It will end up being Screwed by the Network
With The Hub's conversion to Discovery Family, Hasbro will only have control over the 9:00 am-3:00 pm time slots. This keeps Robots in Disguise out of the key after-school viewing time essential to grabbing the show's target demographic, let alone the 7:00 pm time slot that Transformers: Prime enjoyed.- Did they actually say 9-3 in any of the announcements? I only recall them mentioning that Hasbro had the "daytime" schedule, which is pretty flexible. And besides, they can still at least premiere it on Saturday mornings, which works just fine for MLP.
- Jossed for being Screwed By The Discovery Family, because Hasbro has decided to have the show air on Cartoon Network due to being a "top rated network that performed well with boys." However, given Cartoon Network's previous treatment with the last Transformers show...
- There's a chance things could end up better, though— first off, Cartoon Network has come under new management since the fiasco with Animated, and if that fails, Hasbro still owns and produces the show in-house. If CN refuses to play nice, they can simply take their business elsewhere. It's far less of a gamble than when Hasbro signed over all production of Animated to Cartoon Network Studios.
- Confirmed thus far. New episodes air in an early Saturday morning death slot with zero reruns. CN clearly did this because they can't spare any slots that haven't been taken by Teen Titans Go.
Optimus Prime will come back to life, one way or another.
It's not Transformers without Prime. Though he's appearing in visions to Bumblebee, there will come a point where he comes back to life, one way or another. Remember Vector Sigma and the Quintessons.- Confirmed: he's back in the first season finale.
Starscream is...
- The leader of the Decepticons. He managed to grow a pair and subjegate Predaking.
- Dead: Predaking killed him.
- Jossed, he's alive.
The hammerhead shark guy in the trailer is Sky-Byte.
He is, after all, a blue shark Decepticon, in a series called "Robots in Disguise".- Possibly Jossed, as the Kreon version of him gives him the name "Hammerstrike". I say "possibly" because Kre-O doesn't always perfectly copy the current show and is prone to creating original characters.
- Soooooo...no awesome theme song?
- Sadly no. And probably no haikus either.
Reasons for Grimlock's change in personality and allegiance in this series...
- Laser-Guided Amnesia
- Not an unlikely prospect— notice how, when Strongarm calls him a criminal, he replies "I am not a criminal! ...Or at least, I don't think I am."
- Deep-cover operation?
- Maybe after Cybertron was restored and Optimus sacrificed himself, Grimlock challenged Bumblebee for leadership of the new world. Knowing Grimlock, this could easily have resulted in a violent struggle, and after being defeated, he was imprisoned alongside the Decepticons.
- He is stated to be a *different* grimlock, which may be the first instance of a Transformers continuity using a certain name for more than one character.
Grimlock's history will be broadly consistent with Fall of Cybertron and the IDW Prime comics.
Mairghread Scott is Script Coordinator for the show, and she also wrote both the Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics, which were centered on Grimlock and the Dinobots and maintained some impressive Arc Welding with their Fall of Cybertron backstory. It stands to reason that Ms. Scott would strive to make sure what is basically her character remains consistent. By that same token, Grimlock will face off with Shockwave at some point.
Probably in Season 2, since that's when the creators said they wanted to reintroduce characters from Prime. Grimlock would definitely wanna take another bite out of Shockwave if they both end up on Earth at the same time, considering he was the cause of millions of years of torment for the Dinobot. Grimlock isn't the real Grimlock.
He's a dinosaur-shaped Decepticon who thinks he's Grimlock. Hey, it's already been established that he has memory problems. Grimlock may be a criminal due to Decepticon experimentation. He may also have some kind of personal connection to one of the other Autobots.
He and the other Dinobots could be part of an underground group of Autobots that are attempting to reclaim Cybertron untill Grimlock is eventually captured and forcibly experimented upon by Shockwave, which causes him to crave violence, possibly to the point that he kills or severely mauls an ally (possibly another Dinobot, like Swoop) and attempts a coup-de-grace, which gets Grimlock arrested by Prowl for assault and/or murder, which leads to him getting incarcerated. Grimlock would then be boarded onto a prison vessel, put into cryostasis and sent on his way.Grimlock may have been also involved with Arcee in some way, possibly as a romantic interest. If Grimlock was involved with Arcee before the Great War, like a warrior that she met in Kaon, that could also lead to romantic tension, especially if Grimlock is a criminal on the run; I could see Grimlock being a past flame of Arcee's (and possibly causing her great grief, especially if the last she saw of him was him seemingly to be excecuted), especially if he has a tender side to him.Granted, this is just speculation, but it's an interesting plot idea, at the very least.
