Roleplay / Galactic Voyage: Transformers

~And we can build this dream together, standing strong forever - nothing's gonna stop us no-o-o-oow!~

Galactic Voyage: Transformers is an upcoming webcomic and a play-by-post RP game based around the Transformers. It's hosted on Discord server of Artork312, an eccentric artist with bizarre art style and weird habits.

We follow the story of Buildrons and Destrons, two factions of Cybertronians striving to survive among the desolated ruins of Cybertron's glory, while the conflict that brought their world to ruin centuries ago is still going to this day thanks to those who can't let go of the past, thus nobody's sure of the ultimate fate of their people.

The game started in February 2021, and can be found here and here, still going on.

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Galactic Voyage: Transformers contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Mirage was shown planning to go to Overlord's tournament to gather intel when the announcement was first made. However, he didn't go with Jet Convoy's team, and never wound up going to Tarn. He didn't even show signs of being busy when asked by Nightbeat and Searchlight for help investigating the Sea of Rust outpost.
• Accentuate the Negative: While watching The Battleship Axiom, Silverblurr only comments on the visual and plotting errors until Fly-Over tells him to just watch the movie.
• After Action Patch Up: While flying back to Decagon, Fly-Over and Air Raid help Gaz-Mat fix up Jet Convoy.
  • Rugger helps fix up Arcee when she gets paralyzed on the Silex-2 mission.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Nightbeat has feelings for Ratchet, but they aren't reciprocated. What he doesn't know is that a different medic, Minerva, does have a crush on him.
• Alternate Self: Rodimus Prime and Shockwave are alternate universe versions of Hot Rod and Laserwave, respectively, that ended up in this universe under strange circumstances.
• Amplifier Artifact: The Matrix of Leadership used by Jet Convoy grants him increased strength and other improved physical capabilities.
• Anonymous Benefactor: Gutcruncher has some powerful friends. There's no indication who they are, but they can apparently provide him with a functional ship to leave the planet at any time.
• Another Story for Another Time: Thundercracker starts talking about the dream he had while unconscious, but decides he can show everyone later when he makes it into a movie.
• Apocalypse How: Initially, the Cybertron of this series appeared to merely be Class 2 version as a result of Sigmatron's Orbital Bombardment, with society consisting of small groups or city states scrounging for resources that are in such short supply that both sides are trying to get ships to go out and find more energy on other worlds. However, Laserwave reveals to Bugly that they all need to get moving much sooner than anyone thought... because the entire planet is going to be destroyed soon, which will move the situation up to a Class X rating once it happens.
• The Ark: The Buildrons intend to use the Arklight to leave Cybertron before it becomes uninhabitable. Megazarak's Destrons are also working on making their own ship for the same purpose.
• Artistic License – Military: Bugly's promotion to second-in-command also leads to him getting the rank of colonel. However, he's now said to outrank Kiloton, whose function is listed as general. Assuming this is literal, she's the one holding what would be the higher rank in an army.
• Ascended Extra: Barricade started out as a Mauve Shirt that helped Blitzwing bring the capture Rodimus Prime back to Forkular. He was later claimed as a full character, and went on to play a bigger role, being promoted to Blitzwing's abandoned position and agreeing to help Bugly overtrhrow Megazarak.
• Awesome, but Impractical: "Tin-Can's" railroad gun mode is incredibly powerful, being able to hurt even Octopunch. However, it can only fire once before needing to recharge, requiring "Tin-Can" to use his weaker weapons while he waits for his main cannon to be fully powered again.
• Badass Boast: Bugly gives one when Jet Convoy accuses him of being non threatening.
  Here's some advice. When you face a master of Circuit-Su, there's ALWAYS a threat.
  • Nightbeat gets one by proxy thanks to Silverblurr when a Claw Skull that go hit in the back demands to know who he is.
  That’s Nightbeat. And trust me, he can do better than just make your back hurt.
• Bad "Bad Acting": When trying to lure Octopunch towards them, Megazarak and Freezon pretend to be lost, innocent femmes. However, their acting ain't good, with Megazarak overacting while Freezon gives a completely deadbeat and emotionless delivery.
• Bad Guy Bar: Being the primary base of operations for Megazarak and her cronies, Forkular fortress, befittingly, does have a bar, here called "The Hanged One".
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: Megazarak manages to scam The Barnum Swindle by not giving the Combatrons all the payment she promised.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Deluge invokes this by suggesting to Megazarak that he experiment on Rodimus Prime to turn him into a berserk warrior to attack his former Buildron allies. Megazarak thinks this is a horrible idea and rejects the plan.
