YMMV / The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye

A

• Abandon Shipping:
  • After The Reveal in issue #33 Brainstorm/Nautica got ditched pretty quick, with some switching to Nautica/Nightbeat. The reveal that Brainstorm is an Anti-Villain got it started pretty quickly again, though.
  • Getaway's creepy and underhanded behavior in issue #40 effectively killed the Getaway/Tailgate ship. It promptly became even deader after it was revealed that Getaway was faking his feelings, and was in fact manipulating Tailgate so to use him in a plan that would have gotten Tailgate murdered.
• Adorkable:
  • Rung, a naive, somewhat straitlaced dork with Opaque Nerd Glasses and gangly limbs. He spends his time doing things like building model spaceships, trying to tiptoe around interacting with a ship full of loons, and needing to be rescued.
  • Rewind, a walking database who runs around after Chromedome like a devoted puppydog, and collects sociotemporal hotspot charts as a hobby.
  • In the flashbacks, Ironfist proves he was a fanboy even before the Wreckers came into existence.
  • Tailgate is trying to cope with catching up on six million years of lost time while having a very cheerfully naive and earnestly awkward personality.

• Alternative Character Interpretation: A large number of the characters have too much psychological complexity to say anything for certain about them. Some notable examples:
  • Did Drift really bully Rodimus into working with Prowl's plan like Rodimus claims or was Rodimus just passing off his guilt? Or rather did Rodimus really agree to the plan or did Prowl arrange some mnemosurgery to be done on Rodimus to make him agree? The Sound of Breaking Glass makes clear it was neither. Drift was against Rodimus bringing Overlord on board, but Prowl played to Rodimus' ego to convince him, Drift even theorizing the only reason Prowl brought him into the scheme was so that he, as an ex-Decepticon, could serve as the perfect fallguy if something went wrong. And while Rodimus wanted to fess up after Overlord killed people like Pipes and Rewind, Drift chose to take the fall instead due to a vision saying the quest would fail unless Rodimus was in charge.
  • Does Atomizer genuinely support Rodimus or does he want him off the ship and is manipulating Rodimus to get him kicked out of captain position? Notably he uses the same sort of trick that Prowl apparently used to convince Rodimus to let Overlord on board. The fact that the voting list is fake certainly points towards the latter, but it's still not really clear.
  • Was Brainstorm's advice to Chromedome heartfelt, or just a way to add more dimension to the masquerade?
    • Events of #38 "Elegant Chaos Part 3" suggest that Brainstorm was actually being sincere, in one of his rare few not-completely-bunny-eared moments.
  • A number of fans have interpreted Prowl as having been an abusive partner to Chromedome, at least emotionally, which may explain Chromedome's issues with self-worth and depression.
  • When Tyrest was shot with the thought bullet he claimed that the attack convinced him that his path was righteous. The implication was that due to his damaged processor, the Nudge Gun was a No-Sell and he figured out he was attacked. He interpreted the attack as someone trying to stop his crusade, and thus convinced himself it was righteous as people were out to stop him. Some fans have questioned whether the thought bullet reacted to his damaged processor and drove him even further into insanity.
  • Whirl. Is he a genuine monster, or is he just that angry about being forced into service, betrayed by the senate, enduring Empurata and being thrown in prison, and trapped in his own self-hate? On another note, just how crazy is he? Numerous characters question whether Whirl's being sarcastic when he acts as usual, and question whether even he knows.
    • Notably, TFWiki.net suggests that Whirl's self-hatred may extend to self-harm or even a death wish, and that when he was interrupted from burning the dead Sweeps, he fully intended to take himself with them.
  • When Whirl locked Cyclonus in the room with a bomb, was it just to kill him, or was it a plan (a crazy plan) to get Cyclonus to be friends by saving him through blowing the door open? Whirl does warn Cyclonus that he's going to blow the door open and to stand back and he does seem to feel rather guilty that Rewind got caught in the crossfire. Mostly it depends on whether you think Whirl wants friends or is happy as a loner.
    • It's worth remembering that Whirl had tried to make up with Cyclonus twice by then, with Cyclonus now telling him that them fighting a common enemy isn't enough. And even after this he tries to make up with Cyclonus a third time, which is when Cyclonus finally accepts.
  • Getaway is livid when he learns that Brainstorm is a traitor, and is noticeably angrier than any of the other Autobots. Later revelations about Getaway lend to some interesting ideas on to why he felt this way. He could just be faking his emotions, trying hard to demonstrate strong Autobot moral fiber with his outrage. Or Getaway's just that big of an Autobot fanatic and he's genuinely that disgusted.
  • For a depraved killer, Kaon's surprisingly affectionate towards The Pet and it's clear that the affection is genuine. The Reveal that it's actually the previous Vos lobotomized, leads to some interesting interpretations ranging from Kaon no longer seeing The Pet as the old Vos and spitting on his memory or a deeply twisted form of affection for a fallen colleague.
  • Given his habits, it's not hard to think that instead of all those times Misfire says something that could be attributed to someone else (like claiming Flywheels was the one searching for the Necrobot) being errors, he's actually just gotten his wires crossed thanks to his brains being a little scrambled.