Grimlock was imprisoned for something he doesn't remember doing, or had no control of himself while doing.
The official Hasbro Studios website claims that he was "unjustly imprisoned for his looks"— this, along with Bumblebee making the distinction in the trailer that Grimlock is a Dinobot and not an Autobot, suggests that there is some kind of ingrained prejudice against Grimlock and the rest of his kind (which, as it were, is also consistent with the Beast Hunters comics). We know that Grimlock experiences uncontrollable explosions of rage now and then, due to Shockwave's experiments. Maybe, through no fault of his own, he went berserk at some point and caused some kind of serious damage that was used as a reason to finally put him away— Autobot authorities already hated him for what he was, and this one slip-up gave them an excuse they needed to throw Grimlock in the stockade. Steeljaw will be the de facto "leader" of the earthbound Decepticons.
It's nothing certain, but I couldn't help but notice that Steeljaw is the only Decepticon to have a confirmed toy in every single size class so far— something that tends to only happen with really important characters. If he's not a leader, he'll probably at least be one of the guys who, as the creators said at NYCC, has "bigger plans".- Seems to be confirmed by the leaked Chinese episodes— Steeljaw assembles a "pack" out of all the other Decepticons that the Autobots defeat.
- Yep, it's confirmed.
Alternatively, Steeljaw will be some kind of turncoat or Wild Card character.
Analysis of a single frame of animation in a recent trailer reveals that he has a scratched-out Decepticon insignia
◊. Maybe it's just supposed to emphasise his "wolfishness", but it might also be an indicator of some kind of falling-out with the Decepticon cause on his part. He could end up as the BW Dinobot of the series, or perhaps a 'Con version of Tigatron, having an affinity for the wild and just wanting to be alone with nature.- Seemingly Jossed by the above.
Shockwave will be the Man Behind the Man to Steeljaw and the other escaped Decepticons.
The Decepticons are all the result of his experiments,hence their animalistic traits and alternate modes. If Season 2 has a new Big Bad...
It'll be Galvatron, who is his own 'Con and not a reincarnation of Megatron, a la the IDW Galvatron.- Quite likely so far. The Japanese opening shows a very Galvatron like Decepticon hidden in shadow. So its likely that he will appear in season 1 even.
- Actually, according to the mobile game that's Megatronus (previously known as The Fallen).
- Jossed, Steeljaw is the Big Bad of Season 2.
Denny is an undercover Unit:E agent.
Think about it— he was remarkably mellow about the idea of giant alien robots, all too willing to join up with them, and has an inordinate amount of knowledge about industrial targets that are likely to be hit by Decepticons (the oil refinery Hammerstrike attacked, the liquid oxygen plant Chop Shop went after). On top of that, he was somehow able to produce a convincing fake ID for the chemical plant, and always seems to have good cover-up ideas. If he's not just impossibly lucky, he may very well know more than he lets on. Bonus points if his work with Unit:E is also part of why his marriage with Rusty's mom has apparently fallen apart. Megatron will return in the Season Finale
Depending on how they decide to pull his Heel–Face Turn, he may appear as:- Genuinely repentant and trying to make up for his evil ways by helping to hunt down the most dangerous convicts; however, since he has quite the dark history and one doesn't renounce a lifetime of violence overnight, there will be tension between him and Team Bumblebee (and maybe even a fight).
- Having faked his redemption and trying to create a new Decepticon army.
- Being genuine in his regret, but under the control of something much worse.
- Either way, he will act as a Knight of Cerebus, running after/from something much worse and more dangerous than the escaped Decepticons.
- Jossed. Megatronus appears, but not the Megatron.
One of the series arcs will be the return of the Thirteen
We already have Ghost Optimus...- And now news about the mobile game indicate the return of Megatronus, The Fallen.
Hank, the girl introduced in episode 4, will eventually become Grimlock's partner
Grimlock already seems to have taken a liking to her (despite the fact that she hasn't been formally introduced to the Autobots yet).- Jossed, Hank never officially meets the Autobots.