• Blatant Lies: Bugly claims that Breakdown will be replaced with a mind controlled clone if he doesn't calm down. Due to his extreme paranoia, Breakdown believes this could actually happen and listens.
• Bluff the Imposter: Upon running into Rodimus Prime, who is delivering a package but is unaware of his own name, Blasttrack decides to see if he's a fake by asking why Arcee didn't come with him on the mission to retrieve the Arklight when in reality, she did come. As Rodimus is suffering from amnesia, he doesn't even know who Arcee is, but Nightbeat steps in before things go wrong.
• Both Sides Have a Point: While travelling back to Decagon aboard the Arklight, Silverblurr and Black Mamba end up discussing why they ended up on the paths they did. As it turns out, both of them were influenced by the death of someone close to them in the Buildron/Destron conflict. However, while Black Mamba chose to stay out of the fight after her brother got killed fighting for the Destrons, Silverblurr decided to join the Buildrons to fight for the cause his best friend Turbo died for and make sure his death wasn't for nothing. Aftering hearing Silverblurr's story, Mamba admits he's given her something to think about.
• Bread Milk Eggs Squick: While preparing for Overlord's tournament, Doombox goes over a list of items he's gotten ready for the event. It starts off with normal things like having the cameras and speakers turned on, but it ends with having people to clean up the severed limbs and corpses on standby.
• Brick Joke: Bunker-Buster asks Breakdown where the toaster he saw was so they can fight it while Bugly deploys his team. When the team comes back, Bunker-Buster is still asking Breakdown to be shown the toaster.
• Bridal Carry: Kiloton holds the injured Stalker in this manner to get him onto a shuttle. Stalker demands no one say anything about it.
  • Stalker ends up on the reverse side of this when he has to carry a tired Megazarak back to her quarters after fighting Octopunch again.
• The Bus Came Back: After they stuck around in Iacon while the Buildrons returned to Decagon, Shack and his Marauder group later meet up with Blitzwing.
• Call-Back: Sky Scanner is able to identify Vortex by name despite having never met before, then implies that's not all he knows about him. Back when going through Onslaught's files, Sky Scanner was actually shown to have a file on Vortex, meaning he's not bluffing here.
• Calling Your Attacks: Excellion shouts "Exigeyser Smash" when headbutting Rodimus Prime.
• Captain's Log: Megazarak takes the time to write an entry on the aftermath of Operation: Freak Show.
• Changing The Uncomfortable Subject: When Megazarak asks Bugly why her throne has scratch marks on it, he leaves to carry out her order to find Deluge as he was the one to cause the damage when he sat on it.
• Combining Mecha: The Assaultrons can combine into Assault-Master.
• Coming in Hot: Thanks to missiles damaging the engines, the shuttle Thundercracker flies to Iacon in crashes, with it's pilot only being able to keep it stable enough for the other Buildrons to minimize the impact as much as they can.
• Compromising Call: Freezon is discovered while spying on Buildrons when Sky Scanner calls them for information and refuses to hang up even after being told why it's a bad time to talk.
• Confronting Your Imposter: Jet Convoy steps in to fight Sky Shadow after the shapeshifter disguised himself as him to get to the Arklight, though by that point Sky Shadow had dropped the act altogether.
• Convenient Coma: Thundercracker gets knocked unconscious after trying to keep a crashing shuttle stable so everyone else can get out. He wakes up a few days later, with the only lasting damage being the physical injuries he got in the crash.
• Cool Starship: The Buildron ship Arklight, which is not only space worthy, but can also deploy treads to move on land.
  • Megazarak is working on one of her own. When completed, it will have extendable claws and a main cannon that can turn into a stinger... all of which are controlled by Megazarak's thoughts.
• Damned By a Fool's Praise: Slipstream's poster for Overlord's tournament is said to be incredibly garish. The only ones who say anything positive about is Bunker-Buster.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Scrapface Scavenging advertisements claim the business sells the highest quality scrap metal. It's pretty unlikely that would be any good.
• Dead Guy on Display: Overlord has the bodies of past tournament losers put in cages that he hangs in Termagax.
• Dissonant Serenity: Freezon isn't concerned in the slightest about Nitro Zeus telling them they'll be abducted, convinced the whole conversation is a lucid dream.
• Diving Save: One of the Destron soldiers dives in with a shield to protect Bugly from a shot from Buzzsaw. Unfortunately for the soldier, the ammo was designed to get through shields, and he ends up dying.
• Doorstop Baby: Jet Convoy finds Wide Barrel in a box with several other supplies, with no clue as to how he got there.
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment: Rodimus Prime has romantic feelings for the Arcee of this reality, which he also had for his realitiy's Arcee.
