Poor Grimlock...
Cheetor: Thank you for being my friend, Bumblebee...
— Episode 40, Battle For Cybertron IV
If you look past the random humor and lighthearted tone of Cyberverse, this is a surprisingly tragic in-depth look into what our heroes and villains would be like after fighting in a 65 million year war.
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General
- What makes this series stand out from the other Transformers shows before is that we get to see what everyone is like before the War on Cybertron happened. To see them happy around each other and having regular lives before it all went to hell is a somber sight. Thankfully, they get better with Character Development and learn how to get along with each other as the series goes on.
Chapter One
Episode 6 - Megatron Is My Hero
- Optimus Prime and Bumblebee unsuccessfully try to convince Megatron to rejoin them.
- Bumblebee's voice box being crushed by Megatron may count as this as well as Nightmare Fuel.
- Blurr sacrifices himself to shut down the Space Bridge to prevent the Cosmic Rust from spreading to Cybertron, and also reveals that he too is a victim of it. His saddened face definitely sells it.Hot Rod: He really is the fastest!
- After Shadow Striker was caught in a fatal explosion, Shockwave rebuilds her by using his own drones. She may be a jerk, but you can hardly hate her for deserving this treatment.Shadow Striker: "They found me in pieces. After you decided to blow me up, I was scrap metal. Shockwave fused me with what was left of my guards- Me! With my subordinates! I trained myself for cycles trying to fight like I used to...but I couldn't. So I had to make do. I was the best there was...and you took that from me."
- Maccadam's Old Oil House was once a popular place. The Great War gradually closed it.
- Optimus expressing remorse over sending the Allspark away from Cybertron. While he does resolve to return it back to Cybertron, this is the first time we see him in a vulnerable state of emotion. It's a surprisingly human angle towards someone as stoic as Optimus.
- How Bumblebee and Grimlock along with the Ark ended up stranded on Earth: the Ark was about to crash on Earth and, despite Grimlock's best efforts to save the Ark and its crew, Bee (in his stasis pod) and Grim fell, along with other two stasis pods, leaving Bee with his memories damaged.
- When Grimlock discovers his dinosaur friends have been dead for 66 million years, he hangs his head in sorrow.
Chapter Two - Power of the Spark
Episode 25 - Parlay
- Optimus is ultimately unsuccessful at settling a peace treaty between the Autobots and the Decepticons at the end of the episode.
- Optimus and Megatron's interactions during the peace negotiation also have bittersweet strokes. You can feel their desire to reconcile and become friends again just through this one exchange.
Megatron: We should have talked like this ages ago, Prime.Optimus: So much history between us...Megatron: ...And yet so little trust.- This episode eventually becomes more meaningful as Maccadam would be right about Optimus' efforts to bring everyone together at the end.
- Seeing the Autobots and Decepticons getting along for a few minutes is a sad reminder of how close they used to be before the war.
- Slipstream went through a lot in this episode: first, she realizes the full extent of Starscream's insanity when he creates Scraplets and declares that they were made out of the Thirteen's sparks, and announces his plans to unleash them on every Cybertronian. She betrays him and tries to escape to warn others, but Starscream hurls a Scraplet which damages her arm. When she reaches Soundwave, she begs him to listen to her pleas while trying to describe Starscream's plans, but he not only refuses to believe her, but actually tries to kill her for betrayal. After being branded a traitor, she gets so desperate she tries to beg Windblade to listen to her, and Windblade acknowledges something went horribly wrong and listens to her. Unfortunately, just when things finally seemed well for her, she gets stabbed In the Back by Bludgeon, which results in the conflict breaking out and ruining any chance of the truce between Autobots and Decepticons, while Slipstream finally dies and Cheetor announces she had reunited with the Allspark. Alas, Poor Villain, indeed.
- How does Starscream reward his followers after they helped him? He kills them, which adds salt to the wound of Slipstream being killed in "Parley".
- Croaton's backstory.
Chapter Three - Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures
Episodes 37 to 40 - Battle For Cybertron Episodes
- Is Prowl a Satellite Character? Yes. Is Optimus' and Shadowstriker's reactions to his death truly sad? YES.
- After being nearly multilated by Starscream and his children in the previous season, Optimus getting a flashback upon seeing the little monsters again is haunting.
- Hot Rod being stabbed by Drift, which is made worse with his quiet "Oh."