The show takes place 20 Minutes into the Future.
Cybertron has been rebuilt and repopulated (by both newly-born protoforms and returned Cybertronians). And the city in Earth looks very shiny. And the look on Bumblebee's face when he returned to Earth, as if it has been a very long time. Soundwave will return.
He somehow escaped the Shadowzone. He'll resemble more like his G1 look, and talk more.- And be voiced by Frank Welker.
- Confirmed Frank is voicing him in season 3.
- All parts confirmed for his appearances in season 3.
- He's escaped through the same portal as the Fallen.
Thunderhoof will be The Starscream to Steeljaw.
- Because the real deal is currently MIA, and because, as the former leader of Cybertron's biggest criminal empire, Thunderhoof isn't likely to want to play second-fiddle to Steeljaw and will seek to take over the gang of Decepticons Steeljaw assembles and then use them to establish a new empire on Earth. Steeljaw, per the trope, is probably entirely aware of this and has planned accordingly for when Thunderhoof makes his move.
The Decepticons from the Alchemor— with the exception of Grimlock— are not "rebranded" or anything of the sort.
Apply Occam's Razor, and you'll find that the idea of the Alchemor's prisoners being ALL petty criminals/mentally ill bots/people the Council didn't like who were forcibly rebranded requires a lot more assumptions than the other option— namely that, yes, they are just plain Decepticons of the usual Megatron-following variety. However, I'm certain that most of them are from either before the Great War fully consumed Cybertron, or some time in the middle. This can be seen based on the memories and physical features of some of the criminals— Terrashock was presumably caught in the middle of his "errand" for Contrail, Minitron had no idea Optimus Prime was dead, most of them have wheels as opposed to the hover modes that modern characters like Sideswipe and Strongarm had...many of the same hints used by the "rebranded" camp. As for what simple crooks, professional criminals, and dangerous head-cases were doing among the Decepticon ranks, it's not hard to imagine that Megatron or his recruiters specifically targeted outcasts like them, promising them a better place in his new order. They joined of their own volition, and were branded accordingly— the tracking devices were a later addition by their Autobot jailers.Grimlock is the exception— his presence among the prisoners, I'm certain, is meant to be an anomaly. Between his insistence that he's not a criminal, his incredibly short rap sheet (that we never even see), and the fact that the "same" character was known to be an Autobot from the start are intentional hints that there's something fishy going on. And that something could easily be corruption within the new post-war government, as others have suggested— it's just that Grimlock is the hint, while the other Cons are not.
- It's all Rodimus Prime's fault! He's as bad as Animated!Sentinel Prime!
Steeljaw and Grimlock are NAIL's.
According to the comics, NAIL's use yellow as a color much like Autobot's and Decepticon's use blue and red. Steeljaw is very clever so he could have easily infiltrated the Alchemor and masterminded the sabotage and crash, then posed as a Decepticon to gain followers.
Grimlock is also a NAIL but has blue eyes to denote that he is aligned with the Autobots instead of red like a Decepticon much like the Velocitron and Animatron transformers that joined the Autobots and Decepticons don't have marks even after officially joining up.
- It's worth noting that in War for Cybertron, the Neutral Transformers in the first mission had yellow running lights, as opposed to red for the Autobots and purple for Decepticons. Steeljaw and Grimlock both have primarily yellow lights as well.
Starscream will come back as a ghost and possess one of the transformers
In Predacons Rising of the previous series, it's heavily implied that Predaking and his Predacons close in on Starscream and maul and kill him. Should that he true, then, as in G1 tradition, Starscream's spark will survive and he will come back as a ghost in Robots in Disguise and try to possess one of the transformers.- Jossed. He's alive and DANGEROUS.
Steeljaw's endgame involves gaining control over Unicron's deactivated and unoccupied body at the earth's core
Steeljack had always planned on coming to earth, and sabotaged the Alchemor so it would crash there. Considering how intelligent and crafty he's shown himself to be so far, this isn't much of a stretch. And Unicron's body would be a deadly weapon in the hands of anyone who managed to get it working.- Sounds likely: one of the books indicates he's searchig for an "Anti-Spark" (which in Prime is said to be Dark Energon, the blood of Unicron), and news on the mobile game confirm the return of Megatronus, The Fallen and first servant of Unicron.
