him when he screws up and how to fix it, while Suzaku's problem with this is made worse by a lack of support and Megatron manipulating him into making poorer choices.
    • Related to this is the theme of redemption. Many of the heroes are working to live past their mistakes and past assumptions. But as part of the Adaptational Heroism present through the story, many of the Britannians who were complex enemies of canon instead are given a chance to make it all right. To truly work to atone for everything whether they deserve it or not, and find a home in the greater family that the heroes became.
  • Another theme is The Power of Trust and the importance of working together in order to accomplish goals. The Autobot-Black Knight Alliance are able to work together and trust each other in order to cover weak spots and complete missions while the fighting between the Decepticons and Brittania, as well as both faction's internal squabbling, leaves them vulnerable to backstabbing that hinders their efforts.
  • Across both R1 and R2 is an exploration of the importance of Hope. How it drives people, how it changes people, and how sustainable it is as the global call to action.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • In canon, the Glaston Knights all survived the events of Season 1, while in R2 Claudio was the Sole Survivor, with Alfred and Bart dying during the battle at the Chinese Embassy, and David and Edgar dying during the Battle of Tokyo. Alfred, Bart, and Claudio however all die during the Battle of Narita here. Alfred gets fried by Kallen, Claudio is sliced in half by Tohdoh, and Bart is blown up by Bulkhead. David and Edgar join them during the battle of Port Yokosuka, ending the Glaston Knights.
  • Skyquake is a Posthumous Character here, not even getting a single present sequence alive.
  • In canon, Charles survived until near the end of R2. Here, he's killed during the climax of R1.
  • Cornelia and Euphemia's mother Victoria, who was only mentioned in supplementary material, appears in the first chapter of R2 and is killed by Airachnid.
  • Kallen's stepmother and Milly's mother both meet their ends with the Black King when Thunderhoof drops them into molten metal for attempting to revolt.
  • Jan Manes, Simon Mericourt, and Rene Laurent of the Asura Strike Force are killed at the Battle of Slonim.
  • Springload is killed in the Paris subway tunnels by the combined efforts of Bumblebee, Arcee, and Sayoko.
  • Glowstrike is decapitated by Monica during the fight over the Skyboom Shield.
  • Tink is crushed by Bonecrusher colliding with his Knightmare during the fight over the Resonance Blaster.
  • Hong Gu, Leonhardt, and Marika are tragically killed off during the Battle of New Kaon, with the former shot down by Slipstream, and the other two blasted by the Damocles' fusion cannons. Once the alliance returns to Horai Island, it's also revealed that Inoue, who had survived the Black Rebellion in R1, Minami and Sugiyama, along with Kuzan, Alan, and Franz from the Asura Strike Force were killed by the Damocles.
  • Schneizel, Starscream, and Kanon are all killed off when Megatron subjects them to a synthetic Rust Plague.
  • Oscar Hammel is killed during the final battle by a Terrorcon. Likewise during the battle, Shockwave, Soundwave, Laserbeak and Ravage all meet their ends as well.
• Hollywood Tactics: Played with from chapter to chapter.
  • While Lelouch is the more active strategist when it comes to setting strategies on his adopted home in R1, the Autobots, thanks to their millennia of experience, do work hard to help create quicker tactical responses to unexpected happenings on a fight by fight basis.
  • The Chinese invasion after Kanime Island is very modern, with the chinese using smart supporting fire to overwhelm all the mightiest individual fighters at the site.
  • The Invasion of Britannia on the surface is a bit Hollywood, as Megatron is essentially invading an enemy capitol with a seemingly numerically inferior force and only 1 warship which can't cloak. On the other hand, Megatron does employ several well thought out tricks to ensure that the strike is carried out with maximum efficiency. Lighting strikes on population centers and military deployment zones help to keep the main homeland guard off balance. The fact he's attacking during a full scale rebellion means that many of their elite units are off site. He smartly deployed Soundwave to jam all communications and ensure they can't deploy their crack units through use of the Thought Elevators. And finally, uses The Mole in their ranks to capture most significant political figures at once to ensure total victory before any reinforcements can mobilize.
  • The battle of The Ark is in many respects unnecessary, as the Decepticons lack Naval power of any significance. Hence, them deploying their soldiers for a ground assault when their lasers prove ineffective.
  • The battle of New Kaon/ the 2nd battle for Britannia is much more hollywood compared to the first battle there. As while Lelouch does deploy a wide range of mixed vehicle and infantry units at once to support one another (and Euphemia ends up taking on the Omniglobe to help coordinate it all), it doesn't change the fact that he deployed all units within a relatively small space right in front of the last line of decepticon defense with no plans for pulling any sneak attacks or tricks during the fight.
    • To be fair, their transportation was limited by the groundbridge blocker preventing them from deploying any closer, and thus their first major move is to eliminate that issue thanks to traitors on their side. And furthermore, Megatron wasn't in any better position as the majority of his army are essentially zombies, and he does deploy air support as best he can.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Throughout the first two seasons, many characters that died in Code Geass canon have their deaths prevented and survive to the end.
  • Shirley and Euphemia are the most prominent examples, as the author explicitly stated that they were on his no-kill list.
  • Sadly Played for Drama for Shirley’s father Joseph, who survives the Battle of Narita, but is found and captured by Soundwave and Shockwave along with Jeremiah and other Code-R scientists. Because only his lab coat with his family name was found, Shirley and her mother presume him to be dead until they find out he's alive in R2.
  • Katase and the JLF survive the Battle of Port Yokosuka, as Lelouch has no interest in deposing them to obtain political support since he has the backing of the Autobots. In fact, they end up joining the Black Knights.
  • Kirihara and the Heads of Kyoto, who were executed at the end of R1 with Kaguya being the Sole Survivor, survive the Black Rebellion.
  • Jean Rowe survives the Siege of Castle Weisswolf, where she was stabbed to death in canon. Lelouch saves her from being killed and brings her into the Autobot-Black Knight Alliance.
  • Toto Thompson was shot and killed by V.V. near the end of the first half of Oz the Reflection, which took place shortly before the Black Rebellion. Due to V.V. being captured by Megatron and the Glinda Knights being together when Britannia fell, she avoids her death.
  • In canon, Orpheus Zevon and Marrybell mel Britannia killed each other at the same time Suzaku killed Lelouch. Not only do they both live past the final battle here in the story, they even become allies.
  • Due to Britannia being destroyed, and her decision to join the Black Knights, Monica Krushevsky is not killed.
  • Xingke is an interesting factor, as while his fate in the anime was left ambiguous due to his illness, the movie Resurrection stated that he died from said disease. Here, since said disease is Adapted Out, he lives to the end.
  • Diethard was shot and killed in canon by a Geassed Schneizel after betraying Lelouch and leaving the Black Knights. Due to remaining with the Black Knights throughout the entire story, his death is averted.
  • Odysseus, who in canon was confirmed to be killed when Schneizel destroyed Pendragon with a FLEIJA, survives thanks to Thundercracker and Steve helping him, Laila and Carine escape Darkmount before the start of the final act.
  • An example for a Wrecked Weapon. With the addition of the Skyboom Shield, Optimus’s fight with Megatron and his new Dark Star Saber doesn’t end with the original Star Saber being shattered.
• The Stations of the Canon: For the most part, the big events of Code Geass's first season and the adapted episodes of Prime still play out, albeit in slightly different ways but with not too different outcomes. On the Code Geass side, it makes at least some sense in that Megatron only took a small role in Brittania's affairs and was unconcerned with it while he was working his own agenda. Then the SAZ Massacre occurs in a way much more different than canon, followed by Megatron killing Charles and blowing the Britannian capital off the map, pretty much chucking all of season 2 of Code Geass right out the window.
  • For R2, while much of Code Geass ends up in a different situation, parts of Transformers Prime Season 2 & 3 do happen in bits. Though the endgame is more akin to the end of the Darkness Rising pilot five-parter than the end of season 3.

Code Prime - R1: Rebellion provides examples of:

Tropes A-E

• Accusation Fic: The later half of the story deals quite a bit with taking Suzaku to task for his decisions from the anime, usually in the form of getting harsh lectures from several different characters.
• Action Prologue: The first chapter starts with the final mission from Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, showing Bumblebee navigating his way through the Ark as the Decepticons try to destroy the ship.
• Adaptational Karma: A rare societal version of this trope is applied to Britannia. The Autobots are doing considerably more damage to Britannia's forces and image than anything Lelouch could accomplish as Zero. And at the end of R1, the Deceptions straight up destroy the empire in an especially brutal and thorough way, with Pendragon being destroyed, Britannia's leadership being killed, imprisoned, and enslaved, and its armed forces being horribly slaughtered.
• Adaptational Modesty: The first scene of C.C. in Lelouch's house, specifically the one where she decides to sleep in Lelouch's bed (and forces him to sleep on the couch) implies that she isn't wearing anything under her straitjacket. Here, she is wearing underwear (which doesn't cover much, if the narration is anything to go by).
• Adaptational Late Appearance: While Unicron has appeared in C.C.'s code-induced visions, the Terrorcons have yet to make an appearance in the story. They later appear in Chapter 25 as a bunch of broken Knightmares that are accidentally exposed to Dark Energon in a cave, killing several Vehicons and turning them into Terrorcons.
• Adaptation Distillation: Originally, the events of Nunnally Held Hostage happened right after Cheering Mao, albeit with a short Time Skip happening in the interim. Here, the Time Skip is shown as the events of Metal Attraction and Partners.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: Rakshata's Gefjun Disturber was based on analyzing the Immobilizer in this story.
• Alien Non-Interference Clause: The Autobots had been on Earth for some time, but have refrained from actually getting involved with human affairs due to the potential consequences of revealing themselves. It takes the massacre of the Shinjuku Ghetto for them to finally start considering the consequences if they don't get involved.
• All Webbed Up: As Airachnid appears in this story, this tends to happen to a lot of her enemies, including Arcee, Kallen, Suzaku, Euphemia, and Cornelia.
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba: When the Autobots capture Starscream and Cornelia after Airachnid webbed them up, Starscream pleads them to have him join their side, to which they distrust. Bulkhead makes a remark like this.
  Bulkhead: And I've been lobbing with The Fallen!
• And Then What?: Megatron asks Suzaku something like this when he asks how the latter plans to reform Britannia. In this case, he's using the question to finally push Suzaku to join the Decepticons.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Optimus offers one to Suzaku after the latter chooses to return to his court-martial in the hopes of being acquitted and then working to reform Britannia from within. Notably, Suzaku doesn't really have a response for this, instead stating he has to hope that he's right. Said question continues to affect him going forward, particularly as he is forced to confront more of the unsavory aspects of both Britannia and the Decepticons.
  Optimus: You say that Britannia can change for the better; what if you go down this path... and you're wrong?
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • Facade of Blood ends with Megatron achieving a decisive victory. Not only does he succeed in exposing Britannia as being no different from the Decepticons, but he also kidnaps Euphemia and uses a Pretender in her visage to perpetuate the SAZ Massacre, effectively taking the Token Good Teammate of the Imperial Family out of commission.
  • Fall of Britannia has Megatron kill Charles and destroy Pendragon, cementing the Decepticons as superior to Britannia and effectively declaring war on Earth.
• Band of Brothers: The Black Knights and Autobots have gradually become this, being willing to risk their necks to save each other. This comes to a head in Chapter 21, United We Stand, where Arcee ends up magnetized to Bulkhead, while Kallen ends up stuck to Rai - both duos are able to coordinate their movements to avoid being overwhelmed by the Terrible Trio of Suzaku, Breakdown, and Airachnid. This contrasts them heavily with the Britannians and Decepticons, whose relationships are detailed below.
• Barehanded Blade Block:
  • Suzaku tries to do this to Megatron with the Lancelot's swords, but his opponent catches them both, and even snaps them for good measure.
  • Megatron is about to bring his blade down onto a Geassed Optimus Prime, but his rival snaps out of it just in time and catches his blade with his hands.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: For his family's betrayal and subsequently abandoning him and Nunnally to die in Japan, Lelouch wanted nothing more than the complete destruction of Britannia. He gets exactly what he wanted in the aptly-titled Chapter 34, Fall of Britannia, but he still has to face against the ones that carried out the deed: the Decepticons, who have dropped all pretenses of benevolence and are more powerful and destructive than Britannia could have ever hoped to be.
• Beneath the Mask: Normally, Lelouch appears to be apathetic to the world around him. As Zero, who is his true self, Lelouch actually disdains the status quo and wants to create a better world for his sister. What makes it stand out in this story is that Optimus figures out that Lelouch genuinely believes his rhetoric, something none of the Black Knights figured out in canon until just before Lelouch died from the wounds Suzaku gave him.
• Beta Couple: While they don't openly acknowledge themselves as a couple (until R2), there's no mistake that Suzaku and Emphemia are romantically-involved. In stark contrast to Kallen and Lelouch who currently still react to moments of Ship Tease with denial and embarrassment.
• Beyond the Impossible: Code Geass canon shows that while it is possible to temporarily resist a Geass, it's impossible to completely fight off their influence unless you are a Code Bearer. Megatron ends up becoming the first being to possess a Geass that can affect Code Bearers, while Optimus goes one step further and becomes the first person to straight-up shrug off a Geass' effects. With the Geass in question being Megatron's Dark Geass.
• Bittersweet Ending: A far better ending compared to the canon one. The Decepticons have killed Charles and conquered Britannia, and have now started to occupy the planet with more Cons coming. However, many of the main characters survived the Decepticons' attack, and new allies, like Euphemia and Cornelia, join the Autobot and Black Knight cause. Finally, R1 ends with Optimus Prime rallying his Autobots all across the universe to come and end the Decepticon threat once and for all.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Suzaku, as in canon, views the world in terms of Black-and-White Morality. Here, however, he starts to get progressively more unhinged and conflicted due to one of his enemies being Optimus Prime, who truly is a hero, yet is on the opposite side as Suzaku. This is further exacerbated by being on the same side as Megatron, who actively twists Suzaku into becoming a worse person. This abates by Chapter 29, due to Suzaku realizing just how evil Megatron is and finally acknowledging to himself that his goal of being an Internal Reformist might be impossible. At this point, he becomes Trapped in Villainy, as Megatron blackmails him into compliance by threatening to reveal Lelouch and Nunnally's survival to Charles.
• Blatant Lies: Megatron tells Cornelia that Optimus was lying about the Decepticons being evil. To no one's surprise, she doesn't believe him.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Airachnid is significantly more menacing in this story than in canon. While she wasn't a comedic character in Prime (her first appearance had her torturing Arcee in a flashback, culminating in murdering Arcee's partner, Tailgate), here, she butchers dozens of Japanese civilians in Shinjuku because she was bored.
• Book Ends: A bit subtle as the story approaches the final arc.
  • The present storyline of R1 - Rebellion begins and ends with C.C. being involved in the acceptance of a contract. It, of course, begins with Lelouch accepting the terms of her contract where she gives him his Geass to help fulfill her wish, like in canon, and it ends with C.C. accepting the terms of the Primes' contract within the Matrix of Leadership, in order to allow her to give Optimus Prime a Geass in exchange for her acceptance of his cause to defeat Megatron.
  • Cornelia faces off against the Transformer leaders during both the first and last acts, Her first duel with Optimus was set in a rather large place, surrounded by an audience, and with Optimus giving a fair fight and sparing her as part of the terms of the duel. Her fight with Megatron ends with her brutally outmatched, just between the two of them, and ends with her capture. While Optimus ensured she will fight another day, Megatron disables her Knightmare enough so that she gains a new one once the sequel rolls around.
  • The first and last major battles (not counting the first fight with the Lancelot) have similar circumstances; namely, them noticing that the fight is a setup. The Autobots manage to outwit the first set-up (Corenlia whittling them down with Knightmares before she sends her main force) by retreating, thereby gaining their first major victory, but they were unable to outwit the last set-up (pre-occupied by the Black Rebellion to even consider the fact that Britannia is being sacked) and it effectively grants the Decepticons their most major victory so far.
• Bound and Gagged:
  • Mao keeps Shirley in this state when he kidnaps her in Chapter 19.
  • Cornelia gets her turn like this in Chapter 22 when captured by the heroes.
  • In Chapter 32, Euphemia is restrained via Airachnid's webs when the Decepticons kidnap her and replace her with a Pretender so they can carry out the SAZ Massacre.
  • Cornelia ends up like this again in Chapter 33 when Megatron captures her and brings her to Airachnid.
• Break the Haughty: V.V. thought he could pull one over on Megatron and the Decepticons, but all that got him was Megatron shooting him, dragging his immortal body to Shockwave, and having the scientist pull all knowledge of the Ragnarök project right out of his head.
• Break Them by Talking: Lelouch and Suzaku are both hit with this in Chapter 19 by Mao and Airachnid, respectively, and are both pretty much given the same rhetoric: they claim to want to change the world in their own respective ways, yet allied themselves with the side that is (for the most part) completely contradictory to their ethos.
• Broken Masquerade: The Autobots cease attempting to be Robots in Disguise in Chapter 5, instead deciding to make their existence public so as to help show the masses that Britannia can be beaten.
• Call-Forward:
  • Arcee questions if Euphemia isn't the kind of person to start a massacre, especially after their scuffle with Clovis. Not only does Arcee become really wrong when considering canon, but the SAZ Massacre also happens in the fic itself, doubling as Foreshadowing.
  • Shockwave questions Megatron on why he didn't use his knowledge of Zero's identity to try and turn the Black Knights against Lelouch. He'd be proven very logical if he knew what happened in the original Code Geass R2.
• The Cameo:
  • Cornelia name-drops Marrybell mel Britannia and the Glinda Knights in Chapter 19.
  • Similarly, Peace Mark is mentioned in passage in Chapter 27.
  • Leila Malcal and Gene Smilas appear in Chapter 35 when Megatron announces the fall of Britannia to the world, along with Orpheus Zevon and Wizard, Tianzi, Li Xingke, and the High Eunuchs, Henry Highland, and the Grandmasters.
• Car Fu: A viable tactic when said car is the alternative form of a robotic being made of metals stronger than any on Earth, as several Purists find out the hard way.
• Combination Attack: Kallen and Rai end up utilizing this with their Knightmares' Radiant Wave Surgers whilst magnetized by the Polarity Gauntlet (freeing themselves along with a similarly magnetized Bulkhead and Arcee); they later use this to disorient Airachnid from fleeing with said Gauntlet.
• Company Cross References: The Decepticons' plan to overthrow Britannia may have been the first instance of it in the Transformers universe, but the plan itself is based on a prior crossover by the author: Worlds Collide, wherein the Shredder and the Foot Clan overthrow Fire Lord Ozai and the Fire Nation.
• Continuity Nod: The fanfic is a crossover with the Transformers Aligned Universe, and it certainly lives up to it:
  • The opening is clearly based on the final (and by extension, first) mission of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
  • Fixit is a member of the Ark Crew.
  • Megatron has already been fused with Dark Energon in this timeline, which was the case in Fall of Cybertron, as opposed to only just having discovered it at the start of Transformers Prime. The first chapter also directly has him reference being crushed by Metroplex (also mentioned in Chapter 25, Stronger, Faster, Deadlier!).
  • Soundwave has both Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage with him in addition to Laserbeak. The first two showed up in the Transformers: War for Cybertron, while the latter appeared in Transformers: Exodus. Notably, these are the only members of his Mini-cassettes he is shown possessing in the Transformers Aligned Universe, with the ones he had in other universes being unheard of.
• The Corrupter: Megatron, as always. He's deliberately trying to push Suzaku down a darker path, mostly for his own amusement.
• Cowardice Callout:
  • Both the real Megatron and the illusion created by his Dark Geass call Charles out on how his Assimilation Plot is above all motivated by fear of losing his power to humanity, and the illusion says that that both he and his brother are nothing more than "two weak, pathetic, spiteful, cowardly little children" because of how they never grew past their fears like Megatron, Optimus and Lelouch did.