• Draw Aggro: The Wildriders were sent in to Decagon to create a distraction so different Stuntrons could get a Shockblast Hammer for Motormaster.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Torque, owner of Maccadam's, starts drinking until he passes out after the bar gets blown up.
• Drugs Causing Slow-Motion: Freezon can take notes faster due to everything slowing down for them while on "nite-glow".
• Easy Amnesia: After getting knocked out in Shockwave's lab, Rodimus Prime wakes up in Lysexx with no memory of who he is, but is otherwise fine.
• Elite Mooks: The Destrons have Eraditrons, special forces troopers equipped with the best gear available. They still go down comparatively easily.
• Enemy Mine: Jet Convoy and Shack may not like each other, but Shack's willing to team up to fight Destrons to ensure that he gets to be the one to beat Jet Convoy.
• Enmity with an Object: Bunker-Buster claims to have a score to settle with a toaster when Breakdown suggests one is attacking Forkular.
• Establishing Character Moment: Octopunch's first scene sees him attacking a Destron outpost and massacring everyone in side with ease, showing off his power and lack of mercy.
• Evil Versus Evil: Megazarak is willing to have her forces fight other villains, such as Octopunch and Overlord's forces.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: After Hellbash hits him one too many times, Roadfire ends up pummeling him to death.
• Fake Arm Disarm: While fighting Octopunch, Bugly gets one of the extra arms of his pretender shell ripped off.
• Fantastic Drug: Freezon's describes using "nite-glow" as getting a hit, they need to take it regularly, and right after they've done so they act more vicious and become more obsessive in taking notes on the surroundings, with the whole world slowing down for them.
• Finger Gun: Silverblurr does this when acknowledging Roadfire's orders.
• For Want Of A Nail: Rodimus Prime theorizes that the reason his counterpart from this universe, Hot Rod, is so much more positive than him is because he never experienced the bullying and loss Rodimus went through.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: As soon as Trailbreaker makes it incredibly clear he's a Buildron during his first match in Overlord's tournament, Doombox takes the opportunity to mock him for being one. The Destron audience members also boo him when he wins the match.
• Foreshadowing: Bugly remarks that he should get power armor like Megazarak's. Later, once he gets the resources, he has Deluge make him some.
  • Sky Shadow mentions to Rodimus Prime that he's working for a certain cyclops. Later, Rodimus is captured by Shockwave, who confirms that he was Sky Shadow's employer.
• Forgot About His Powers: Misfire is dismayed that the Destrons took off to rescue Freezon before he could get on the shuttle.. until Bugly points out Misfire has a jet mode, and can just fly after them.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Bugly enforces this when Megazarak is sucked into a portal to an unknown location, wasting no time in bringing things back to normal and only ordering Stalker to investigate the portal in case they get attacked again, not due to concern for the lost troops.
• Friends Turned Romantic Rivals: Among the many reasons for Jet Convoy and Beta Levo's falling out was both of them developing feelings for their friend Override, who chose Jetfire over Beta, despite all the hard effort he put into it.
• Gender-Concealing Writing: The Destron spy in the Buildrons has never been referred to with gendered pronouns so the list of suspects can't be narrowed down.
• Going Down with the Ship: Thundercracker refuses to get out of the shuttle he's piloting until he can safely land it, even with one of it's thrusters destroyed. He succeeds, but gets put in a coma as a result.
• Good-Guy Bar: "Maccadam's II: Electric Boogaloo" served as the place for Buildrons to drink when off duty until the Wildriders blew it up. Another, as of yet unnamed bar has since picked up the slack.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Shack loses both legs when his cannon overheats, but he manages to quickly get some replacements later.
• Happily Married: Thundercracker and Nightracer. Their relationship hasn't had any problems caused by them not being compatible with each other.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Nightbeat suffers from a spark attack due to overworking that results in him passing out and requiring immediate medical attention.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Strongarm is amazed that Jet Convoy calls her cute, having doubted her looks when the only one to find her attractive was Knock Out.
• I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Blast Off nots that for once, he thinks that Onslaught is absolutely right about getting off the planet as soon as possible.
• I Can't Feel My Legs!: Arcee realizes she's been paralyzed from the neck down from being hit in the head by a shot from the Claw Skulls when she's unable to move her legs. Luckily, she manages to get the needed repairs to fix her processor.
• I Never Told You My Name: Sky Scanner offers to help get Vortex up to speed on what goes on in Megazarak's warband with his extensive knowledge pool. However, he refers to Vortex by name while doing so, which the latter points out he hadn't said yet.. and Sky Scanner then implies he can use what he knows against Vortex with ease.