Steeljaw's ultimate defeat will come from the most unlikely source of all, Minitron
Who will want revenge for Steeljaw abandoning him to face the Autobots alone.- And Bumblebee will probably sweeten the deal by offering favorable testimony at Minitron's trial.
The "Megatronus" coming to the show later is not Megatron, but the actual Fallen.
Even taking into account the Art Shift, Megatronus' face and body are just far too different from TFP Megatron. More importantly, though, it makes far more sense for the Primes to be training Optimus to fight a rogue member of their group than it does to just duke it out with Megs again. Perhaps if Optimus meets Solus at some point, she'll offer some explanation as to how Megatronus went from "tragically misguided" to "kill everything" between ancient times and now.- Confirmed, but there's no explanation of his change in demeanour aside from mentioning his exile by the other Primes.
- Well, he does talk about a defeat on Earth that wasn't mentioned before and wasn't expanded upon. Maybe it's something related to that?
Unit:E is covering for the Bee Team or at least knows that Transformers have returned to Earth.
At this point, Bumblebee and his crew have operated in quite a few crowded areas and the Decepticons have been spotted by a number of humans. While these isolated incidents could be easily ignored and forgotten by the general public, the government is familiar with Cybertronians and is probably wondering why Bee hasn't made contact and explained what's going on yet. The Council has no plans to help the Earth.
The Council on Cyberton has access to Spacebridge technology and more than enough Autobots available to send reinforcements. But so far, they've only sent Jazz and the bounty hunters to return Bumblebee for leaving without their permission. The Council may have been intending to dump the prisoners (and Fixit as well) in a sun or black hole and decided that Earth is far enough away that they can ignore the problem. Grimlock will do something about his lack of a vehicle mode.
We know he hates the fact that not having a vehicle mode keeps him out of missions near humans, but isn't willing (or possible isn't able) to give up his dinosaur form. In an effort to get a vehicle mode, he'll ask Fixit to give him "The Triple-changer Procedure", which will be risky and put him out of action long enough to be able to pull a Big Damn Heroes later. Perhaps he'll be a monster truck that turns into a monster dinosaur.- Confirmed: he's using a special suit that looks like a crane to help him get around without a curtain covering him.
Megatronus hasn't allied with Unicron in this continuity.
From what we've seen of the Season Finale, Megatronus was trying to destroy both the AllSpark (Primus) and the Anti-Spark (Unicron), so it's unlikely he's following Unicron's orders. Of course, this means there's another being with power equal or perhaps greater than both backing him up... Steeljaw is prejudiced against insect-bots.
Minitron was left at the Autobots' mercy after a single failure, and Kickback was tied to a tree and used as bait after he tried to join the pack. Steeljaw disliking Insecticons might be why both bug-based cons got the brunt of his Bad Boss tendencies. Sideswipe is Knock Out's son.
After Knock Out joined the Autobots. They have remarkably similar appearances - red, with a similar helm design. They're both vain about their appearances. And they have similar cocky, arrogant attitudes to authority. Filch loses her Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! and Hulk Speak when in humanoid mode.
Flich may be only be a single-minded kleptomaniac when in her crow form. There's been minor Transformers characters in the past (Road Rage and SG!Grimlock) that have altered personalities in their alt modes, and Filch could have a similar situation with a Dumb Muscle crow form that hoards things and a Classy Cat-Burglar humanoid mode that enjoys the spoils. Some reasoning:- Her humanoid mode has only a brief, silent, long-distance appearance in "Collect Them All." Given that that's an entire character model the artists didn't get to show off, they may have future plans for her character.
- Crows are actually fairly intelligent birds, and given how much the writing team showed their work with the honeybee-like Zizza, they may have done similar research on crows for Filch, and will want to show off their work at a later date.
- She would make more sense as a prisoner of the Alchemor if she had an "awareness" of her actions and was not just a Strong, but Unskilled hoarder.
- Season 3 introduces Blastwing who is a competent heist planner, She was likely part of his gang back on Cybertron.