  • Suzaku gets a couple from Kallen. In Chapter 28, Kallen says that Suzaku's Never My Fault attitude to all the atrocities he's committed just make him "look like a pussy". In Chapter 31, Kallen calls out Suzaku's Death Seeker tendency, telling him that sacrificing his life and failing to make any meaningful change with it is being a coward rather than redemption.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In Chapter 5 when the Autobots and Zero free Suzaku from Britannia, easily defeating the Britannian forces stationed. To add insult to injury, the Autobots win without even killing a single Purist.
  • This is something of a Running Gag with Cornelia, as she tends to get defeated with almost laughable ease, such as having her Knightmare wrecked by Optimus despite landing a blow on him in Chapter 8.
  • Unless facing Optimus Prime himself, any battle Megatron partakes in usually sees him dominating any and all opposition.
• Crazy-Prepared: In Chapter 23, not only did Lelouch set things up so that Mao would be arrested by Suzaku, but he also had the Autobots on standby just in case Mao managed to escape the room.
• Darker and Edgier: Perhaps one of Iron117Prime's darkest fics, given one-half of its source material. However, it truly shines as a dark entry in the perspective of Transformers fans.
  • Britannia serves as a darker incarnation of various human villains compared to other human villains in the franchise. They practice racist beliefs to both Transformer factions due to their deep belief in racial superiority, something that really ticks off the Autobots especially. Not to mention how they've engulfed the world into extensive conflict so much that Optimus Prime initially hesitates to send his warriors out in fear that their resources might not be enough to battle the might of the empire.
  • Lelouch isn't like any other human companion the Autobots befriended in previous incarnations. He has very deep-seated family issues which lead to him having difficulty in trusting others, and even has thinking and mentality that's so morally gray that, when compared to Suzaku's thinking, made the Autobots fear that he might become a second Megatron.
• Decapitation Strike: When the Decepticons attack Pendragon, they first arrange to have all the members of the royalty and nobility not occupied elsewhere gather in the palace, so that they can all be taken captive at once.
• Deconstruction Crossover: Many a trope and character archetypes are torn apart here.
  • Suzaku deconstructs the Ideal Hero and Black-and-White Morality, as his inability to acknowledge his cause as wrong or see exactly how evil Megatron is ultimately setting him down a darker path and progressively leads to him becoming more villainous as time goes on... Which is exactly what Megatron wants.
  • Suzaku also deconstructs Unskilled, but Strong as his natural talent as a pilot doesn't help against some of his Cybertronian opponents, who are Strong and Skilled. This furthers the deconstruction of Black-and-White Morality, as he's facing opponents who oppose him and can beat him is implied to be fraying Suzaku's sanity.
  • The Glaston Knights deconstruct Elite Mooks - while they're incredibly powerful Britannian Knightmare Pilots, they're still nowhere near the Autobots' level, and are ultimately little more than Red Shirts against such powerful opponents.
  • Even before it happens, the idea of the SAZ is taken apart by various characters In-Universe - while Euphemia wants to use it to end hostilities between Britannia, and the Black Knights and the Autobots so that all three can oppose the Decepticons, the amount of bloodshed between the three groups makes this unlikely to work. Additionally, there's also the fact Euphemia creating the SAZ is a direct challenge to her father's authority, and puts an enormous target on her back. Additionally, the SAZ and Britannia, in general, are completely unaware that the Decepticons have access to shapeshifting machines, allowing them to easily infiltrate the event and initiate a False Flag Operation.
  • Dreadwing and Suzaku deciding to aid Euphemia instead of either staying with the Decepticons or going over to the Autobots and Black Knights takes an axe to attempts to Take a Third Option — Megatron does not want any opposition to his own plans, so when he moves to deal with Britannia, he makes sure to conduct a False Flag Operation to discredit Euphie and the Imperial Family. Suzaku and Dreadwing aiding Euphemia only serves to sow division amongst allies until an avoidable tragedy occurs, wasting time and effort and giving the Decepticons enough of an edge to secure the win at the end of R1.
• Deducing the Secret Identity:
  • Soundwave deduces Zero's real identity early in the story after Laserbeak records Lelouch holding the Zero mask, comparing Zero and Lelouch's voices and when they perfectly match, he then compares his name to the records they have on the Royal Family and realizes they match with Lelouch vi Britannia. Megatron is both surprised and pleased when he finds out, but keeps it between the two and later Shockwave so someone, like Starscream, doesn't do anything reckless with the information.
  • Tohdoh and Schneizel both separately deduce Zero's identity due to noticing the masked revolutionary has the same dramatic mannerisms and tactics as Lelouch.
• Defector from Decadence: Happens a lot near the climax:
  • Suzaku and Dreadwing defect after Euphemia is replaced with a Pretender and initiates the SAZ Massacre.
  • After the above, Cecile defects to support Suzaku. Lloyd also comes along, though only to keep working on the Lancelot.
  • It's mentioned in the lead-up to the attack on Tokyo that many Britannian citizens were joining the Japanese in rebelling against the government.
  • During the Battle of Tokyo, Gino, Monica, and Nonette all defect out of a mixture of disgust at the Massacre and loyalty to friends among the Black Knights.
  • After the Black Rebellion, Cornelia and Euphemia officially join the Black Knights.
• Demographic-Dissonant Crossover: Downplayed. Whilst Transformers: Prime is quite dark by Transformers standards (aimed at older children), it clearly isn't compared to Code Geass in terms of rating (aimed at teenagers). Played straight when elements of Transformers: Robots In Disguise (2015) come along.
• Disappointed by the Motive:
  • In What is Justice?, Megatron is disappointed with Suzaku's "plan" to change Britannia's system for lacking a long-term plan for this beside simply climbing its military and societal ranks. It gets compounded in The Patch Paradox when Megatron finds Suzaku wanted redemption for killing his father even if he dies doing so, reacting with annoyance and calling out the Honorary Britannian for it.
  • In ''Fall of Britannia", Megatron says he would almost be proud of Charles for deceiving him... if not for the fact that Charles' plan and motivation shows that he's mentally a small boy who wants the world to revolve around him, rather than a proud ruler who would change the world through his own will.
• Divided We Fall: This is a big problem for the Britannians and Decepticons - while both groups want to defeat the Autobot-Black Knight alliance, their conflicting motives and methods repeatedly limit their ability to do so. This comes to a head in Chapter 21, United We Stand, where Suzaku and Breakdown team up with Airachnid to prevent the Black Knight force of Kallen, Rai, Arcee, and Bulkhead from acquiring the Polarity Gauntlet falls apart for a variety of reasons: Breakdown wanted to solve things with violence while Suzaku prefers to try words first, Airachnid is a Decepticon deserter and has no interest in rejoining their cause unless forced to, and Suzaku still wants to arrest Airachnid after what she did at Shinjuku. When the trio decides to call a truce to take down the Autobots and Black Knights, they fail epically, as the trio never bothers to coordinate with each other, while the quartet they are fighting do.
  • Further exemplified in Chapter 22, Divided They Fall. Airachnid and Starscream cannot resist trying to embarrass the other in Megatron's eyes, with both also taking the time to regularly belittle Cornelia. When Starscream inevitably tries to backstab Airachnid, she immediately overpowers the Seeker and leaves him and Cornelia (who she enjoys belittling and mocking) out to dry. As for the Knights of the Round, they actually get along pretty well with everyone, but Airachnid and the Seekers manage to get on their nerves.
  • On display once more during Chapter 26, Knights and Miracle Workers, where the Autobots and Black Knights are able to pick apart the Decepticons and Knights of the Round during the mission to rescue Tohdoh, as they have both the numbers and teamwork needed to isolate each enemy while still fighting as a team.
  • Comes to a head in Chapter 34, Fall of Britannia, where several of the villains defect over to the heroes. Ironically, it's the Britannians (namely Knights of the Round Monica, Gino, and Nonette) who do so, because Megatron made a point of either addressing his subordinates' issues or cowing them into submission beforehand, while Charles' attempts to salvage the situation ending up pushing some of his subordinates to the breaking point.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: V.V. should've thought more about kidnapping Zero and Optimus and tempting Megatron with their location in exchange for a favor; Megatron instead just introduces him to his fusion cannon and takes his body for study.
• Doorstopper: By the time of its completion, R1 contains 572,112 words.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • In Cheering Mao, Mao attempts to procure Megatron's aid by offering the identity of Zero and the location of the Autobots' base. While Mao did have several pieces of information that would've been useful, he was unaware that Megatron had already found out who Zero was through Soundwave and Laserbeak.
  • Toward the end of Knights and Miracle Workers, Tohdoh warns Suzaku that the Decepticons and Britannians are not helping each other and will eventually turn on one another, at which point Suzaku will need to choose his allegiances. Almost immediately after the former retreats, the Decepticons get into an argument with the Knights of the Round that almost ends in the former trying to kill the latter, with Megatron intervening at the last moment to avoid bloodshed.
  • Many Cybertronians recognized early on how similar Lelouch was to Megatron and Suzaku was to Optimus Prime. Indeed, several of the Autobots' initial distrust with the ex-Britannian prince was due to Lelouch's seeming potential to go down Megatron's path. However, as Lelouch and Suzaku spend more and more time within their respective allied factions, the Autobots and Decepticons gradually begin to realize that they had all backwards: Lelouch is more like Optimus in ethos while possessing Megatron's charisma and manipulative streak whereas Suzaku possesses Optimus' sense of morals but is much more like Megatron in his stubborness and refusal to accept his faults.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Both sides at R1 are played up as akin to different kinds of families, with the Autobot-Black Knight Alliance as a loving but struggling family trying to hold themselves together during a dark time and the Decepticon-Britannia Coalition as a toxic, dysfunctional family.
• End of an Age: Fall of Britannia and Rise of the Decepticons see the dissolution of the Holy Empire of Britannia, with the Decepticons moving in to take their place. Come R2, the last remnants of the Empire have been captured/killed off by the alien warlords, and all that remains of Britannia are the quasi-independent Euro-Britannia, and Marrybell's Glinda Knights.
• Enemy Mine:
  • The Black Knights, Autobots, Britannians, and Decepticons are temporarily forced to team up to deal with a rogue Insecticon swarm.
  • In Chapter 30, the Black Knights come to the aid of Suzaku during the Battle of Kyushu to fight off Sawazaki and his forces. This time, though, the forces present include virtually all of the Autobots on Earth at the time, Dreadwing, four members of the Knights of the Round, and the Guren and Pre-Production Gekka.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Charles is left utterly broken mentally and emotionally when he sees V.V. by Megatron's side, having been terrified into subservience by Megatron's Dark Geass, right before their old mentor obliterates the Emperor.
  V.V.: Charles, let's both be honest. You would have done the same to me.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Has its own subpage here.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • All of the Autobots, even the ones who distrust Lelouch, are disgusted when they learn what Charles did to him when the boy confronted his father over his mother's death.
  • Lelouch, in turn, vetoes the idea of using the Autobots' Ground Bridge to get to Pendragon and assassinate his father, as the chaos that would result would probably cause the world to burn.
  • When Dreadwing requests that Ratchet put a bomb in his head that the Autobots can use to kill him if he betrays them, everybody, including the Autobots and Black Knights that distrust him, is completely horrified.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed since it's Suzaku. He believes that all violence is pointless and that the Black Knights and Autobots opposing Britannia is because they are evil or misguided. He's legitimately thrown for a loop when Optimus makes it clear he opposes Megatron because the latter is an evil tyrant that cannot be reasoned with and only seeks power for himself.
• Eviler than Thou: For all the atrocities that Britannia has orchestrated with Charles vi Britannia at the helm, it's obvious that they pale in comparison to the horrors of Megatron and the Decepticons. Megatron says as much to Charles in their final confrontation, right before he destroys Pendragon and all that Charles built up over his life, Ragnarök and all, and finally Charles himself.
• Evil Is Not a Toy:
  • Mao thinks he can play around with the Decepticons by waving vital information in front of their faces so he can get a nice, cozy home for himself and C.C. When Lelouch literally shuts him up in Chapter 23, forcing him to return to the Nemesis empty-handed, Megatron tells him he has a place at the table: Shockwave's dissection table, to be exact.
  • V.V. later makes a similar mistake in abducting Lelouch and Optimus Prime and revealing himself to Megatron, planning to use their location as a bargaining chip. Megatron simply blasts him, takes him to Shockwave for study, and painfully extracts all the information right out of his head.