• Idealist vs. Pragmatist: A villainous version sees Destrons Blitzwing and Barricade debating over what to do with the captured Rodimus Prime. Being an honorable warrior, Blitzwing wants to present him to Megazarak so he can be taken care of in a fair duel, while Barricade, being a pragmatist, wants to kill him right then and there, considering honor to be stupid.
• I'll Kill You!: Bunker-Buster tells Octopunch this is the reason why he should prepare for death.
• I'm Standing Right Here: When Air Raid claims all old people are weird, Scavenger decides to join the conversation.
• Impossible Mission Collapse: Operation: Freak Show doesn't go smoothly in the slightest. First, Octopunch fails to notice Megazarak and Freezon's distraction and the shots the Destrons and Combatrons shoot at him. Next Assault Master gets caught in the snares Nitro Zeus set up along with Octopunch, and breaks them to get out. Then the cerebro-shell fails to be able to control Octopunch even after its attached and he manages to get into the water. It isn't until Bugly electrifies the water and burns his organic tissue off that Megazarak is able to take control of him and knock him out for capture.
• It's All My Fault: Both Nightracer and Rodimus Prime blame themselves for Thundercracker's coma; Nightracer for not convincing him to get out of the shuttle when it was going down, and Rodimus for him rushing into battle causing the shuttle to get shot down in the first place.
• It's Raining Men: The Buildrons choose to jump from the shuttle in order to get to Jet Convoy's aid faster, as there isn't a safe landing space nearby.
  • Silverblurr does this on his own when he gets Air Raid to drop him onto Moledive in order to bypass a Colossus Climb.
• Karma Houdini: Discussed by Roadfire. He angrily notes how there were Buildrons that committed heinous acts during the Great War, but got off scot free when it ended.
• Keeping the Enemy Close: Megazarak's reasoning for making Bugly second-in-command is this.
• Kill and Replace: Bugly threatens Breakdown with replacing him with a clone if he doesn't stop attacking any Destron he comes across. Despite this being a complete bluff, Breakdown falls for it and obeys.
• Kiss of Distraction: Jet Convoy considers kissing Kiloton to gain an edge in their duel, but decides it probably wouldn't work.
• Klingon Promotion: Megazarak got control of her band of Destrons by using Mind Control to make her former boss Straxus walk into a smelting pool.
  • Shockwave became Decepticon leader in his universe by successfully overthrowing his former leader, Megatron.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Scavenger is perfectly willing to let Shack and his Marauders keep their crashed shuttle in return for being able to safely bring their wounded back to Decagon.
• Lampshade Hanging: Blast Off's insults about Nitro Zeus's name pokes fun about how odd it is when they wouldn't know about Greek mythology.
  It makes no sense. What even is a 'Zeus'?
• Make Sure He's Dead: Even after Hellbash exploded in front of him, Roadfire still rips his head off - just to be sure he stays down.
• Make Them Rot: The rust-ray rifle Gutcruncher provides Bugly with can make anything metal it hits to rapidly decay. Being such a weapon on a metallic world populated by robots, it's a rather potent weapon. Thankfully, Bugly only paid for three bullets.
• Makes Us Even: Bugly decides to get an unconscious Stalker out of the water before he electrifies it. He, however, only does it because the reason he even ended up in that situation was due to him taking a shot meant for Bugly.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Like in many other Transformers series, Cybertron is a planet populated mostly by sentient robots.
• Minor Major Character: Sigmatron, original leader of the Destrons, died before the series even began. However, not only is he the one who started the Great War, but his final act resulted in not only the current state Cybertron is in, but the aftermath is what's forcing both sides to leave the planet before it dies. Without him and his actions, the series would have never even happened.
• Missing Episode: The in-universe film The Battleship Axiom was made before the Great War. As a result it was thought to have been lost for good due to the conflict, but Air Raid managed to find an intact copy for his movie collection.
• Mistakenly Attacked Mole: Mirage kills who he thinks is the Destron spy sending information to Sky Scanner. In reality, the one killed was set up by the real spy, who needed to throw off Mirage's trail.
• The Mole: Megazarak's Warband has a spy inside Decagon that reports to Sky Scanner. This is exactly how he learned of the Arklight.
• Molotov Cocktail: Flywheels plans to use engex to set Octopunch on fire, but Octopunch gets killed before it can even be used.
• Moving the Goalposts: After taking part in Operation: "Freak Show", Swindle adds on various service costs that result in a payment double the initial payment the Destrons agreed to.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Assaultrons, a combiner team exclusive to this series, are based on the Destron drones from Power Core Combiners, while the name of their combined form is taken from their United EX redeco.
  • Nautica's invention, MechTech technology, is named after and based on the transforming weapons from the toyline for Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
  • Flywheels and Misfire being good friends is in reference to them being on the same team in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye.