One of the end-game Decepticons may be a member of the Decepticon Justice Division
- Or at least inspired by them. Although they'd be toned down a bit from the MTMTE comics in terms of homicidal tendencies, they would make sense as something that both sides would be particularly wary of, since Steeljaw's Pack would likely be considered borderline heretics for defacing the Deceptibrand for any reason, they already hate the Autobots with a passion, and would likely be drawn to a massive prisoner ship with their brethren and potential converts conveniently given the brand crashing on a distant planet.
The Cybertron High Council is actually a Decepticon puppet government.
This perfectly explains why the Autobots were blamed for the planet's death. It's because the Decepticons have signed on to Megatron's belief that it was all Optimus Prime's fault, even though we all know that the true cause was Megatron corrupting the core with Dark Energon.The current Decepticon leader is Shockwave, who stopped the Predacons from killing Starscream, and made Starscream his second-in-command out of sheer desperation and realizing killing him would mean getting losing a skilled soldier. All of the prisoners aboard the Alchemor were Shockwave's experiments, as he now had to worry about ruling Cybertron and oppressing the Autobots under the pretense that they were at fault for the Dark Energon infestation.
As for Starscream, he's become humbled, and now readily falls in line, no longer aspiring to be Decepticon leader, but striving to redeem himself in the eyes of the reformed Seekers, as he and the Decepticon Battle Fleet conquer one planet after another.
Henceforth, the third season will have Optimus Prime return to leading the Autobots, and a new war for Cybertron beginng. WITHOUT any humans being present.
- OP here. The description for the upcoming third season episode "Freedom Fighters" all but confirms that the High Council is indeed controlled by the Decepticons, which is why the Bee Team is constantly being hounded by them. This also means that Jazz is technically a Decepticon without knowing it!
- Alternately, they're not Decepticons, but a new faction who blames both Autobots and Decepticons.
- Partially confirmed. The Council is indeed controlled by Decepticons, but none of the Prime 'Cons are involved.
The reason Bumblebee doesn't try to contact Unit: E...
Is because there was a falling out between the American Government and the Cybertron Council. It's possible that the Earth government tried to get the Council to give them technology as compensation for damages caused during the war. The Council refused, officially to keep a 'primitive' species from misusing said technology, unofficially out of spite against allies of Optimus. Things got worse, until all ties were severed. As a consequence, Unit: E was dissolved.Springload left the Decepticon Island Decepticons before the Autobots beat them.
He was not seen with Steeljaw and the rest of his Pack and the end of season 2, so I think he realise that Steeljaw did not know the location of Doradus, and went back to trying to find Doradus on his own after leaving Decepticon Island.Season 3 will have a Big Bad Ensemble.
One of them will be the Stunticons leader Motormaster and the other will be Soundwave. Based on the episodes King of the Hill (Part 1 and Part 2) they are both planning something.The reason Bumblebee hasn't comment on knowing a Grimlock, and a Sideswipe.
Is because they are common names on Cyberton, so Bumblebee has met a few Grimlocks and Sideswipes. So he does not see any point in telling that he has met a Grimlock, and a Sideswipe because the name is so common everyone has meet a Sideswipe or a Grimlock at some time or other.- And he already knew Sideswipe before the series so he wouldn't question it.
Steeljaw escaped the Alchemor when they tried to get him got the floor.
Steeljaw is returning in the episode Exiles, the reason he escaped is he took advancetence of when the Autobots where getting him out of the floor.- Jossed. The Autobot Council gave him and several other Decepticons amnesty in exchange for taking out Team Bee and helping Soundwave summon Megatron.
Menasor did manage to destroy a planetary system but it wasn't as impressive as Optimus made it out to be.
Since Menasor has proven to be fairly unimpressive as a combiner, it could be likely he accomplished this task in some other way than being a one man Death Star who could destroy everything in his path. Most likely the Stunticons were on some recon mission to steal something from a civilized planet and in their initial encounter with whatever beings they met on their mission, they were just strong enough to maintain a brief advantage for a while. And before the opposition could send in more forces or more advanced weaponry to take care of him, Menasor got lucky and destroyed an important piece of machinery connected to the planet's core, de-stabilizing it. After that, the Stunticons flee and the planetary system gets wiped out in the explosion. Either ways, Menasor accomplished this task and gets the dreaded reputation of being a Planet Destroyer but he didn't accomplish this through his own power, but rather being in the right place at the right time to pull the trigger.