Tropes F-K

• False Flag Operation: Megatron has Euphemia replaced by a Pretender drone and uses it to initiate the SAZ Massacre, while simultaneously having Soundwave impersonate Charles and order the Knights of the Round to participate, making it look like Britannia planned things from the start to the Japanese.
• Fantastic Slur: The Decepticons occasionally call humans terms like "fleshy".
• Fatal Flaw: For both the Decepticons and Britannians, it's disunity - while both parties want the Autobots and Black Knights destroyed, they not only disagree about how to defeat them but even within each group, different members are pursuing different agendas. This prevents them from functioning well as a team and makes them far more divided than the Autobots and Black Knights - who are friends to the end.
• Flaw Exploitation: Lelouch uses this in Chapter 26 to pick apart the Decepticons and Knights of the Round during the mission to rescue Tohdoh.
  • He has Kallen and Arcee fight Nonette, as she is a Close-Range Combatant and the two female aces are able to out-maneuver her and (via the Radiant Wave Surger) destroy her swords. They're also able to out Airachnid, who is nominally Nonette's ally because the spider-con never attempts to coordinate with the Knight of Nine.
  • He has Chiba close in on Knock Out, who prefers to fight at the range to avoid getting his paint job ruined. Once that happens, Chiba is able to dominate him in melee, as he's too angry to fight intelligently.
  • Conversely, he has Cliffjumper fall back to bait the Blood Knight Gino into leaving Knock Out, allowing Chiba to defeat him and then team up with Cliff to take Gino down.
  • Dreadwing is trickier since he has no obvious weaknesses, but Lelouch ultimately settles on having Wheeljack distract Dreadwing so that Urabe can attack from behind, at which point Wheeljack will disable the Florence by cutting off its arms (removing its weapons) and legs (to fully incapacitate it), leaving Urabe and Wheeljack free to team up against Dreadwing.
  • Asahina and Senba are ordered to blind the Mordred with Chaffsmoke, then sever its limbs.
• Foil: Has its own subpage here.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Due to Optimus being present at the Shinjuku Memorial and later witnessing the Lancelot fighting the Purebloods and the Seekers, Lelouch learns that Suzaku is the pilot of the Lancelot significantly earlier than in canon.
  • Airachnid's attempt at taking control of the Insecticon horde goes a lot differently thanks to two factors. The first is that instead of it being Starscream with her, it's Soundwave. The second is Hardshell being a Composite Character. In the original series, Hardshell was largely The Brute and shared little of his game counterpart's intelligence or personality. Here, the initial differences are described as a result of Hardshell changing due to losing to Grimlock, making him forgo intelligence and weaponry in favor of strength. He also carries the Undying Loyalty for Megatron, and, as Soundwave plays via recording, Shockwave observed that Hardshell, Kickback, and Sharpshot can't be controlled via frequency like normal Insecticons. This causes Airachnid's gambit to fail and gives Megatron an entire legion of Insecticons immediately, with Airachnid forced to continue working with the Decepticons at the moment.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During Zero's big first appearance in Chapter 5, the narration mentions that Nunnally (listening to the radio alone in her room) 'twitched a bit'. When Lelouch reveals his secret to her in Chapter 29, she admits she'd recognized his voice on the radio, but hadn't wanted to believe it.
  • When Rai is first introduced in Chapter 6, one of the possible names he mutters is "Kai" before settling on Rai. Eight chapters later, at the end of Geass Ex Machina, V.V. and Charles have a conversation where they mention someone named "Kaizaren" is still alive. Chapter 20 reveals that Rai is actually Kaizaren von Britannia.
  • In Chapter 23, Lelouch goes over where he sent his friends to help him with rescuing Nunnally from Mao, noting that he sent Shirley to keep the Knights of the Round off his back. The next scene shows her talking to the Autobots instead. This hints that Lelouch Geassed himself (or, in this adaptation, had Rai Geass him instead) so as to forget his actual plan and buy time for his friends to free Nunnally from Mao.
  • Throughout the story it's noted that whenever Megatron shows up, his presence inspires fear from those near him, such as Euphemia, Bartley, and even Lloyd. When Megatron gets a Dark Geass, it allows him to make his victims experience their greatest fears.
• Forced to Watch:
  • In Chapter 32, Euphemia is abducted by Airachnid and webbed up, unable to do anything but watch as Megatron sends a Pretender in her image to cause the massacre in the SAZ. Later, she and Cornelia are forced to watch Pendragon's destruction as well.
  • The Decepticons make a deliberate effort to drag all the Britannian nobles outside and make them watch as the Nemesis obliterates Pendragon down to the bedrock.
• Fusion Fic: Between the Aligned continuity of Transformers and Code Geass. Among other things, it's confirmed that Sakuradite and Energon are synonymous and the Decepticons are responsible for the rise of the Britannian Empire, though only a few people in said Empire know of this. When C.C. makes a contract with Optimus in Chapter 36 to grant him a Geass, the original Primes that she meets tell her that Geass may have originated from Unicron.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Bumblebee breaks off his first fight with the Lancelot temporarily in order to catch some people falling from a building. This surprises Suzaku, who was unused to seeing his opponents attempt to avoid casualties.
• Godzilla Threshold: Due to taking absolutely massive losses during the Battles at Narita and Port Yokosuka, including losing all of the Glaston Knights (his adoptive sons), Darlton suggests that Cornelia put in a request for the Emperor to send in the Knights of the Round to help defeat the Autobots.
• Go Out with a Smile: Mortally wounded, Cliffjumper looks at Kallen and Arcee with a last smile, before pulling both himself and Luciano Bradley onto an exploding electrical generator, taking the mad Knight of the Round with him. When his partners look at the aftermath, they can see the smile still on his deceased face.
• Grenade Tag: How Shirley Fenette takes out Hardshell - using Nina Einstein's Ganymede that's jury-rigged with a nuclear reactor, she overloads the reactor and rams Hardshell with the Ganymede into a Groundbridge portal that leads into low-earth orbit. Ejecting just in time, of course.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • During a fight Ironhide uses Ravage to hit Frenzy and Rumble.
  • In another fight, Optimus picks up Breakdown and throws him at Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Knock Out, knocking all of them down at once.
• Hannibal Lecture: Suzaku is on the receiving end of one from Airachnid, who calls him out on siding with the Decepticons, as she used to be one, and Suzaku is an idealist who is siding with a Hope Crusher that destroyed his own homeworld and ultimately would see Earth burn if he could defeat the Autobots. It's the first time in the story that Suzaku ever shows uncertainty with the path he chose.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Downplayed, but the vast majority of those who turn over from Britannia to the Autobot-Black Knight Alliance are females. While Suzaku, Lloyd, and Gino make peace with the alliance, as of Chapter 35, only Suzaku and Lloyd have formally joined the team, while Gino chose to stay and coordinate a resistance force in Area 11. By contrast, Monica, Euphemia, Cornelia, Nonette, Cecile, and Viletta defect over to the alliance once their limits have been surpassed.
• History Repeats: The main conflict in this story comes down to two battles between former best friends, one an Ideal Hero, the other a Chessmaster, over how to fix a corrupt society. In an interesting twist, though, it is the human chess master who is paired with the Cybertronian idealist, in part because Optimus sees the similarities between Lelouch and Megatron and wants to keep history from repeating, while Megatron is actively corrupting Suzaku.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: While the Autobots and Decepticons still occasionally use human expletives, they also have their own form of automobile and machine-based interjections, the exclamation "Oh scrap!" being the most common. Humorously, this speech style began to catch on with the Black Knights through their interactions with the Autobots, to the point where Lelouch, Kallen, Rai, and Shirley have started to regularly say "scrap" outside of Black Knight missions.
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • In Stronger, Faster, Deadlier!, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Airachnid and Starscream come face to face with a horde of Terrorcons made from broken machines and ruined Knightmares. Airachnid, despite being a sadistic, murderous butcher, is left utterly horrified by the experience.
  • V.V. is an immortal Code Bearer that has committed countless atrocities to serve his brother's plan, but after being tortured and killed multiple times by the Decepticons and finally killed by Megatron's Dark Geass of Absolute Terror, when he comes back to life, he swears his loyalty to Megatron, too terrified to resist.
• Hourglass Plot: In Chapter 18, What is Justice?, Lelouch has his resolve tested when it appears that Shirley's father was killed by the landslide the Black Knights engineered at Narita, and even after receiving some comforting words from Optimus, is left unsure if his path is the correct one. Suzaku, meanwhile, has his convictions affirmed by these same events and decides to join the Decepticons. In the following Chapter, What is Evil?, Lelouch has his convictions reaffirmed when he saves Shirley and comes clean about everything, only for Shirley to shock him by admitting she forgives him. Suzaku, meanwhile, has his resolve shaken when he encounters Airachnid in Shinjuku, who promptly tears into his ideals and tells him that, ultimately, he chose the wrong side, and no amount of action on his part will make them better.
• Ideal Hero: The story simultaneously deconstructs and reconstructs this with Suzaku and Optimus Prime, respectively.
  • As in canon, Suzaku's idealism and belief in nonviolent reform are noble, but in the world he inhabits and the system he serves, it just leaves him as an easy tool for the Britannian Empire to exploit. Even worse, his naïveté makes him completely susceptible to Megatron's influence.
  • Optimus Prime remains the same benevolent Autobot leader he has always been known for, but his millennia of battle experience has tempered his ideals and he understands that sometimes more morally questionable actions are necessary in a world so mired in corruption and oppression. He is also more willing to kill humans in battle, but still knows to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, as well as between true evildoers and innocents.
• Idiot Ball: Euphemia choosing to announce the SAZ is this, as she makes it clear that not only will she use it to give Elevens equality and allow them to be called Japanese again, she also publicly announces that she wants to use the SAZ to form an alliance between the Autobots, Black Knights, and Britannia against the Decepticons. Not only does this put her into direct conflict with the rest of her family, up to and including the Emperor himself, she knows by now that Megatron would not hesitate to slaughter others in droves just to make a point. This proves to be horrifically true in the next chapter when the Decepticons kidnap Euphie, replace her with a Pretender based off of Makeshift, and use the Pretender to initiate the SAZ Massacre in order to paint Britannia in an even worse light than they already are.
• Immediate Sequel: The first chapter of the fic covers the last chapter of Fall of Cybertron, picking up immediately after both sides have been transwarped at the end of the game.
• Immunity Attrition: Geass powers don't work on Cybertronians, but that's due to a lack of enough power to overcome the energy of their sparks; Code Bearers can affect a Cybertronian, and Mao could have read Cybertronian minds if he had had the focus needed. Megatron's dark Geass, boosted by Dark Energon, can affect Cybertronians and even Code Bearers. Lelouch's Geass later also gains the power to affect Cybertronians, implied to be due to a combination of his growth as a person and receiving a power boost from the Thirteen Original Primes.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: In this story, Sakuradite is actually another name for Energon, which also explains how Britannia knows where to find most of it - Megatron gave them the locations, in exchange for a cut of the Sakuradite.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Whilst the presence of the Autobots ensures the survival of both the Yamato Alliance and the civilians of Saitama, Lelouch still ends up almost being found out by Cornelia and requiring external aid to escape.
  • Despite Lelouch taking precautions to prevent his Geass from going out of control, and the author sparing Euphemia, the SAZ Massacre still happens, but it's caused by a Pretender posing as Euphie after the real princess is kidnapped by the Decepticons.
• Internal Reformist: Suzaku, as in canon, strives to change Britannia for the better from within, though he faces stiff resistance from the Britannia, while the Decepticons who are nominally helping him toward that goal believe his plans are naive. Chapter 29 reveals that Suzaku finally realizes that such a goal is impossible and that he chose the wrong side in the conflict for Earth.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Chapter 16 sees Kallen learning that Lelouch is Zero. She's subsequently informed of his identity and Geass.
  • Chapter 18 has the Black Knight Leadership learn that Suzaku pilots the Lancelot.
  • Chapter 19 has Shirley learning about Lelouch's past, his Geass, and his and Rai's connection to the Cybertronians.
  • Chapter 26 sees Suzaku's identity as the pilot of the Lancelot being revealed to the world.
  • Chapter 27 sees Lelouch reveal his true identity to the assembled Black Knight leadership.
  • Chapter 28 has Euphemia learn of the history of the Autobot-Decepticon conflict.
  • Chapter 29 has Nunnally learn that Lelouch is Zero and the truth about the Autobots, though she already suspected, Lelouch learns that Diethard recruited Sayoko into the Black Knights as a spy, Megatron learns about Suzaku's history, including him killing his father, and Rai reveals his heritage to Lelouch, Shirley, and the Autobots.
  • Chapter 30 has Lelouch tell Euphemia everything (Geass, V.V., Rai's past, etc.) during a secure phone call. Later, Suzaku informs Euphie over a not-so-secure channel that Lelouch and Nunnally are alive at Ashford and that Megatron knows this and is threatening to tell the Emperor. All of this is news to Dreadwing, who's also on the call.
  • Chapter 35 has Lelouch, C.C. and Suzaku learn that Megatron had been aware of Lelouch being Zero since the beginning.
  • Chapter 36 has several with Rivalz and Nina learning the truth about Lelouch and Nunnally, and all the major members of the Black Knights, and the Britannian defectors (except Euphie, who was told of this before) learning about Geass and the Cybertronian war.
• Irony:
  • After seeing Lelouch's face at the meeting with Kyoto, Tamaki actually has his loyalty increased, as he could tell from Lelouch's expression that his hatred of Britannia is genuine.
  • Lelouch notes that, after finding out what Cornelia would do if she found out that he and Nunnally are alive, the best way to keep her and Euphie safe at the moment is for her to be his enemy. He notes the irony of the situation.
• It Amused Me:
  • C.C.'s justification for going swimming outside the Ark, which is currently at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean: she was particularly bored at that moment.
  • When Megatron reveals to Lelouch and Suzaku in Chapter 36 that he had been aware of the former being Zero since the beginning, he admits that he took a certain delight in watching the two friends become bitter enemies.
• It Has Been an Honor: Dreadwing tells Cornelia, Euphemia, and Suzaku that it was an honor to know them and fight alongside them, right before he collapses a cave on top of himself, Airachnid, and the Insecticons to allow the three to escape.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure:
  • A variation: after the Seekers and Airachnid allow the Autobots to make off with the Immobilizer because of their unwillingness to work together, Megatron beats all of them into submission and informs them from here on out that they must learn to work together, and that if one of them sabotages any of his subordinates/allies, all four shall perish.
  • Played with again in Chapter 29. After being fed up with Suzaku failing to deliver positive results, Megatron makes it clear to Suzaku that if he disobeys any more orders and does not start delivering good results, he will reveal to Charles that Lelouch and Nunnally are still alive, and leave their fates for Charles to decide.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Thundercracker supports Starscream, who is certainly a thorn in both the Britannian's and the Decepticon's sides, he's not wrong when, in the aftermath of Narita, he notes that Suzaku may not be mentally prepared for the combat he is getting in. Suzaku is indeed mentally off-balance since he remembered how he killed his own father in that battle.
• Just a Machine: Downplayed and just very, very briefly when the Kozuki resistance cell first got to know the Autobots, believing them to be utterly fearless and impregnable due to their metal bodies. The incident with the scraplets however helped them realize that the Autobots (and by extension all Cybertronians) can be just as fearful and vulnerable as any human could. Suprisingly averted to a degree with the Britannians; any discrimination or vilification of Cybertronians is less about being mechanical and more that they're a foreign/alien race altogether.
• Just Friends: Kallen and Rai say as much during Chapter 21. It seems sincere - Kallen seems to be quite clearly pining after Lelouch, and as for Rai, his extreme attempt at apologizing for the death of her father (which he feels responsible for) implies he has feelings for Shirley.
  • Lelouch and Shirley in Chapter 33. When Shirley confesses her crush to Lelouch, he tells her that he doesn't have any romantic feelings for her. While she is hurt, Shirley is still happy to be friends with Lelouch.
• Knight Templar: Suzaku was this in canon, but here it's more obvious and acknowledged - he may have noble intentions, but these require ruthlessness to carry out. And while many of his friends want to see him redeemed, Ironhide points out that Suzaku will need to accept that he was in the wrong for his actions, something he refuses to do.