  • While looking through Onslaught's file for known contacts, Sky Scanner finds not only the names of the other Combatrons, but the names "Brawl", "Vortex", "Bombshock", "Battle Gaia", and "Commandos" listed as well, all references to various things related to canon Combaticons. The only exception is the name Obsidian, but he is known for being an evil tactician, like Onslaught is.
  • Scavenger's drink order is a Bloody Z, an existing drink in Transformers.
  • Jet Convoy makes "Til All Are Fun" cocktails, a pun based on the line "Til all are one".
  • The Battleship Axiom is shown to be a combination of The Transformers: The Movie and Beast Wars. In particular, Jet Convoy likes a line that's paraphrasing the "One shall stand, one shall fall," line from Optimus Prime and Megatron's final battle, while Silverblurr complains about characters showing up in a crowd scene that are dead, miscolored, or repeated, specifically referring to the Coronation scene and many animation errors the movie had.
  • The pick axe on Straxus's armor has a button that makes it say his most famous line from his debut appearance: "Mercy is not dispensed here, fools... only death!".
  • After the pick axe is cut off an old suit of armor belonging to Straxus, Bugly turns down the offer to keep it and suggests Kiloton could have it. The character Kiloton is based on, Megaempress, uses a pick axe as a weapon.
  • Jet Convoy insists that the Buildrons need to get the Arklight "No matter the cost", one of Optimus Prime's most referenced lines from The Transformers: The Movie.
  • The team responsible for destroying the Buildron spaceships was Mayhem, a unit introduced in the UK Marvel comics.
  • Jet Convoy refers to himself and Rodimus Prime as the "Fantastic Double Convoy", referring to the the name of the Transformers: ★Headmasters episode where Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime team up.
  • Excelllion's "Exigeyser Smash" move is named after the Japanese name for Hot Shot's upgraded form in Transformers: Cybertron, with his original form, Exillion, being the source for the original Excellion's name.
  • Onslaught references leading a bot named Darkwing, one of the Decepticon Powermasters, though it's unclear if this Darkwing was a Destron or Combatron.
  • Blast Off mistakes one of the guns the Destrons offer him for an Orbital Cannon, the combined weapon used by Astrotrain in War For Cybertron: Siege. He eventually settles on an x-ray laser rifle, based one one of his original's incarnation's weapons.
  • Swindle used to be known as Leyland, a name used by a redeco of his original toy.
  • When Deluge brings up the possibility of there being someone cunning enough to beat Overlord, Megazarak suggests Flattop, Wolfwire, and Skullsmasher as suggestions of the bot he's talking about, all pre-existing names in Transformers.
  • Thundercracker mentions being garishly colored in his coma dream, referencing his... rather loud Action Master colors.
  • Hot Shot says he hurt his arm trying to do the P.O.K.E., the name given to Lugnut's famed explosive punch in Transformers: Animated.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: No detail is given about the rude gesture Bugly gave to Swindle for raising the Combatrons' payment after the job was done, though this is mainly due to it being an alien sign.
• Never Heard That One Before: Subverted. While discussing their favorite colors, Hot Shot admits that he thought Silverblurr's would have been blue rather than orange. Silverblurr's just glad he didn't suggest to obvious silver, as the joke has gotten old.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Rodimus Prime goes back to rescue Huffer from Forkular's prison after the prisoner helped him get his cuffs loose. Unfortunately, Rodimus was tracked down by Destrons, and they end up shooting and killing Huffer while trying to recapture Rodimus.
• No Sympathy: Sky Scanner is not concerned in the slightest that calling Freezon while they're undercover could get them caught, as long as he gets more information.
• Non Sequitur, *Thud*: While Hot Rod tries to give Nightbeat useful information as to what happened to the Sea of Rust base, he can't put together a coherent sentence before he passes out.
• Not Distracted by the Sexy: Megazarak's first plan is to lure Octopunch into position by hanging pin up posters of herself where they want him to go, and then suggests using herself and Freezon as bait. Despite Onslaught thinking the plan is stupid due to doubts that Octopunch would care about a how pretty they are, she goes with it anyway, and Onslaught is proven right when Octopunch completely ignores them.
• Not Helping Your Case: Megazarak gets incredibly angry when she thinks Knock Out was calling her a Glitch. Knock Out quickly explains that she misheard him: he was copying Nitro Zeus and calling her a Bitch. This leads to Megazarak promptly breaking one of his fingers.
• Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: After getting destroyed in the Great War, the bar Maccadam's was rebuilt and given the full name Maccadam's II: Electric Boogaloo.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Nightbeat, Searchlight, and Clipper, get into a fight with Thunderhoof when an unnamed bot joins in. Next time the group is seen, the fight's over and Thunderhoof and the unknown bot have been beaten.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bugly is always confident, even when retreating. However, upon learning that Megazarak is unable to control Octopunch with a cerebro-shell, even he becomes worried that they might not have anything that can stop the monster.
  • Octopunch can shrug off most weapons and ruthlessly tears through opponents. However, when a Driller is attracted by the energon he has in him, even he decides to run rather than continue fighting Megazarak's warband.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Rotorstorm repeatedly brings up to Beta Levo the remark he made about thinking it would be fun to watch a video of Jet Convoy getting beaten up, due to taking it as a sign Beta wants Jet Convoy dead.
• One-Steve Limit: Subverted, then played straight. Due to dimension hopping, there were two characters named Rodimus and Shockwave. However, it was later revealed that the native Rodimus was using the name as a nickname not many used other than himself and was actually named Hot Rod, while the native Shockwave got renamed Laserwave before his first appearance.
• Operation: [Blank]: Destrons have been shown to use this naming scheme for their plans.
  • Mayhem blowing up the Spaceport to prevent anymore Buildrons leaving the planet was Operation: Sand Trap.
  • Megazarak's plan to subdue Octopunch was Operation: Freak Show.
  • On the Buildron side, Jet Convoy calls the Arklight retrieval mission Operation: Lucky Charms.
• Orbital Bombardment: Sigmatron's final order before dying was to have his fleet bomb all of Cybertron, resulting in the dismal state the planet is currently in and the cause of the it's imminent destruction.
• Organic Technology: Some bots have made use of organic enhancements. Phoenix has a Pretender shell that disguises him as a much smaller organic, while Octopunch and later Bugly have been upgraded with a techno-organic virus.
• Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Starscream ends up revealing himself and Black Mamba to the Buildrons when a dead body pops up in front of him, causing him to scream.
• Phlebotinum Battery: The Creation Matrix from Rodimus Prime's reality. It contains the Plasma Energy used to power him up, and if he runs dry after using it, he just needs to reclaim the Matrix to get the energy back.
• The Plague: Cosmic Rust, a disease that not only breaks down the bodies of Cybertronians if they don't have an antidote, but also destroys their buildings and gear. There's an entire area of Cybertron known as the Sea of Rust with a massive concentration of the virus.
• Playing Possum: Freezon's "nite-glow" means they wake up from stunning much faster than normal. However, they pretend to still be unconscious anyway to listen in on Jet Convoy.
• Poor Communication Kills: Jetfire doesn't call Override at all while she's on a mission in Lysexx. As a result, she assumes he broke up with her, and has no idea that he was promoted to Jet Convoy.
• Powered Armor: Straxus had a set of armor built for himself. After Megazarak took his place, she decided to use it herself to go fight Octopunch, though found it to not be well suited for her to wear.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Assault-Master has one for Octopunch as soon as he forms.
  Assault-Master: They call you Octopunch. Lets see you take some!
• Private Military Contractors: The Combatrons, who are willing to fight for anyone who can pay them.
• Promotion, Not Punishment: In spite of him disobeying Megazarak's orders to get Freezon out stealthily, Bugly still gets made the Number Two of the warband after returning.
• Pronoun Trouble: Nitro Zeus thinks Freezon is female, having never been formally introduced to them or heard anyone else use their proper pronouns, and refers to them as such. Freezon isn't too happy when Nitro uses the incorrect pronouns while calling them.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Back in his home reality, Rodimus had to watch his first love Velocity be forced to walk off a roof after the Decepticons attached a device to her that controlled her movements. While leaving her fully able to comprehend everything that was happening to her.
• Public Exposure: Megazarak has pin up posters of herself made to use as payment for the Combatrons helping catch Octopunch.
• Pure Energy: The power behind Rodimus Prime's Creation Matrix is Plasma Energy. As long as it's in someone's system, they have increased power, and can manipulate limbs detached from their body, and in addition to that, a limited amount remains in the system of anyone who's previously used it, as proven by Rodimus and Beta Levo.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Shack manages to hit Bugly with a shot that leaves him unable to fly for the rest of the fight. However, doing so overheated his own weapon, resulting in Shack losing both legs.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Excellion gives one to Rodimus Prime, telling him how he's a coward for taking the blame for everything and running from his problems instead of asserting himself and toughening up.
• Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Bugly threatens Freezon with not coming to save them again if they keep mocking his disobeying orders to get them back to Forkular safely.