- Cheetor's Heroic Sacrifice. To twist the knife further, Bumblebee's pleas to him to not do it is heartbreaking after the aforementioned moment minutes ago. Seeing Cheetor smiling sadly and thanking Bee for being his friend is the cherry on top of this tear-jerking sundae.
- While the parade is genuinely unnerving, it's sad to see our main heroes happy and relaxed for the first time after centuries of conflict. Special focus on Bumblebee as he needed a break from the reality of having to watch his two friends die (although Hot Rod manages to survive).
- After having lost the war by default before the Quintesson invasion, it's also sad to see the Decepticons be in the same mood as the Autobots within the Loop.
- It's very depressing to see Hot Rod failing to break Optimus out of the Loop multiple times, especially since his motivations for doing so were out of both desperation and low self-esteem.
- We finally learn about Maccadam's backstory, where he is the last surviving citizen of the mighty War Titan Iaconus. Through a flashback, Iaconus went mad due to the lack of a war at the end of the Age of Expansion. Many of his citizens died in defeating him, leaving Maccadam as the only one left. After this episode, it makes his rule of no fighting in his bar much more sense.
- While Hot Rod thankfully doesn't hold it against her, Clobber being ordered to terminate him is a huge Kick the Dog moment by Soundwave before Character Development kicks in.Hot Rod: Clobber, we're friends.Clobber: I know! This hurts me more than it does you!Hot Rod: No, no, it hurts me more.
- When Windblade attempted to wake up Iaconus as a way of scaring off the Quintessons, Maccadam has to take her down from the connection due to how overwhelming it is for her. He then quietly tells her that he lost too many Cityspeakers.
- Maccadam's death. After getting to know the humble and jovial owner of the titular bar for three seasons, his death is heartbreaking. It's made even worse by Iaconus' somber roar towards his last citizen dying and then his death at Starscream's hands afterward.
- After seeing everyone get along with each other this season, we're back to square one through everyone being separated by Megatron's request for half of Cybertron. Even when the war is technically over, Megatron still remains a bitter bot.
- Wildwheel was among the many pods that fell out of the Ark during its crash on Earth. He had to resort to being an outlaw in order to survive. It begs the question: how many forgotten friends were left behind, wondering when the crew will come back for them?
- Optimus fails to convince Wildwheel that the crew never intended to leave him behind. His frown after the latter left to join Megatron is like watching a kicked puppy.
- Meteorfire's depression over losing Cosmos to the Monster of the Week is quite sad to see. Thankfully, both him and Bumblebee were able to rescue her during Bee's search for Windblade's fragments.
- Megatron's death is surprisingly heartbreaking, especially for Optimus (as it’s implied there’s something between them). After Megatron X shoots a fatal wound to his chest, Megatron slowly dies in Prime's arms as he quotes one of the most iconic Transformers lines from the entire franchise before saying no more.Megatron: One shall stand, one shall fall...Optimus: Hold on, my friend...
Chapter Four - Movies
The Perfect Decepticon
- Soundwave's Heroic Sacrifice is perhaps one of the saddest moments in the entire series. What motivated him into doing the act is seeing Hot Rod, the person who commanded the resistance beside him in Season 3, suffer a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Tarn. With one final ounce of strength in him, he creates a powerful soundwave in order to take down Tarn...at the cost of his own life. Additionally, instead of using the Cortex Helm to make the Perfect Decepticons do his bidding too, he instead frees them. Thus..the entire planet of Cybertron was saved by an act of mercy and love. After seeing him develop from a sardonic Jerkass to a selfless individual willing to protect others, this is a powerful reminder that Soundwave is indeed the Perfect Decepticon. To add further salt to the wound, there are 20 seconds of silence as everyone sees the aftermath. Then Laserbeak flies to the crater and cries out an anguished call to Soundwave, not unlike a loyal pet calling out to their deceased owner.
- At Maccadam's, the Autobots, Decepticons, and freed Perfect Decepticons held a wake for Soundwave. Hot Rod dedicates his eulogy to Soundwave and how much he changed for the better, all while visibly trying not to cry. Afterward, Optimus leads the others in a toast for their friend. It's a beautiful moment that embodies how much everyone has grown and repaired their broken bonds with each other, which is further strengthened by Soundwave's sacrifice.
- Shadowstriker joining in the celebratory hug with our heroes is both this and Heartwarming as it's something she definitely needs after losing her best friend.