Tropes L-P

• Laser-Guided Karma: Britannia's Imperial Family goes through this. After centuries of oppressing much of the world, they themselves are brutally subjugated by the Decepticons, who destroy their entire capital in less than a day.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:The first chapter reveals that the boy we see with Charles in Code Geass is his young brother, V.V., aka Victor zi Britannia.
• Lensman Arms Race: Just like in canon, but now the Autobots and Decepticons are throwing their tech into the mix. But since the Decepticons only share their technology with Britannia's aces while the Autobots share their secrets with all of the Black Knights, Britannia is starting to fall behind.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Megatron mostly ignores Britannia beyond assisting Charles with finding Energon because he wants the humans to find Optimus, and believes that backing Britannia is the most effective method of doing so - he knows Optimus won't allow innocents to be subjected to the cruelty Britannia practices on a daily basis and is waiting for Prime to take a stand. Optimus finally obliges during Chapter 5, to Megatron's delight.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: This is ZigZagged to hell and back between Britannia and the Decepticons. The Holy Britannian Empire is shown to be a classist and racist imperial power that tries to paint itself as Holy and Just, but they aren't willing to needlessly sacrifice their own, care about civilian casualties (if said civilians are their own, of course), and have several members who acknowledge the flaws of their faction and are trying to reform it from within. The Decepticons, meanwhile, are unapologetic Galactic Conquerors who have no problem sacrificing their own for trivial reasons and committing genocide against their enemies but are also a pure meritocracy that only factors in loyalty and personal skill when considering advancement, and have no pretensions about being villains. Ultimately, Britannia comes out as the better party in the aftermath of the SAZ Massacre, as while many gleefully participated in the slaughter, several tried to halt it and are horrified by the results. By contrast, not only did the Decepticons cause said catastrophe and graciously sped it along, the only member of the Cons who tried to stop it, Dreadwing, ends up defecting after learning the truth. And in the end, Megatron invokes Eviler than Thou when he executes Charles and causes the chapter's titular Fall of Britannia.
• Meaningful Echo: When C.C. tries giving Optimus Prime a Geass to counter Megatron's Dark Geass, she is pulled into the Matrix of Leadership and converses with some of the Thirteen Primes. Micronus Prime says that they'll allow C.C. to give Optimus a Geass if she promises to do everything in her power to help him stop Megatron and his dark plans, and C.C. says that she accepts the terms of that contract, the same words that Lelouch said to her when he accepted her Geass at the start of the story.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: When the Cybertronians make themselves known, everyone at first thinks that they’re sufficiently advanced Knightmare Frames. However, once people get to know them, they realize that the Cybertronians are not all that different from humans.
• The Mentor: Optimus and Megatron serve as ones for Lelouch and Suzaku respectively. Their reasoning for doing so is even the same: they see so much of the other in their protege and want to make sure they don't turn out like that, Optimus seeing Lelouch as a more noble Megatron, and Megatron seeing Suzaku as a more naive Orion Pax.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: In order from Whitest to Blackest:
  • The Autobots are White, being a race of freedom fighters who are The Fettered and devoted to protecting all other beings in the universe.
  • The Black Knights and Lelouch are slightly grayer than the Autobots (being willing to use people like Diethard, but still have genuinely good motives and fairly high standards).
  • Occupying the grey area would be the various innocent civilians on both sides, who want nothing to do with the conflict but are apathetic to the causes of the fighting.
  • Suzaku occupies a darker shade of grey, having genuinely good motivations but performing villainous actions to achieve them. The fact that Megatron is egging him to do the latter more often ever since Chapter 18 does not help matters, that is, until his Heel–Face Turn at the end of Chapter 32.
  • Charles, Marianne, and V.V. are slightly worse than Suzaku, having understandable motivations but having both goals and actions that are far from ideal.
  • The Britannian Military is made up of Imperialistic Conquerors but they still have families, loved ones, and respectable ideals and morals.
  • The Decepticons are unambiguous villains, with only the occasional Noble Demon.
  • Lastly, there's Mao, who runs on Blue-and-Orange Morality, being entirely focused on C.C.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • C.C.'s name has never been revealed in any canon source. Here, it's Cera.
  • Rai's name is implied to be Kaizaren, as said by V.V. at the end of Chapter 13. Chapter 20 reveals his full name to be Kaizaren von Britannia.
• Necessarily Evil: Optimus admits he doesn't want to fight Megatron and would gladly be willing to end the war between the Autobots and Decepticons peacefully, but so long as Megatron remains a power-hungry tyrant, that will never happen. Suzaku takes issue with this, due to believing that all violence is pointless.
• Nerdgasm: Lloyd's reaction to seeing Cybertronians in their robot forms is pretty much how a kid would react to being in his favorite toy store.
• Never My Fault:
  • Megatron shows elements of this during his conversation with Suzaku about the fate of Cybertron. While he acknowledges that neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons wanted the planet destroyed, he explicitly leaves out the fact that he poisoned the planet's core with Dark Energon, instead merely stating that it became uninhabitable due to the conflict between the two sides. When confronted with the truth at the story's end, however, he actually acknowledges what he's done, but states that he doesn't let it bog him down from what he'll do in the future.
  • Ironically enough, Suzaku has this same problem — while most of his actions are motivated by his desire to die so that he can get redemption for killing his father, Suzaku never actually owns up to the fact that killing his father was wrong and refuses to accept blame for the evils he is complicit in as a member of the Britannian Army and the Decepticons. Ironhide makes this a sticking point when the suggestion of bringing Suzaku into the Black Knights comes up; good-intentioned he may be, but if Suzaku refuses to take responsibility for his actions, he won't and shouldn't be allowed in.
  • After Megatron extracts all information about the Ragnarök project from his brain, all V.V. can do is try and mentally tell his brother that it wasn't his fault, even though revealing himself to Megatron and trying to make a deal with him was all his idea in the first place.
• New Era Speech: Megatron gives one to the world in Chapter 35 when announcing the Decepticons' conquest of Britannia.
• Noble Demon: Deconstructed with Dreadwing - however well-intentioned he may be, he still supports Megatron, and his attempts to support Suzaku only end up putting the latter on a darker path precisely because Dreadwing does not see how evil Megatron is. In the end, when Megatron orchestrates the SAZ massacre, Dreadwing cannot stand it anymore and defects to the Autobots alongside Suzaku.
• No-Sell: Cybertronians are mostly immune to the effects of Geass, due to their sparks being stronger than most Geass abilities. Later chapters reveal that they can be affected by Code Bearers (who are infinitely more powerful than most Geass users), and Word of God at the end of Chapter 19 indicates they are vulnerable to a fully developed Geass, but only if the Geass user has the experience and focus to manage their powers carefully, which prevents Mao from doing so despite technically being capable of it.invoked
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Chapters 32 to 36 fundamentally shatter the plot of the story on the Code Geass end. Megatron impersonating Euphemia via Pretender drone to initiate the SAZ Massacre cements him as the ultimate Big Bad and Crossover Villain-in-Chief of the story. The elements of Britannia that were aware of this fact are turned against the Decepticons and it drives a wedge between their allies who believe the massacre was sanctioned by the Emperor. The following chapters see the Britannia/Decepticon alliance shatter completely when Megatron orders an invasion of Pendragon, where he manages to kill Charles and conquer the capital. The members of the Imperial Family that are at Pendragon are taken prisoner and the Decepticons broadcast their victory to the world, declaring themselves the new rulers of Earth and functionally destroying Britannia. Suzaku joins the Black Knights, along with Nonette, Monica, the li Britannia sisters, Lloyd and Cecile, and the Ashford Academy cast. Cliffjumper and Dreadwing commit Heroic Sacrifices, with the former taking Knight of Ten Luciano Bradley with him and the latter destroying an Insecticon hive led by Airachnid (who survives but is scarred in the explosion). Nunnally is exposed to the Matrix, which cures her Geass-induced blindness. Finally, Optimus is given a Geass by C.C. to counter the Dark Geass Megatron received, with the Thirteen Primes themselves purifying it into a White Geass ... after voicing suspicions that Geass might originate from Unicron. This means that by the beginning of R2, Britannia functionally ceases to exist, with the Decepticons becoming the only antagonists of the story.
• Not His Sled:
  • Lelouch does not throw Kallen off by having a Geassed Sayoko play a recording of him to the girl. Instead, he has Bumblebee do it.
  • Bulkhead isn't the one to lure the Scraplets into the cold using himself as bait; it's Lelouch in a Sutherland instead.
  • Shirley isn't the one to shoot Viletta - Bumblebee does that. However, being present at the fight and almost shooting Viletta does take a toll on her.
  • The SAZ Massacre still happens, but not because of Lelouch accidentally Geassing Euphemia. Instead, Megatron has her replaced with a Pretender drone and has it order the massacre himself, controlling it via Soundwave.
• Not So Invincible After All: Optimus Prime's first duel with Cornelia is this to all of the Japanese resistance, that if their fellow ally can effortlessly best Britannia's undefeated Goddess of Victory, they actually have a chance of winning. During that duel, Cornelia tries to invoke this trope when she scratches Optimus and actually draws Energon, declaring to her troops that they can bleed and they can die. Optimus merely asks if she's proud of just scratching him, and proceeds to beat her Knightmare into the dirt.
• Not So Similar: When Lelouch expresses his fear to Optimus that he might become like Megatron someday after realizing how alike he and Megatron are, such as how they both decided to bring about change through violence and force, Optimus assures Lelouch that although he shares parallels with Megatron he is also much different from him. While Megatron never even cared about the destruction and death he caused, even when it destroyed his own planet, just as long as he gained more power for himself, Lelouch was always motivated for the safety of his sister Nunnally, he has learned from his mistakes to better himself, and has slowly opened himself up to his friends and allies to help him grow into a better person. "Rise of the Decepticons" also has Megatron acknowledging there were only some minor similarities between him and Lelouch, mentioning he sees more of himself in Suzaku.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Team Prime realizes that Lelouch could easily walk down Megatron's path, given his beliefs. Similarly, Optimus finds quite a few similarities between Suzaku and his pre-war self.
• Not So Stoic: Even Tohdoh is absolutely stunned in Chapter 5 when the Autobots make their existence public.
• Obvious Crossover Method: In lieu with some traditional Transformers crossover plots, the worlds intersect through a crashed Ark and Nemesis.
• Off the Rails: Considering that the Autobots reveal their presence on global television in Chapter 5, irrevocably abandoning their normal "Robots in Disguise" strategy, this is definitely in play.
• Oh, My Gods!: It's not rare for Autobots to swear by either Primus' name, or the Well of Allsparks.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lloyd is completely speechless when he sees Bumblebee transform from his car form into robot mode.
• Outliving One's Offspring: As of Chapter 19, Darlton has outlived all of his adoptive sons, who perished either at Narita or Port Yokosuka.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Autobots and the Decepticons are this to Britannia. For a global empire that is only a few crusades and treaties away from total world takeover, getting entangled in an intergalactic war between giant metallic transforming robot aliens was the last thing they could have foreseen.
• Palette Swap: Unlike virtually every other entry in the Transformers' franchise, this is Averted regarding the main Seeker trio. Instead of looking like re-colored versions of Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker have their own body shapes and form a Big, Thin, Short Trio, with Thundercracker as the Big, Starscream as the Thin, and Skywarp as the Short.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: After Rai finds out that Lelouch is Zero, and that Bumblebee is his car, he wonders why no one has noticed that said "car" looks just like the vehicle form of one of the Autobots. Lelouch attributes it to Bumblebee being able to change his coloration slightly, while C.C. thinks that if that's not it, then Britannia's military is just completely incompetent. Milly did see through this disguise, though.
• Parental Substitute: While subtle at first, later chapters in the story indicate that Lelouch is starting to view Optimus as a father figure since his real father is a... less than stellar parent. Mao's remarks in Chapter 19 outright confirms that Lelouch views Optimus as his surrogate father. Later chapters have Kallen admit that she feels the same way about Optimus.
• Pass the Popcorn: When Megatron uses a Cortical Psychic Patch to interrogate Suzaku, Soundwave's Mini-Cons are watching eagerly.
• Pet the Dog: Guilford and Darlton help in battling Airachnid despite Cornelia not investigating the killings in the ghettos (since the victims are Japanese/Elevens). When questioned, they point out that Cornelia did not order them not to help Suzaku and Euphemia.
• The Plot Thickens: After Megatron and Soundwave finish dealing with the undead monster (consisting of wrecked Knightmares, Vehicons, and Britannian excavation equipment), the pair find a small pit filled with... Dark Energon.
• Positive Friend Influence: It's subtle, but Optimus' presence is beginning to rub off on Lelouch. In canon after dealing with the Refrain, Lelouch didn't intervene with the circumstances involving Kallen's mother. Here, he uses his Geass to not only make sure she doesn't serve jail time but to arrange for her and Kallen to live in an apartment, away from Kallen's cruel stepmother. And, instead of Bulkhead using himself as bait to lure out the Scraplets, Lelouch uses his Sutherland instead which earns the trust and respect of the other Black Knights as well as the previously distrustful Ironhide. Chapter 19 confirms that Lelouch sees Optimus as a father figure and is modeling his strategic thinking off of the Autobot leader.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Britannia is a powerful nation with thousands of soldiers at its command. The Autobot group are (currently) only a dozen or so, but are far more durable than any Knightmare, possess technology centuries ahead of any nation on Earth, and have millennia of combat experience. Even when the Decepticons fight alongside the Britannians, their internal squabbles are usually enough for the Autobots to retain the edge. The Autobots only ever retreat when the Britannians bring in reinforcements, and even then, it's either gotta be Megatron himself or a lot of reinforcements.
• Precision F-Strike: Dropped by Ohgi in Till All Are One, in response to Megatron's New Era Speech.
• Pretext for War: The lower-ranked Decepticons are on board with waging war on the Earth and desire to destroy Britannia in part due to their Fantastic Racism and general lack of results, but it's when Megatron discovers the Ragnarok Connection and Charles' plans for it that he mobilizes a full-scale domination war over the Earth, with Britannia being the first to fall.
• Puppet State: The Autobots think Britannia is one to the Decepticons. The truth is slightly more complex - Megatron did help get Charles and V.V. into power, but Charles clearly has ambitions of his own.
• Put on a Bus: All of the Autobots on the Ark besides Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Arcee, Bulkhead, Cliffjumper, Ironhide, and Fixit were thrown off the ship while it hurtles toward Earth, leaving them stuck indefinitely in the cold void of space.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: Mao's last appearance has Megatron hand him over to Shockwave for research. C.C. senses this but has no idea whether or not he survives. Even when he reappears as a disembodied nervous system in Chapter 31, it's left ambiguous if he's actually dead or still alive and aware of his situation.
• Pragmatic Adaptation:
  • To justify Megatron acting as a mentor to Charles, the Exodus from Cybertron is bumped up from happening during the Mesozoic to approximately fifty years before the start of the story.
  • Optimus' normal unwillingness to attack and kill humans is amended here to Would Not Shoot a Civilian, as Britannia has a much greater capability to actually harm the Autobots than most other human antagonists have ever possessed (discounting all human forces displayed in the film series).