  • Nightbeat initially offers to take Rotorstorm with him after seeing he failed to get on the Arklight, but when he continues to make jokes at his expense, Nightbeat chooses to leave him behind while he searches for the missing Rodimus Prime.
• Regained Memories Sequence: Rodimus Prime is shown getting back all of his memories after regaining access to the Creation Matrix.
• Remember the New Guy?: While the Destrons manage to rescue Freezon, Rotorstorm manages to capture one who was knocked out in the battle... Steelnugget, who had not been mentioned until that point.^note Out of universe, this was done because the prisoner was originally written as Misfire, only for it to be pointed out he had made it onto the escape shuttle.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Scavenger agrees that Nautica's suggestion to jump out of the shuttle instead of waiting to land is the right idea, but it's because there's no safe landing zone, not because it would be fun.
• Roadside Surgery: To tend to Jet Convoy's injuries, Gaz-Mat and the other medics have to set up in the middle of the ruins of Iacon. Later, they have to operate on him and Thundercracker while flying in the shuttle back to Decagon.
• Sand Worm: Drillers, one of the few surviving animal species on Cybertron, are giant metal worm-like creatures that dig their way below the surface in search of energon.
• Security Cling: Knock Out and Quake hug each other as they fall into the pool of water Octopunch brought with him.
• Series Continuity Error: Jet Convoy notes that he came up with his alias for the mission to Tarn when he went to Lysexx... except he uses a completely different alias. He later calls Arcee by the alias she used on the Lysexx mission at one point, despite her picking a different one.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Bugly ditches his pretender shell halfway through his fight with Octopunch after it gets damaged to the point it starts hurting his performance.
• Ship Tease: Megazarak and Stalker have shown signs of having more than professional interest in each other, as Stalker has told Megazarak that she looks stunning in any armor. They've also been noted to have enjoyed talking about how bad of a boss Straxus was back when he was still in charge and still take time to chat about their personal lives privately. And then there's Stalker carrying Megazarak to her personal quarters when she's too exhausted to walk and leaving her a drink, with Megazarak's reaction to only finding it at her door after hearing a knock being anger and disappointment for reasons that go unspecified.
• Shout-Out:
  • When discussing how to beat Octopunch, Megazarak says that they'll need a bigger boat to catch that Sharkticon.
    • Building on this, both Blast Off and "Tin-Can" say "Smile, you spawn of a glitch!" when fighting Octopunch.
  • The Battleship Axiom movie title is, of course, based on the Space Battleship Yamato series.
  • Bugly's method of taking out Octopunch, electrifying the water he's submerged in to knock him out, was based on another instance of using a bug zapper to catch the fish.
  • Roadfire calls Mayhem a Suicide Squad.
  • The game Silverblurr plays with Black Mamba and Starscream is Flappy Bot.
  • Beta Levo sarcastically insists that Jet Convoy not calling Override at all after getting promoted is proof that he loves her three thousand.
  • A drunken Sunstreaker sings Rocket Man.
  • Shinkaiser is called a half-witted scruffy-looking junk herder by the Destrons who find him.
  • Sky Scanner's threat to Vortex about knowing lots of things is a paraphrasing of a line by Bill Cipher.
• Show Within a Show: The Buildrons watch the movie The Battleship Axiom.
• Side Bet: Flywheels and Trimmer bet on the arm wrestling match between Bunker-Buster and Tread-Metal. It's called off after a brawl breaks out.
  • Nitro Zeus bets Deluge and Freezon that their plan to use Rodimus Prime in an experiment won't end well. He demands his money after Rodimus breaks out of his cell.
• Sink the Lifeboats: While the plan wasn't dependent on anyone being in the ships at the time, Operation: Sand Trap was carried out by the Destrons to ensure that no one else could leave Cybertron by destroying every ship capable of space travel.
• Skewed Priorities: Rotorstorm takes greater issue with Trimmer making a snarky insult at him because quipping is his thing, over the insult itself.
  • While Scavenger wastes no time in helping rescue the injured after Maccadam's II gets destroyed, upon seeing that the building was blown up, he's angriest about the fact that it took his favorite stool with it.
• Small Town Boredom: Hot Rod is stationed at an outpost near the Sea of Rust. However, this location doesn't see much action, and he eventually informs Beta Levo how bored he is there.
• So Much for Stealth: Trailbreaker starts beating up Destrons shortly after stepping off the shuttle in Tarn, and then reveals the fact that he's a Buildron at Overlord's tournament. Luckily for his teammates, he's not the only rowdy bot coming to the event, and the Destrons are content with just mocking him when they find out his true alligence, seeing how he'll probably die in the tournament.
• Something Else Also Rises: While Shockwave insists that he has no emotions, Knock Out points out that after talking to Megazarak, his Arm Cannon has, erm, grown.