Tropes R-Z

• "Ray of Hope" Ending: By the end of R1, Megatron and the Decepticons have essentially destroyed Britannia and begun their conquest of the entire world, with over half of the Black Knights being killed in battle and Cliffjumper and Dreadwing sacrificing themselves to protect their friends. However, despite this victory, the remaining Black Knights and Autobots rally together. Joined by several defectors from Britannia, and the Ashford Student Council, they plan to lay low for a while and rebuild their forces, and they managed to piggyback off Megatron's message to bring all remaining Decepticon forces to Earth and send their own message to bring any scattered Autobots across the universe to Earth so they can join their fight against Megatron. C.C. also forms a contract with Optimus, giving him his own Geass so he can even the playing field against Megatron and his Dark Geass.
• Reaction Shot:
  • There's a whole bunch of these during Chapter 5 when Zero and the Autobots reveal themselves. Suffice to say, everyone is stunned speechless.
  • In Chapter 35, a number of them come from characters from R2, Akito the Exiled and Oz the Reflection when Megatron broadcasts his victory speech over Britannia to the world.
• Robot Buddy: Many major human characters (on both sides) gets paired up with their own Cybertronian partner(s).
  • Lelouch with Bumblebee (and Optimus in the mentor-apprentice sense).
  • Optimus is also this to some extent with C.C.
  • Kallen with Arcee and Cliffjumper.
  • Rai and Tamaki become official Wreckers alongside Bulkhead and Wheeljack.
  • Ironhide becomes this to some degree for Ohgi and Tohdoh.
  • Megatron to Charles.
  • Dreadwing to Suzaku, and later to Euphemia.
  • Lloyd and Knock Out.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: There are some cases of grammar and spelling errors, but the most consistent case of this is Gino's Knightmare, the "Tristan", being called the "Tristian".
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Bulkhead and Tamaki do this, in response to Scraplets (Bulkhead) and Spiders (Tamaki).
• Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Lelouch's cover for Bumblebee? Lelouch bought him using the money he got from gambling. Given the facade he normally puts on, it doesn't take much for everyone else to believe him.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • Megatron is one to Lelouch - whilst both are incredible commanders with a penchant for the dramatic, Lelouch is still capable of traits like empathy and kindness and is motivated by a desire to create a better world for his sister. Megatron, in contrast, is a power-hungry, sociopathic tyrant who fights solely for his own power. Megatron represents both the likely future Lelouch would've had if he was still a part of the Imperial Family and a potential future for Lelouch if the prince loses sight of what he's fighting for, and part of the reason Optimus joins forces with him is to make sure that History Repeats doesn't hit.
  • Suzaku had been becoming this for Optimus - his idealism and belief in moral absolutes has been stated by several Cybertronians to resemble Optimus in his youth when he was originally known as Orion Pax. Unfortunately, under Megatron's (who has also noticed the similarities) corrupting influence, Suzaku is gradually transforming into a darker version of Optimus. Thankfully, Suzaku seems to be on the road to fully avert this after finally joining the Black Knights and the Autobots at the end of Chapter 32.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Arcee's comments in United We Stand indicate that she ships Kallen/Lelouch, to Kallen's embarrassment. Later, we see that Nunnally and Bumblebee ship them as well.
  • Since Dreadwing was present when Euphemia and Suzaku confess their feelings to each other in Chapter 30, he inwardly supports the couple two chapters later when Euphie kisses Suzaku on the cheek.
• Ship Sinking:
  • United We Stand sinks the Rai/Kallen ship, as the two only express annoyance rather than embarrassment when their Knightmares get stuck in a suggestive position due to the Polarity Gauntlet, and both later agree (without any hesitation) that they are Better as Friends.
  • United We Stand and Setting the Stage also sinks Shirley/Lelouch as these chapters note that, while Lelouch cares about Shirley, he has no romantic interest in her.
  • Tropical Skirmish firmly sinks Lelouch/C.C., with the latter telling Nunnally that she's not romantically interested in him, or looking for romance at all currently.
• Ship Tease: Word of God has stated that he's going for Lelouch/Kallen and Shirley/Rai pairings in this story. A couple of moments have already been shown so far.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When Lelouch tells the Autobots his backstory about how his mother was killed, how his father refused his request for justice, and banished him and his sister to Japan, only to invade it a year later, some of them offer to groundbridge to Pendragon, and bring down the Emperor of Britannia. Lelouch immediately shoots it down, pointing out that due to how unpopular Britannia is, the power vacuum would cause the other nations of Earth to attack the weakened Britannia, which would lead to many innocent people getting killed.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Suzaku has been undergoing this due to working side by side with Megatron, culminating in Chapter 18, where he becomes the first human member of the Decepticons. He thankfully snaps out of it in Chapter 32.
• Spot the Imposter: Having already become suspicious due to being unable to contact her the night before the opening ceremony of the SAZ, Lelouch can immediately tell that something is wrong with "Euphemia" when she refers to him as "Zero" even when they're alone together. He finally resorts to attempting to use his Geass on her, which exposes her as a remote-controlled Pretender.
• Spiritual Antithesis: Code Prime is one to Transformers Avatar Chronicles. Both are primarily based on the Aligned continuity and contain elements from each. However, there are elements that make each distinct from the other.
  • The starting points. Avatar Chronicles begins with a space bridge incident initiated by Megatron, and Optimus launching an attack on it, which, while plausible, couldn't have been done in canon. Code Prime begins straight out of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, indicating that the planet had long been corrupted and the Transformers are forced to find a new home.
  • Avatar Chronicles begins in a world of downplayed Black-and-White Morality, while Code Prime starts with Grey-and-Gray Morality with the Transformers' arrival causing it to become more of the latter.
  • The treatment of the Decepticons. In Avatar Chronicles, they become allies of the Fire Nation who are simply seeking to return to Cybertron, and become somewhat subservient to them despite their technological differences. In Code Prime, the Decepticons have somewhat existed in a long Earth-time, have been mentoring Britannia, and utilize their technological gap to fully ransack said empire, taking over as the new Big Bad by the sequel.
  • Whereas Avatar Chronicles follows the Avatar story bit by bit, while Code Prime deviates from canon by giving its human protagonists affected character development, spare supposedly-dead characters and, by the end, has the Decepticons take over as the main villains.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: In Chapter 23, Mao is carried away to be a science experiment at Shockwave's dissection table for failing to obtain a piece of C.C. as a specimen to study Geass.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: Besides being larger and more durable, both the Autobots and the Decepticons have technology centuries ahead of anything humanity has currently.
• Super-Empowering: C.C. gives Optimus a Geass in the epilogue to combat Megatron's Dark Geass.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: Megatron's Dark Geass of Absolute Terror allows him to see someone's worst fears and bombard them with terrifying visions. He can even inflict so much fear that his victims can literally die of fright.
• Take That!: In one of the author's notes, while admitting he screwed up earlier in the story and having Suzaku forget that he met Euphemia while talking to Nina, Iron117Prime admitted that, when considering Nina's character, he doesn't really feel that bad with his goof.
• Tears of Joy:
  • Lelouch and Nunnally sob together when they see that, through the process of freeing Lelouch from Megatron's Dark Geass via the Matrix and C.C., it has also restored Nunnally's sight.
  • C.C. is overjoyed when she sees Optimus manage to throw off Megatron's Dark Geass in Chapter 35. She later sheds more tears out of happiness when she, Nunnally, and Optimus manage to save Lelouch from the Dark Geass in Chapter 36.
• Technologically Advanced Foe: Britannia's technology is presently centuries behind even the Autobots' most simplistic weapons and devices.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The key difference between the Black Knights/Autobots and Britannians/Decepticons, which is spelled out in United We Stand - while the Autobots and Black Knights may disagree at times, they are a team and will work together without any hesitation. The Decepticons and Britannians, by contrast, are mostly united by shared interests, and really don't like working with the other side, or each other.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Either for kidnapping Euphemia or starting the SAZ Massacre or both, Megatron receives the full ire of Lelouch, Suzaku, Cornelia, and the Black Knights.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill:
  • Downplayed. Optimus is relaxing the rules due to the fact Britannia has the technology to fight the Autobots on equal footing, plus some of the Britannians being just as evil as the Decepticons. Civilians are still off-limits.
  • Suzaku is very much against killing, due to his belief in all violence being pointless. The final chapter of R1 has him abandon this rule in regards to Megatron, after everything the Decepticon leader had done to him and his loved ones.
• The Unintelligible: Bumblebee can only speak in beeps, as per the standard practice of late. For the sake of the audience, whatever he says is bracketed, letting us know it is something only other Cybertronians can understand. Lelouch and the Black Knights eventually get earpieces to translate what the Autobot scout says. C.C. can perfectly understand him without it though, much to everyone's shock.
• Unreliable Narrator: Megatron is this during a conversation with Suzaku regarding the War for Cybertron - while he acknowledges that neither side is completely good or evil, he implies that the planet becoming uninhabitable was a result of the conflict getting out of control, rather than him deliberately poisoning the core with Dark Energon to try and gain planetary domination. He also insinuates that he gathered the Decepticons and rose up against the ruling council because they refused to accept Optimus' peaceful solution to dealing with planetary unrest, when in actuality, they stepped down willingly and named Optimus the new leader, causing the envious Megatron to rise up over not getting what he wanted. And lastly, Megatron indicates that he tried to reach out to Optimus and seek some form of alliance, only to be rejected, conveniently leaving out that Megatron was turned away because he was a despot whose own actions are the entire reason Optimus turned against him.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Suzaku, for now - he has a highly advanced Knightmare frame and incredible sync rate, but that will only go so far against opponents (e.g., the Autobots) who have been fighting for longer than he has been alive. This ends up being a problem against most of the Autobots, who are Strong and Skilled due to a combination of being living machines and having fought for centuries - whereas most human opponents would try to shoot down the Lancelot or dodge it when Suzaku goes for his signature spinning kick, the Autobots will actually catch said blow.
  • Charles Zi Britannia's Knightmare, the Excalibur. It's powerful enough to actually give Megatron a run for his money, but the emperor's lack of training means Megatron eventually gets the upper hand.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Charles' Knightmare, the Excalibur, is mentioned as being untested before he's forced to roll it out against Megatron.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • While Megatron is definitely manipulating him for his own ends, he's not wrong when he tells Suzaku that most conflicts aren't black and white and that ideals need goals and plans to get anywhere. The first point is undermined by the fact that the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons IS one with clear-cut heroes and villains, however.
  • A deliberate example with Airachnid - she tells Suzaku in Chapter 19 that regardless of his intentions, he's sided with a group that is fundamentally evil and will not change, no matter what he does. Dreadwing tries to tell Suzaku to ignore her, but Airachnid is completely correct here - the Britannian Empire ultimately view the Elevens as expendable and will fight any attempts to improve the Elevens' standard of living, to say nothing of the Decepticons, who would likely burn the whole planet if it would destroy the Autobots.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • V.V. throws a complete temper tantrum when he senses Optimus Prime destroying the Kamine Island Thought Elevator, disrupting his and Charles' Ragnarök plan.
  • Suzaku has one in Chapter 32 when he learns that Lelouch is Zero, and Megatron kidnapped Euphemia and replaced her with a Pretender to spark the SAZ Massacre. He angrily blames Lelouch and the Black Knights for choosing to fight against Britannia and the Decepticons. When Lelouch makes it very clear to Suzaku that he's on the wrong side of this conflict and needs to stop blaming others for his own mistakes, Suzaku ends up punching Lelouch and asking him to just let him die already.
• Villain Takes an Interest:
  • In Chapter 7, after Soundwave learns that Lelouch is Zero as well as a thought dead prince of Britannia and tells Megatron, Megatron decides to keep this information secret from both Charles and his crew, having taken an interest in what Optimus sees in Lelouch.
  • The same is true for Suzaku, as Chapter 13 reveals that Megatron wants Knock Out to upgrade the Lancelot as he's taken an interest in both it and Suzaku, planning to turn Suzaku into a "human" Decepticon. By Chapter 32, however, Megatron has abandoned these plans.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • The fight between the Lancelot and Bumblebee is a wake up call for both Britannia and the Autobots:
    • For Britannia, even though they don't know about the Autobots yet, it shows that despite their superior technology to the rest of the world, they still lag behind the Cybertronians. For while the Lancelot is the most advanced Knightmare Frame in existence, and Suzaku is a talented pilot, his lack of experience allows Bumblebee to fight the Lancelot to a standstill.
    • For the Autobots, it shows that the fight against Britannia will not be an easy one. Despite Bumblebee being a sentient Mechanical Lifeform Transforming Mecha, the Lancelot's superior technology compared to other Britannian Knightmare Frames, combined with Suzaku being a talented pilot, allows it to go toe to toe with the young Cybertronian.
  • Duel of Steel
    • Cornelia becomes one for Lelouch, for while he may be a great strategist, she demonstrates that he still has a lot to learn when it comes to fighting a war, as Cornelia is able to outmaneuver him, and would have exposed his identity had Optimus not intervened.
    • The fight between Cornelia and Optimus is an even bigger one for Britannia than the fight between Bumblebee and the Lancelot. Unlike Suzaku, Cornelia is an experienced Knightmare Frame pilot who uses a Knightmare that’s inferior to the Lancelot, yet has never lost a battle. Despite that, Optimus easily defeats her, even though he was holding back throughout the whole fight, not only demonstrating why he’s the leader of the Autobots, but that when push comes to shove, he’ll step up and join the fight himself.
• Watching Troy Burn: The prologue opens with the Autobots forced to leave the dying Cybertron, then the canonical events of Code Geass happen and Japan is conquered by Britannia...and the Decepticons force the royals to watch as they blast the royal palace to smithereens.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Decepticons and Britannians may both want to eliminate the Autobots and Black Knights, but they are not very good at working with each other to achieve those goals. This becomes a plot point in United We Stand, as Suzaku, Airachnid, and Breakdown ultimately lose out to Kallen, Rai, Bulkhead, and Arcee because the latter four are a team and can work together despite issues involving the polarity gauntlet, while the former trio is hamstrung by a variety of issues (Airachnid wants the Gauntlet for herself, Suzaku and Breakdown want to give it to Megatron, and Suzaku also wants Airachnid arrested for the massacre she committed in the ghettos.)
• Wham Line:
  • From Chapter 25 after Megatron and Soundwave learn the source of a disturbance in Mt. Haku.
    Megatron: It's been a long time. I had thought you lost forever when Cybertron went dark. But who would have ever guessed you would be found on Earth. Dark Energon!
  • Then there's Chapter 29 when Lelouch reveals the truth to Nunnally.
    Lelouch: Nunnally, there's no easy way to say this. So...I'll just come right out with it. I'm Zero.
    Nunnally: (tearfully) I...I didn't want to believe...
    Lelouch: (in complete shock) You...you knew...?
    Nunnally: When...you rescued Suzaku...Once I heard your voice...my heart told me that it was you. But...I didn't want to believe it...
  • Chapter 36 has a major one when C.C. meets several of the original Primes when she makes a contract with Optimus, which confirms a theory fans have feared.
    Alpha Trion: Young one, listen carefully. There is a reason why Megatron's ability is so dangerous, and how he was able to gain a power without forming what you call a 'contract' with someone like you.
    C.C.: What is it?
    Prima: The power you call Geass, we believe to have originated from Unicron.
• What the Hell Are You?:
  • Pretty much the entire world has this reaction to the Autobots revealing themselves when Zero frees Suzaku.
  • V.V. has this reaction when Optimus Prime breaks out of Megatron's Dark Geass, which is powerful enough to kill even a Code Bearer like V.V. himself, with nothing but sheer Heroic Willpower.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Autobots give Lelouch this following the Battle at Saitama, for letting his pride get the better of him, threatening to kill himself in front of C.C., walking into Cornelia's trap, and almost getting himself captured, forcing Optimus Prime to intervene to allow him to escape. Ironhide bluntly impresses upon him that war isn't a game, Arcee impresses on him that he's not the only one who's lost people in this war and the fight against Britannia is a lot bigger than him and his pride.
• What You Are in the Dark: The Patch Paradox reveals the true characters of Genbu, Suzaku, Euphemia, and Cornelia.
  • When Britannia invades Japan, Genbu reveals his prideful and stubborn nature, opting to fight till the last man, even willing to assault his own child to accomplish it. Suzaku on the other hand, proves his naivety and ultimately, cowardice when he murders his own father in order to fit his childish ideal.
  • Meanwhile after learning the true nature of the Decepticons, Cornelia also proves her own pride and stubbornness but after hitting Euphemia, she becomes regretful, revealing that there are some things she won't cross. Euphemia, unlike Suzaku, despite being personally hurt by what Cornelia did to her, chooses to leave showing that she won't stoop to the same level her knight has done.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: As in canon, Suzaku is this. It's deconstructed further than in canon, though, because his tendency to see only the best in people means that he fails to recognize just how monstrous Megatron is, which also blinds him to how evil the Decepticons are.
• Wrong Context Magic: Cybertronians have no familiarity with Geass or Codes, despite having some magical powers/artifacts of their own. Additionally, they are largely unaffected by Geass, apparently because Cybertronians' sparks vastly outclass Geass in terms of power. So far, only a Code Bearer, C.C., has been able to affect a Cybertronian, and it required direct contact to do so. Word of God at the end of Chapter 19 indicates it is possible for a fully mature Geass to affect Cybertronians, but it would require maturity and focus on the part of the Geass user - something Mao lacks.invoked
• You Are Not Alone: C.C., Nunnally and Optimus Prime are able to reach Lelouch who is caught in the grips of Megatron's Dark Geass, and by helping him remember everyone who is waiting for him and relies on him, manages to bring him out of the fear-induced death spiral.
• You Monster!: When Megatron finishes explaining his Dark Geass and how it will gradually kill Lelouch, C.C. calls him the Devil Incarnate. An amused Megatron simply asks if she was only realizing that now.
• Your Head A-Splode:
  • This is often a tactic the Autobots use when fighting Britannia's Knightmares. By blowing off the head, the Knightmare is rendered inoperable.
  • Kickback and Breakdown both meet their end like this. Bumblebee shoots Kickback's head off on Kamine Island, and Rai obliterates Breakdown's head with his Gekka's Radiant Wave Surger during the Black Rebellion.
  • When Dreadwing joins the Autobots, he has Ratchet and Fixit perform the Core Override Protocols, which will allow them to blow up his brain module if he ever turns on them.

Code Prime - R2: Revolution provides examples of:

Tropes A-M

• Abled in the Adaptation: Unlike in the anime, Xingke is not suffering from a disease.
• Actionized Sequel: Considering the bump-up in the number of characters and the overall scenario, there is far more action in this fic than the previous one. Just from the first scene introducing the Combiners, demonstrates that the scale of the war has escalated drastically.
• Affirmative Action Girl: Several female Transformers have joined both sides; Strongarm, Elita-One, Chromia and Windblade for the Autobots, and Slipstream and Glowstrike for the Decepticons.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us:
  • Battle for the Ark sees the Decepticons launching a full-scale assault on the Ark.
  • The Fires of Rage ends with Shin and Steeljaw about to lead their forces in an attack on Castle Weisswolf. This attack occurs and is repelled in Black Bishop's Gambit.
  • Siege of Castle Weisswolf sees another attack on the titular castle by Shin and Steeljaw's forces.
• Altar Diplomacy: As in canon, the High Eneuchs try to use Tianzi as a pawn in a political marriage. The main difference is that the marriage is with Schneizel instead of Odysseus, with the alliance being to the Decepticons.
• And Then What?:
  • Averting this is the second major goal of the Autobots and Black Knights. Part of their reasoning and plans for recruiting other superpowers to their cause is start setting up their world's version of the United Nations to work out how exactly the planet is going to be run when the Decepticons are taken care of.
  • Jean asks this of Shin in Siege of Castle Weisswolf, asking what they'll do once they help the Decepticons crush all resistance. She's horrified by his answer.
  • During the mission to Antarctica, when Kallen starts to talk with Lelouch about his plans after winning the war, he realizes that he'd never really considered what he, personally, would do after the Decepticons are defeated and world peace is achieved, being too focused on creating a better world for Nunnally and his actions as Zero.
• And This Is for...: When crippling Airachnid during the battle at Castle Weisswolf, Kallen and Arcee dedicate their attacks to all the innocents slaughtered in the ghettos and Tailgate, respectfully.
• Animal-Motif Team: Steeljaw's pack currently is made up of himself (wolf), Thunderhoof (deer), and Airachnid (spider). It's later joined by Quillfire (porcupine), Underbite (gorgonopsid/mole) and Sky-Byte (shark). The only one who doesn't fit the theme is Fracture (motorcycle).
• Animals Hate Him: It turns out that Arthur's reaction to Suzaku isn't unique; apparently all cats bite Suzaku, even otherwise friendly ones.
• Anti-Magic: The Decepticons have completed a Geass Canceller that can be used in combat, which they've equipped to Devastator.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: When Lelouch is Dragged into Drag, it's joked that he actually looks fairly attractive.
• The Bad Guy Wins: A few instances in the Iacon Relics arc:
  • Clash of Metal and Ice has Starscream acquiring the Apex Armor like in canon, forcing Alpha Team to simply sink him to the ocean, allowing the Decepticons a victory.
  • Broken Walls has the Combaticons not only getting a small chunk of Red Energon, but killing Air Raid, Zi Dien, and Urabe.
  • Ghosts sees Shockwave managing to successfully retrieve the Driller.
  • Red Triage has Soundwave obtain the Resonance Blaster like in canon.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Tired of Lloyd, Rakshata, and Fixit's squabbling in Nerves of Steel, Nunnally puts together a plan to get them to work together by faking a weapons malfunction, which works.
  • In Tunnel Vision, the members of Beta Team use Springload's obsession with Doradus to lure him into a trap and ambush him.
  • In Broken Walls, Theta Team exploit the various Fatal Flaws of the Combaticons in order to divide them.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Reconstructed. The Zevon family was a mess because the allure of being close to power through Charles's black ops team Pluton drove Oiagros to kill his sister for the position of head of the family. Then as part of the fallout, Orpheus was given away, and Oldrin ended up being traumatized by the murder. Oldrin then went into counterterrorism as a way to ensure she could fight Oiagros again in the future, while Orpheus ended up losing his love due to Oiagros wrecking his life going after Marrybell's sister. Sounds like a recipe for disaster right? Well, it turns out being separated was great for giving each of these members context for their family's actions and to build lives apart from that. Oiagros ended up having a Heel Realization and became Wizard to resist Britannia in secret. Oldrin found love and began to repair her personality as a defender of innocents. And Orpheus ironically enough joined Peace Mark to fight against the greater structural problems that hurt his family too. So that by the time all of them are reunited to fight the Decepticons together, they may be strangers or angry, but they now see that they have a REAL family to rebond over rather than the mess that was created.
• Big "WHAT?!":
  • Gino, when Schneizel reveals that he voluntarily joined the Decepticons.
  • Thunderhoof, when he's informed that the Black Knights are attacking his Energon mine.
  • Megatron, upon seeing that Lelouch is still alive.
  • This is the Last Word of Swordmaster Scholtz when his Knightmare is disabled by Orpheus during the attack on Castle Weisswolf, right before he's finished off.
  • Marrybell's reaction when Devastator uses a Geass Canceller to stop her from controlling him.
• Breather Episode:
  • Chapter 6, The Next Move. Following the Big Badass Battle Sequence of the previous chapter, this chapter focuses on the Autobot/Black Knight alliance celebrating their victory, while both sides plot the next steps in their respective strategies.
  • Chapter 9, Leave of Absence, similarly has the Autobots and Black Knights in the E.U. relaxing and taking a break, and while there are a few scenes that involve the Dark and Troubled Past of a few characters, for the most part it's much more light-hearted than the previous chapter.
  • Chapter 16, A United Front Facing the Dark Horizon. The Autobots and Black Knights recover from the battles in the E.U. and the Chinese Federation, leading to several small character scenes.
  • Chapter 30, The United Federation of Nations, has some emotional moments, including the ending where Megatron returns, but is still a bit of a breather from the action-peeled chapters preceding it.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Several Britannian pilots feel a wetness in their pants when they see the Constructicons combine into Devastator.
• Canon Immigrant: The Blitzwing that appears here is a direct import of his version from Animated.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In the first chapter, Lelouch Geasses a random Vehicon in the Mt. Fuji mine to help free the prisoners, then tells him to run off and rethink his life choices. Thirty chapters later in Damocles Rises, that same Vehicon shows up again, having had a Heel–Face Turn and helping Odysseus, Carine, and Laila escape Decepticon custody.
• Cold Open: The sequel opens up with the Deceptions' brutal and swift takeover of Britannia and its various Areas, crushing every instance of opposition in their way.
• Combining Mecha:
  • Cybertronian Combiners take a significant focus this season, with the Decepticons getting two of them.
  • In The Fires of Rage, Castor and Pollux demonstrate that their Knightmares can combine into one. Too bad it doesn't last against Grimlock.
  • In Valley of Kings and Titans, the Enigma of Combination, working in conjunction with Leila's Geass, transforms the Black Wyverns' Knightmares (except Gino's) into Combiners, which can merge into a "Super Knightmare" called the Hercules.
  • In Damocles Rises, thanks to the Forge of Solus Prime, the Shinkiro and Lancelot Albion, along with the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N Eight Elements and Raiden S.E.I.T.E.I.N. Seven Elements, can now combine, forming the Silver King and Firestorm respectively.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The Britannian Pacific Fleet and the remaining Knights of the Round launch an attack on the Decepticons in the ruins of Pendragon. Bruticus and Devastator wipe them out in about five minutes.
  • The other Britannian holdouts we see don't do that much better.
  • The Fires of Rage has Grimlock completely trounce the Dark Knights, Dark Pawns, and Headmasters. He even kills Rolo, Castor, and Pollux.
• Deal with the Devil: Referenced, the gypsy taking Cera's fortune notes that she doesn't technically qualify as a "witch", because they sold their souls to the Devil for power, but she didn't sell her soul, it was taken from her, and she's on her way to reclaiming it.
• Dented Iron: After the Autobots and Black Knights retrieve the Star Saber, Nina scans it and finds it covered with micro-fissures, as not even a Prime Relic, forged when the universe was new, is immune to the ravages of time. That said, it's still a legendary mountain-cleaving weapon that will not break to anything short of a supernova, and it's later refurbished along with the Skyboom Shield once the Forge of Solus Prime is recovered.
• Designated Girl Fight: Windblade and Slipstream are the only female flying Transformers on their respective sides and happen to be archenemies, so they're guaranteed to single each other out during a fight.
• Death Equals Redemption: Marianne, despite being accomplice to many atrocities in her lifetime, gives up her life and soul so that the Primes can return her son Lelouch to life.
• Devil, but No God: Averted, the gypsy woman Cera talks to has some knowledge of the Devil/Unicron, and believes that his existence proves that God exists. Maybe not exactly the same God as in churches, but an ultimate force of Good nonetheless to counter Unicron's evil.
• Disney Villain Death:
  • During the battle in Damocles Rises, Underbite gets kicked off of the Ark, falling to his death.
  • Steeljaw meets his apparent end when Anya blasts him into a chasm.
• Divergent Character Evolution: As opposed to being a straight upgrade to the Lancelot as in Code Geass, the Lancelot Conquista is now a separate model — specifically, it’s the upgraded version of Nonette’s Galeschin (and is thus called the Galeschin Conquista).
• Dumb Muscle: Downplayed compared to most instances, but both Bruticus and Devastator prove to be physical powerhouses that are a little lacking in the intelligence department.^note Canon has it that having five/six minds fused into one impairs a Combiner's intelligence due to personality differences
• Dumbass Has a Point: Tamaki is the first to realize that in addition to Cybertronians, Tox-En could have a negative effect on Knightmares since they also run off Energon.
• Dragged into Drag: When at the gypsy camp, Lelouch ends up forced to wear a dress because there's no other suitable clothes available, and understandably hates every second of it.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Lampshaded by Megatron in Spark of Darkness — if Lelouch knew his mother's true colors, he might consider how him using Marianne's corpse as the power core of the Dark Queen to be a well-deserved fate.
  • The United Federation of Nations mentions that V.V.'s body was disposed of by Groundbridging it to the Earth's core. Of course, Transformers fans know what's actually down there...
• Dying Moment of Awesome:
  • Johann Schwarzer stays behind to hold off the Decepticons and buy time for Marrybell to escape. Then, when his command room is breached, gives a few last spiteful remarks before detonating the explosives lining the room to destroy the building and all the Vehicons invading it.
  • Urabe sacrifices himself to blow up the Red Energon that Bruticus is trying to escape with, getting caught in the blast in the process but managing to damage the Combaticons enough that they're forced to flee.
  • Tink fires a Mega-Hadron Launcher at Devastator to shut off the Vortex Grinder and save the rest of his team, but the force of the blast sends Bonecrusher flying at his Knightmare, crushing him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: All of the Autobot-Black Knight Alliance face a series of gruelling, heart-wrenching, horrifying, high-stakes events while waging their war with the Decepticons, but despite all the bloodshed and death they all face, the Alliance manages to ultimately claim victory over their enemies and save the world, allowing them all to usher in a new age of peace, happiness, and freedom.
• Eat Me: This is how Grimlock manages to overcome The Driller. He has Alice drop him inside, then burns it from the inside.
• Establishing Character Moment: Akito is introduced as he was in Akito the Exiled; slaughtering Euro-Britannian forces left and right like a man possessed all by himself.
• Everyone Can See It: All the Autobots and Black Knights can pick up on the Cornelia/Guilford and Lelouch/Kallen Ship Teases.
• Everyone Has Standards: Seeing the devastation done to the Tokyo Settlement, Kallen says that as much as she hated the Britannians, she didn't think they deserved what happened there.
• Evil Is Petty: It's lampshaded that Megatron continuing to call Elita-One "Ariel" is incredibly petty.
• Evil Knockoff: In Toxic Nemesis multiple characters mock V.V./"Nemesis Prime" for being a poor copy of Optimus in pretty much every way.
• The Evils of Free Will:
  • Schneizel gives this rationale for why he's aiding the Decepticons. In his view, humanity is driven by conflict and other self-destructive behavior as a result of their very nature, and under Decepticon rule, everyone will be equal (or equally worthless, as Gino puts it), and they can bring order.
  • Megatron and Shockwave hold this view for all sentient species. Their Neo Ragnarok project — based off of Charles and V.V.'s original Ragnarok plan — is supposed to eliminate free will completely for this very reason.
• Excalibur: When the Decepticons find the Star Saber in The Sword in the Stone, which is stuck in a rock and can only be removed by a Prime, Schneizel lampshades the similarities it has with the legend of Excalibur, and similar comparisons are made among the Black Knights when they learn of it as well. Though they all make the mistake of saying Excalibur was the Sword in the Stone, which is most versions of the legend is a separate blade.
• Explosive Leash: Gino, Anya, Castor, and Pollux are forced to aid the Decepticons in battle as "Dark Knights", with their Knightmares being outfitted with explosives so they don't try and defy orders.
• Fetch Quest: The chapter Tunnel Vision marked the start of the "Hunt for the Iacon Relics" arc. By the end of Toxic Nemesis, the Decepticons managed to secure the Apex Armor, the Red Energon, the Driller, and the Resonance Blaster, while the Autobot-Black Knight alliance only managed to acquire the Phase Shifter, the Enigma of Combination, and the Skyboom Shield; they did manage to find the Tox-En first but chose to destroy the deadly substance by tossing it into a volcano since they had no safe means to store it on Horai Island and was considered too dangerous to let even a trace of it fall into Decepticon hands. So technically the two factions are 4-for-4. However, it turns out there's one more relic, the Star Saber, that the alliance manages to acquire after the Decepticons excavate it, which ties the "relic score" for real this time.
• Foreshadowing: In Nerves of Steel, Lelouch and the Black Knights wonder if there's any way they can make their Knightmares combine like the Combaticons in order to match Bruticus. In Valley of Kings and Titans, the Black Wyverns acquire the Enigma of Combination, which allows their Alexander Knightmares to combine into a new Knightmare called the Hercules.
• Gilded Cage: The members of the Britannian Imperial Family at the engagement party in chapter 15 lament that, while they're staying in Schneizel's estate rather than being reduced to slaves, they're still prisoners.
• Give My Regards in the Next World: Right before killing Quillfire at Castle Weisswolf, Rai says to give his regards to Breakdown, whom Rai killed during the Black Rebellion.
• Hidden Elf Village: Horai Island, which the High Eunuchs don't even know exists, is fitted with a shield generator that hides it from both the naked eye and radio frequencies. With the Ark airborne again, the civilian refugees are moved there in order to keep them out of harm's way while the Autobots and Black Knights take the fight to the Decepticons.
• History Repeats: Lelouch and Suzaku express the belief in Knights and Wyverns that, if Britannia hadn't been conquered by the Decepticons, or if Napoleon had united Europia into an empire, then it's likely that they would have led Earth down the same path of self-destruction that Cybertron went through. Considering what Charles tried to do in canon, and was trying here, they have a point.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite Nina being a part of the Autobot/Black Knight Alliance and not creating the FLEIJA, Schneizel still has the Damocles be constructed as a weapon, but with fusion cannons as the main weapon instead of nuclear missiles.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In A Measure of Trust, Cera gets close enough to Anya to realize that Marianne is in her body.
  • In Battle for the Ark, Schneizel reveals to Lelouch, Euphie, and Nunnally that he's been voluntarily working with the Decepticons.
  • In Knights and Wyverns, Leila learns of Geass and Megatron's own Dark Geass. Smilas also learns of Megatron's past.
  • In The Brightness Falls, Orpheus reveals to the Autobot/Black Knight leadership that V.V. was behind the attack that killed Marrybell's mother and sister. He also reveals that Marrybell's sister Euliya was actually kidnapped in the Geass Order and was later killed when she escaped with Orpheus and Miss X. They also learn Marrybell had a Geass granted to her by V.V., and her memories were likely modified by Charles' own Geass to forget the truth of V.V.'s actions.
  • In Red Triage, Sigma Team learns both about the existence of Geass Cancellers and Wizard's true identity.
• The Internet Is for Porn: In A Different Kind of Engagement, some of the Decepticons at the party mention videos of humans "interfacing" on the internet. As you can imagine, they're rather disgusted by the idea.
• Irony: It's lampshaded once or twice in Knights and Wyverns how ironic it is that Leila had been encouraging the urgency of contacting the Black Knights and Autobots for aid against the Decepticons, even though the E.U. had no way of contacting them, only for Zero to literally show up at her home not long after that conversation.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Gino (reluctantly), Anya/Marianne, Castor and Pollux rui Britannia, and Anticlea eu Britannia all choose to surrender and live rather than futilely resist the Decepticons and die.
  • After seeing his troops get destroyed easily by Optimus Prime, Cera's Akatsuki, and the Shinkiro, a lone Vehicon trooper immediately surrenders and is Geassed by Lelouch.
  • Slipstream, upon finding that she's alone against all of the Aerialbots, gives a token "This isn't over, Autobots!" as she takes their offer to retreat.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Decepticons try and destroy the Ark full of millions of civilian refugees, but when the plan to restart the Ark's engines works, the Nemesis gets damaged and falls into the same spot on the seafloor that the Ark was at... only it's now got lava bubbling up, damaging it further.
• Last Episode, New Character: Chapter 38, which is the epilogue, shows Claus' daughter Marie, who was only shown in pictures at that point, Sophie's husband Takeru, now out of his coma, as well as Shalio, Shamna and Bolvona from Resurrection, the latter three setting up events for R3.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Upon first seeing Sky-Byte, Quillfire, and Springload, Tamaki compares the upcoming fight to a Saturday morning cartoon.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Schneizel views servitude under the heel of the Decepticons as the best option for humanity, believing that mankind would destroy itself otherwise, and while not ideal, it's the course of action with the best chance of survival.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: In the beginnig of Tunnel Vision, the Autobot-Black Knight alliance divides into eight teams to simultaneously pursue the eight Iacon relics:
  • Alpha Team, pursuing the relic in Antarctica, consists of Lelouch, Optimus, Kallen, Ohgi, Suzaku, and Elita.
  • Beta Team, consisting of Bumblebee, Arcee, Smokescreen, Milly, Rivalz, Shirley, and Nunnally, goes to Paris.
  • Delta Team, heading to Egypt, consists of the Black Wyverns, Gino, Strongarm, Grindcore, and Sideswipe.
  • Gamma Team has Ultra Magnus, Jazz, Cornelia, Gilbert, Villetta/Chigusa, Monica, and Prowl heading to Australia.
  • Theta Team consists of both the Black Dragon unit and the Aerialbots searching the Great Wall in the Chinese Federation.
  • Sigma Team has the Crimson Knights, Ratchet, Wizard and Orpheus searching in the Alps.
  • Omega Team, looking for the relic on an island on the Equator, consists of Ironhide and the Wreckers.
  • Zeta Team, which consists of Grimlock, Alice, and Cera, deploys to Chernobyl in the EU.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Nobody in the Autobot/Black Knight Alliance is aware of Wizard's true identity as Oiagros Zevon, or his past. Not even those he works with in Peace Mark, including his nephew Orpheus, know. He does want to tell them, but doing so would mean confessing to killing his sister Olivia, along with his past sins, and he feels he's not ready to do that. It is later revealed that some Black Knights and Autobots managed to put two and two together about him, but have not revealed it to anyone yet. Come Red Triage, and Orpheus, Marrybell, and their team find out when Wizard's mask falls apart from the earlier battle. None of them were pleased by this discovery.
  • When the Autobots and Black Knights go to Leila to try and make a treaty with the E.U., they tell her about Geass, but advise her not to tell anyone in the E.U. leadership yet.
• Lured into a Trap:
  • In The Fires of Rage, Shin and Steeljaw let the Autobots and Black Knights attack the Gallia Grande, which they blow up as soon as all the heroes are aboard. Black Bishop's Gambit revealed that Lelouch suspected it to be a trap, and the heroes managed to escape via Groundbridge.
  • In Siege of Castle Weisswolf, the Autobots and Black Knights evacuate the castle's civilian staff after hijacking the Anti-Groundbridge satellite and tricking the Decepticons into thinking it's still active. When Shin and Steeljaw's forces then fully invade the castle, the heroes pull back and blow up the castle, wiping out most of the Decepticon and Order of Michael soldiers.
• Make an Example of Them: Thunderhoof has the Black King, Mrs. Statfeld, and Mrs. Ashford dropped into molten metal, alive, as punishment for trying to start a revolt, broadcasting it to the rest of the mine.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Thundercracker finds it pretty obvious that the High Eunuchs killed Tianzi's parents so they could make her their puppet as they seized power.
• Mental Fusion:
  • When Lelouch asks about Cybertronian Combiners, Optimus and the others explain how when they Combine, their minds merge into a single entity. However, they also mention that while Combiners are extremely powerful, the combined mind reduces them to Dumb Muscle.
  • When the Black Wyverns gain the ability to form the Hercules thanks to the Enigma of Combination, unlike Cybertronian Combiners, their minds do not merge, but instead become synchronized thanks to Lelia's Geass. This gives them an advantage over Devastator, as it allows them to better coordinate against him.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: All of the Black Knights' aces from the previous story (including last-minute recruits such as Suzaku, Nonette, Monica, Cornelia, and Chigusa get new Knightmares developed during the six-month Time Skip (several of which were made from Cybertronian protoforms, so they can transform):
  • Lelouch upgrades from the Gawain to the Shinkiro.
  • Kallen's Guren is converted straight into the Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. Eight Elements.
  • Suzaku's Lancelot is upgraded into the Lancelot Albion.
  • Rai receives the Raiden S.E.I.T.E.N. Seven Elements.
  • Ohgi upgrades from a Burai into the Gawain Nerion.
  • Cornelia gains a customized Vincent, as does Chigusa.
  • Nonette now uses the Galeschin Conquista.
  • Monica upgrades to the Florence Nero.
  • Also, Tamaki and the other Black Knights retire the Burais in favor of Akatsukis, while Tohdoh upgrades from his custom Gekka to the Zangetsu. The Four Holy Swords and Cera also receive command-model Akatsukis.
• Monumental Damage:
  • The Autobots and Black Knights blow up Mt. Fuji to deny the Decepticons access to its massive Energon deposits. Notably, the Japanese Black Knights do so despite how sacred Mt. Fuji is to them, as it's been defiled beyond recognition by the 'Cons.
    Kirihara: Megatron has already destroyed Mount Fuji, it's nothing more than an empty husk now. I'd rather see it as a pile of rubble, a symbol of our resistance than continue to watch it defiled at the hands of those vile Decepticons!
  • The fourth Iacon Relic is hidden under the Great Wall of China, leading to parts of it being demolished by the fighting between the Combaticons and Theta Team.
• Mugging the Monster: Ryo and his gang try kidnapping Smilas... only for the convoy to turn out to contain several Autobots and Black Knights, including Zero and Optimus, negotiating with the E.U. They don't stand a chance.