• The Starscream: Bugly fills the role for Megazarak's group of Destrons, secretly plotting to take her place as leader.
• Stealth Insult: When Stalker remarks how lucky it is that Megazarak returned, Bugly agrees... and phrases it in a way that implies it's bad luck.
• Stunned Silence: Scavenger has no clue how to respond to Air Raid's claim that old people should stop being old to be less weird.
• Talking Weapon: The pick axe on Straxus's armor is rigged to taunt his foes. This is part of the reason Megazarak wants it removed from the armor.
• Tantrum Throwing: Rotorstorm smashes up a spare chair in a shuttle after getting into an argument with Beta Levo.
  • Starscream does whines and thrashes when Silverblurr attempts to put stasis cuffs on him until Black Mamba knocks him out.
• Tap on the Head: Black Mamba karate chops Starscream's head to knock him out so Silverblurr can cuff him. He wakes up later perfectly fine.
• Tempting Fate: Blasttrack tells Tigertrack to imagine how much damage could be done on the inside while talking about why guard duty is important. It's not long before the Wildriders attack Decagon.
• There Is Another: Nautica and Hot Shot end up realizing that both of them survived Protoform X destroying Caminus after they each believed that they were the only survivor, and hope that this means others made it out alive.
• There Was a Door: When Rodimus Prime is running loose in Forkular, Bunker-Buster chooses to drive through the walls in tank mode to get to him rather use any of the room's actual entrances.
• Throwing the Fight: Sideswipe loses his match with Trailbreaker on purpose so he won't have to go up against Star Saber in a later round.
• Tournament Arc: One plotline sees Overlord hosting a tournament to entertain his subjects, which both the Buildrons and Megazarak's warband send troops to fight and try and gain advantages.
• Transforming Mecha: Being a Transformers series, the entire cast is made up of transforming robots.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Kiloton absolutely hates Onslaught for deserting the Destrons.
• Troubled Production: The in-universe film The Battleship Axiom was forced to film all it's air combat scenes first before airspace was closed off for good, and had to rush the editing process to move out of a Pesticon infested building, resulting in several Off-Model scenes being kept in.
• Trust Password: No one's allowed into The Hanged One unless they provide the bouncer with the password: "Sigmatron's balls fell off".
• Unfit for Greatness: As much as Beta Levo sympathizes with the tragedy Rodimus Prime went through, he doesn't think he should have the Creation Matrix due to his grief causing him to break down.
• Villain Decay: The first time Octopunch shows up, he single handedly wipes out the entire staff of a Destron outpost, shrugging off every weapon they have. The next time, he does get beaten, but by an entire team of Destrons that included a combiner that only beat him when they exploit his weakness to electricity. The third time, however, Bugly manages to handle Octopunch by himself with newly built Powered Armor^note Granted, said armor was built to be of comparable strength to Octopunch, but it had never been tested and was only completed minutes before the fight. One blow from Bunker-Buster's hammer also breaks through his dome, when it was previously shown to withstand repeated hits from tank shells. This actually would have resulted in Octopunch's death... had he not managed to bond with Bugly before his body was destroyed.
• Villains Out Shopping: The Destron troops are shown to spend their downtime betting on arm wrestling matches.
• We Need a Distraction: Sideswipe tries pretending to pick a fight with Star Saber so he can lure him to a more private part of the arena and convince him to go back to Decagon with the other Buildrons. this goes wrong as the request angers Saber and leads to the two fighting for real until a Destron breaks it up.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Beta Levo gets called out by several other Buildrons for insulting the injured Jet Convoy.
  • Rodimus Prime has several Buildrons call him a coward for walking away from a mission and abandoning the Creation Matrix just because he felt guilty of almost failing his team.
  • None of the other Buildrons approve of Jet Convoy's choice to challenge Sky Shadow to a fight to get him to talk, especially when it nearly led to him and the Wildriders breaking out of prison.
• With Catlike Tread: Megazarak intended for Freezon's rescue to be a stealth mission. Bugly, however, opts for a Gunship Rescue and has his troops open fire as soon as their targets are in visual range.
• Worthy Opponent: Shack sees Jet Convoy as a good fighter, and lets him leave his territory to get medical attention if it means they get to fight again.
• Would Rather Suffer: Lock-Jaw told Blot she'd rather live with rabid turbofoxes than be his friend.
• Year X: The story is said to take place in the year 45XX. Though since this is probably being measured in Cybertronian time, it might not necessarily be in the far future.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jet Convoy assures Strongarm, Nautica, and Arcee of this when they express concern that they aren't good enough due to the first two's past trauma and the latter's current failures.

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