Tropes N-Z

• Night of the Living Mooks: In Spark of Darkness, Megatron finally uses Dark Energon to summon Terrorcons, as he uses it to raise every Decepticon and Knightmare that died during the Black Rebellion.
• Noodle Incident: A few from the Time Skip, like Milly's well-intentioned attempts to help which resulted in her, Rivalz, and Shirley ending up in the Shadowzone briefly.
• Not Quite Dead: In Siege of Castle Weisswolf, Shin and several Decepticon officers are left to an Uncertain Doom when the castle is collapsed on them. Two chapters later in A United Front Facing the Dark Horizon, it's shown that they all survived though Shin was left heavily maimed.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Shirley notes the similarities between herself and Jean, specifically how they're both blindly loyal to someone they love who doesn't love them back, in order to get through to Jean and talk her into a Heel–Face Turn.
  • Airachnid spitefully claims that Arcee and Kallen's eagerness to kill her is no different from her own bloodthirstiness.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The E.U. is full of them, many of whom are more concerned with their own political power than the Decepticon threat.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The entire Britannian fleet has this in the first chapter when they see Devastator for the first time. Even the Knights of the Round are in complete shock.
  • Bismarck and Marianne when they learn that Devastator can negate Geass with the Geass Canceller.
  • Thunderhoof has this reaction when he learns the Black Knights and Autobots have rigged Mt. Fuji to blow.
  • All of the Decepticons have this reaction upon learning that Zero is alive and well.
  • Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ratchet react in horror when they see Megatron with the Spark Extractor.
  • Steeljaw has this when he sees Suzaku and Kallen prepare to unleash Death from Above with their Knightmares on his pack.
  • All the Decepticons do this when they realize that the Ark is taking off.
  • Ryo, Ayano, and Yukiya all have this when they see the Autobots and Black Knights protecting Smilas and Leila during their attack on the convoy.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Somehow, during the Time Skip at the start of the story, the Black Knights were able to acquire the remains of the Vincent, as Cornelia and Viletta both use customized Vincents as members of the Black Knights. Unless Lloyd had the blueprints on hand already, since the Vincent is the mass production version of the Lancelot...
• One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Combiners like Devastator and Bruticus usually end up as Dumb Muscle due to the Mental Fusion of all the component minds, but Hercules is exempt from this because its components are human-piloted Knightmares and the pilots' minds are only synchronized via Leila's Geass, not merged.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Prime weapons can usually only reach their maximum potential in the hands of a Prime. While items like the Forge of Solus Prime or the Skyboom Shield can be used as regular weapons in others' hands, they can only become magical item creators or impenetrable defenses with a Prime. This especially is true for the Star Saber, which can't even be moved from where it's embedded without a Prime touching it.
• Out-Gambitted:
  • In the fittingly titled Black Bishop’s Gambit, Lelouch anticipates the plans of both Steeljaw and Smilas, and uses them to his own advantage.
  • He does it to them again in Siege of Castle Weisswolf, letting them attack the castle after it's been evacuated and then blowing it up once all their forces are inside.
  • Lelouch unfortunately then ends up on the receiving end of this in War on Geass when Shockwave anticipates his plan to assault the Geass Order and the Thought Elevators, setting traps at each location.
• Puppet Queen: As in canon, the High Eunuchs have used Tianzi as a puppet to further their control of the Chinese Federation.
• Power Limiter: In Black Bishop’s Gambit Cera manages to temporarily suppress Shin’s Geass.
• Power Nullifier: At some point after conquering Britannia and gaining access to the Geass Order, the Decepticons developed a Geass Canceller to shut down any Geass powers used against them. So far we've seen these being used by Devastator and Thundercracker, though Word of God confirms that Jeremiah has one as well.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • The Decepticons treat their human slaves terribly, but not enough to kill them, on the logic that dead slaves can't keep working. It's also noted that whereas Britannia went out of the way to destroy cultural heritage sites to further crush their conquests, the Decepticons just avoid areas that are of no material use to them.
  • The Deceptions would rather conquer China by force rather than be allied with it through an arranged marriage between Schniezel and Tianzi, but marriages are cheaper than a war of conquest.
• Revenge Before Reason: Despite being conscripted into the Dark Knights and kept in line with an Explosive Leash that Optimus was willing to free them from when Anya looks ready to try and join Optimus, Marianne takes over, shrugs off his Prime Geass, and refuses to join him out of anger, blaming him for Megatron learning about the Ragnarok Connection, Charles's death, and taking Lelouch and Nunnally from her.
• Revenge by Proxy: Airachnid kills Cornelia and Euphemia's mother when she refuses to tell her where her daughters are.
• The Remnant: The Decepticons take months mopping up the last of the Britannian government and military until all that's left is the quasi-independent Euro-Britannia and the in-hiding Princess Marrybell and her Glinda Knights.
• Robot Buddy: In addition to previous examples from R1, R2 adds some new partnerships.
  • Drift and his Mini-cons to the Four Holy Swords.
  • Sideswipe with Ryo.
  • Grindcore with Suzaku and later with Yukiya.
  • Strongarm with Ayano.
  • Perceptor and Fixit become this to the Black Knights' R&D team.
  • Windblade with Kaguya, Sayoko, and later Tianzi.
  • Grimlock with Alice.
  • Steeljaw becomes this for Shin.
  • Starscream and Schneizel.
• Rousing Speech:
  • After destroying Mt. Fuji, Zero and Optimus broadcast a declaration of war on the Decepticons to the whole world, calling on humanity to unite and rise up.
  • Leila makes one of her own in Black Bishop’s Gambit.
• Running Gag: When someone sees Optimus Prime for the very first time, they are usually silently awestruck by him.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: In Light and Darkness, Megatron is trapped in a Shadowzone in the Sword of Akasha, which is then cut off from Earth by the destruction of the Thought Elevators. The author's notes compare this to being locked in an air-tight vault that's then dumped into the middle of the ocean.
• Seers: The gypsy woman who reads Cera's fortune is able to detect that she's seen Unicron.
• See You in Hell: Airachnid says as such to Kallen and Arcee right before they kill her.
• Series Fauxnale: With Lelouch, the Autobots, and their many allies having claimed victory against all odds, One Shall Rise looks like the perfect place to end Code Prime's story. However, said epilogue also brings in King Shailo, High Priestess Shanma, and general Bolova all having a plan of their own, with the former two meeting Predaking to help further them. Meanwhile, Beleth is confronted by Unicron the Chaos Bringer, who absorbs him, Megatron, and V.V. (Victor) for his own sinister plans. These two events show that there is more to come in the story.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • By this point, virtually everybody sees that there's something in the air between Lelouch and Kallen.
  • Kaguya shows her support for Suzaku and Euphie, calling them a darling couple.
  • Lelouch is horrified when he comments on the signs of attraction between Leila and Akito, thinking that he's turning into Milly.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Optimus and Cera reveal to Wizard that they and Lelouch have been aware of his true identity of Oiagros Zevon in A United Front Facing the Dark Horizon, and have not revealed this to anyone in the alliance.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Kallen interrupts Airachnid's final rant at Castle Weisswolf by grabbing her by the face and telling her to shut up, right before killing her.
• Sibling Team: Lelouch, Nunnally, Cornelia, Euphemia, and Rai, are all siblings and part of the Black Knights, even if only three of them are actual fighters.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: When the Wreckers come up with their plan to dispose of the Tox-En, Euphemia asks why Rai is carrying it up the mountain, rather than just flying or using a Groundbridge. He, Bulkhead, Tamaki and Nonette point out that flying up would alert the Decepticons to their position, letting them intercept, and with all the missions going on they need the Groundbridge ready for deployment at a moments notice.
• Smooch of Victory: Many happen after the final battle, including between Leila and Akito, Marrybell and Oldrin, Suzaku and Euphemia, and Lelouch and Kallen.
• Something Only They Would Say: During her fight with Nonette in The Fires of Rage, Anya tells her to pass on a message on to Shirley — "Look toward the stars as we have done." — saying that she'll know what it means. In the final moments of the chapter, it's revealed that the message was given to her by Shirley's father Joseph, who hopes that Shirley be able to figure out that he's still alive, and enslaved by the Decepticons. Sure enough, when Shirley gets the message in A United Front Facing the Dark Horizon, she says that it was always something her father would say to her whenever they were looking at the stars, realizing he's still alive.
• Storming the Castle: In War on Geass, the Autobots and Black Knights launch simultaneous attacks on the Geass Order's headquarters and the Thought Elevators in order to destroy them all. Unfortunately, Shockwave anticipates this and sets a trap.
• Story Arc: Compared to R1, which mostly followed the first season of Code Geass, R2 is split into a series of arcs.
  • The first six chapters serve as a introductory arc, showing the new characters that have appeared during the Time Skip and establishing dynamics with said characters.
  • Chapters 7 through 16 cover the events of Akito the Exiled, while also covering the Chinese Federation and revealing the origins of Geass.
  • Chapters 17 through 25 comprise of the Iacon Relics arc as Synchronous Episodes.
  • Chapters 26 through 29 is the Geass Order arc, covering the assault on the Geass Order.
  • Chapters 30-33: The UFN Arc, where the UFN is officially formed, and the Decepticons strike back with Damocles and Predaking.
  • The final story arc, comprising of Chapters 34 to 37, covers the Neo-Ragnarok arc, where Megatron reveals his endgame and the Autobot-Black Knight Alliance makes the ultimate stand to stop it.
• Synchronous Episodes:
  • The bulk of A Measure of Trust and Nerves of Steel happen simultaneously.
  • Chapters 18 through 25 will all take place at the same time, as the Autobots and Black Knights, and the Decepticons, divide their forces to search for the Iacon relics.
• Take That!: In Nerves of Steel, when talking about Autobot combiners Lelouch proposes a theoretical combination of Bumblebee, Strongarm, Grindcore, and Sideswipe, only for it to be shot down by the Autobots, as they lack the combiner technology. Ironhide wonders where he got that combination. The author stated in the author’s notes that he didn’t like Ultra-Bee or any of the combiners from Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), feeling it led to Uniqueness Decay after Transformers: War for Cybertron made them out to be such a rarity.
• Taking the Bullet: Oiagros/Wizard uses his Agravain to intercept a blast from Shin's Thanatos, moments before it would've killed Akito.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: When Duke Highland decides to make an alliance with the Decepticons after hearing that the Autobots and Black Knights are approaching the EU, many of the higher-ups in Euro-Britannia, including Marrybell, are understandably not happy about it. Duke Highland himself actually contacts Euphemia to tell her about it because he knows that he can't trust them, but doesn't want to provoke them into attacking.
• That Man Is Dead: Upon being reunited with Guilford, Cornelia explains that the person she was before — the Britannian Princess and Goddess of Victory — no longer exists.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • Alicia Lohmeyer has a total breakdown as she sees the Pacific Fleet get wiped out by the Decepticons in a manner of minutes, with her last words being to scream defiantly about the impossibility of the situation.
  • Megatron and the other Decepticons are caught totally off guard by the revelation that Lelouch is still alive.
  • Steeljaw's Pack reacts this way when the Black Wyvern Knightmares merge into a Combiner.
  • The finale has Megatron completely in disbelief that not only has Lelouch come Back from the Dead after he just blasted him away, he has become a Prime - Zero Prime.
• This Is Reality: Chiba says this when Urabe complains that the Terrorcons don't die when decapitated, like the zombies in movies.
• Throwing Off the Disability: Chapter 30 has both Nunally walking under her own power, without any cybernetic casts, and Bumblebee getting a new voice box thanks to the Forge of Solus Prime.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: C.C. missed the giant pizza at Ashford six months ago, so she is very happy when she gets some of the one they make at Horai Island.
• Time Skip: Much like the canonical R2, Revolution starts some time after the events of R1. Specifically, a few weeks, followed by a further six months following the Decepticons' total conquest of Britannia.
• Transforming Mecha: The new Knightmares that the elite Black Knights (like Zero, Kallen, Suzaku, etc.) use have the ability to transform, since they're made from Cybertronian Protoforms. Save for Kallen, who felt it was redundant since the Guren was already flight-capable, and wanted to honor Cliffjumper's memory, they all chose flight-capable alternate forms.
• Trauma Button: Megatron is one to Lelouch, after what happened at the end of R1.
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • The Decepticons and Megatron underestimate the Autobots and Black Knights when they go to assault the Ark, not knowing about the "Omniglobe" that lets Lelouch guide and command far more forces than he could normally just for starters. This lets the heroes reactivate the Ark's engines and escape, wiping out a good chunk of the Decepticon forces in the bargain.
  • Smilas thinks that he can take out Zero and manipulate Optimus. As Lelouch spells out to him, there’s no way he could have fooled the Prime, and Lelouch managed to figure out his plan and stop it.
• Unusual Euphemism: Since Transformers do not reproduce like organic life-forms do, they closest term they have for human reproduction is "interfacing".
• Villainous Breakdown: Megatron has a big one at the story's climax, brought on by several factors - Lelouch, whom he'd just fatally blasted off a cliff, has come back from the dead, he has gained the favor and power of the past Primes, making him the first human Prime, he is capable of erasing his Code-given immortality, and he, and not his Arch-Enemy Optimus Prime, is the one to ultimately kill him.
• Villain Has a Point: When pitching an alliance to Euro-Britania, Steeljaw points out that Charles would likely have destroyed the world if he had had Britannia continue on the course it was taking, as a justification for conquering the nation. Considering his canonical Assimilation Plot goals...
• We ARE Struggling Together: Downplayed, but it's made clear in Nerves of Steel that Lloyd, Rakshata, and Fixit have issues working together due to all of them being Insufferable Geniuses; (yes, even Fixit gets in on this). Nunnally has to fake a situation where the circumstances might end up killing all three for them to work together without any fuss.
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: Despite that fact that the Decepticons have vastly superior technology than the Britannians, all of their energon mines rely on slave labor from both Britannians and Numbers.
• Wham Line:
  • A two-piece one comes when Megatron is observing Bismarck's Geass in action.
    Megatron: "Unfortunately for him, we've managed to develop our own counter."
    Devastator: "Acknowledged. Activating Geass Canceller."
  • Another piece comes at the end of chapter 10 when a Cybertronian signal is detected in the Sahara Desert:
    Shockwave: "It has been a long time... Grimlock."
  • At the end of chapter 11, Shockwave gives off a few via replaying his logs, but one, Project Log 839, sticks out: "Project Neo Ragnarok has begun."
  • In Chapter 12, Leila and Smilas are talking about the former's father, Bradow von Breisgau.
    Leila: How did you react to my father's death, exactly?
    Smilas: I was utterly devastated. You know he was a close friend, him and your mother.
    Leila: You were friends with him?
    Smilas: Yes, that is what I just said.
    Leila: If that is true, then why did you arrange for his murder!?
    • Followed by a Wham Shot when Smilas tries to kill Leila, only for the bullet to bounce off her and a hologram to drop revealing "Leila" is actually a disguised Zero, who immediately Geasses Smilas.
• Wrecked Weapon:
  • Grimlock loses both his sword and shield to Megatron's Dark Star Saber.
  • The Apex Armor (and its wearer Starscream) are rusted to pieces after being exposed to the Rust Plague by Megatron.
  • The Dark Star Saber is destroyed by Zero Prime, Lelouch resurrected by the Power of the Primes, with the Star Saber.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In at least one case (Area 18, specifically), the Decepticons work with a local resistance group to clear out the Britannians in an Area, then turn around and kill the rebels too.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: If the gypsy woman is to be taken at face value when Cera's Code was forced onto her, with her soul taken by Unicron as well, though she's on her way to reclaiming it.

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