  • Either Roller or Terminus (or both) is responsible for Megatron being stranded in the Functionist Universe. Roller radioed Terminus to tell him and Megatron where to meet them to go home, Terminus led Megatron, and Megatron missed his ride. Did Roller give bad directions, or did Terminus intentionally ignore them?
  • Given his mindset (a bureaucrat doing a harsh but necessary job), the way he treats Deathsaurus's troops (We Have Reserves) and his behaviour through "Dying of the Light", combined with the fact that we never see him actually fighting during the war itself, especially not in an actual command position, Tarn can come across as a very dark depiction of The Neidermeyer.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Drift accidentally butchering an innocent at Delphi is pretty quickly forgotten by just about everyone. Than again, given what the guy looked like it seems that he was about to be dead anyways.
  • During the time-travel arc, Rewind opts to kill Megatron by destroying his spark as it's placed into his newly built body. This triggers a Stable Time Loop wherein Megatron's "true" spark is placed within the body by Whirl and he is "born." No one remarks on Rewind basically having killed an innocent person.
  • No one seems particularly bothered that Ten and Nightbeat killed themselves on Mederi in the mistaken belief that they were already dead and were ascending to the Afterspark. Rodimus even calls this out In-Universe.
  Rodimus: All better? All better? He's DEAD! We're all dead!
• Anti-Climax Boss:
  • Sonic and Boom against Fortress Maximus. Probably intentional.
  • Dai Atlas against Star Saber. Saber himself against Cyclonus, though that confrontation was non-fatal.
  • Played for Laughs with Sunder. After an intense action scene with Megatron, Rung, and Thunderclash he seems unstoppable... and than Tailgate throws the Rodpod at him.
• Applicability: Roberts has woven a political message into his story both in obvious and subtle ways, though the most obvious (and most deliberate) comparison is the Russian Revolution. The themes of apartheid, religion, unchecked government power, and revolution leading to both good and bad outcomes have been interpreted as many different ideas, institutions, and historical movements from both past and present.
• Ass Pull:
  • Megatron suddenly gets out of punishment for his incalculable evil deeds and gets made co-captain of a privately owned starship on an impossible pet-project mystical quest, thus putting his sentencing on indefinite hiatus, all because of an obscure law on Luna 2 that states he can demand the mythical Knights of Cybertron judge his trial. Of course, the Autobots must honor if they want to uphold the sanctity of law. Because somehow this never before mentioned law has never been repealed in the last 12 million years since the Knights disappeared completely, even though such a defense should be quite popular due to it getting people out of executions. Even if it wasn't repealed, there should be plenty of precedent for ignoring it due to absurdity, but of course, there isn't.
    • Optimus makes it abundantly clear that he's going along with this because he wants to, not because he has to. Few would object if he simply ignored such an archaic law (as countless judges clearly must have before him), retried Megatron elsewhere, and got on with it. And he points out that he could still simply lock up Megatron until such time as Rodimus finds the Knights (so never, considering their usual rate of progress). It's the fact that he wants to believe that Megatron has reformed that convinces him to give him a chance (conditionally; All-Loving Hero he may be, Prime's no dummy).
  • The Afterspark illusion of Tailgate suddenly being the real one. No explanation is given for several strips for how he ended up on Mederi when he'd last been stuck in a timelocked vault and presumed deceased, and when it is, it's just "the Omega Guardians teleported him there...somehow...because they needed him for part of their grand plan". Ratchet notably lampshades this.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: MTMTE gave the spotlight to a plethora of characters the franchise as a whole often neglected, causing many people to see characterizations given to them here as the definitive characterizations for them. In particular, Cyclonus, Tailgate, Whirl, Chromedome, Rewind, Brainstorm, Swerve, Skids, and the Scavengers have all received fully fleshed out arcs and become fan-favorites as a result, and it can seem jarring should they be characterized anyway other than like here. The 2019 Reboot ended up with this on both fronts, as while Cyclonus' characterization there was closer to here, both Brainstorm's death early into the run, and Spinister's characterization being more akin to his early days in Marvel comics, ended up not sitting right with readers due to being so different from the versions they'd come to know and love.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • There were some complaints about the Decepticon Justice Division sort of falling off the radar after taking off after Overlord. Come season 2, we find out that they attacked the duplicate Lost Light, and already did take care of him in a sense.
  • Fans of Chromedome and Rewind were obviously less than pleased about the latter's apparent death. The very first arc of Season 2 sees his return thanks to quantum superposition.
  • After Hayato Sakamoto's controversial Botcon 2014 comic, James Roberts made a point to say MTMTE wouldn't go down a similar road.
  • After complaints about Megatron being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad, the first story arc of Season Three ends with him being Put on a Bus by being stranded in another reality thus allowing the focus to once again be on the principal cast. Its epilogue also ends with the revelation that no, Rodimus and Ultra Magnus haven't Easily Forgiven Megatron for everything he's done.
• Awesome Art: Oh, yeah. A necessity for Transformers art given the visual complexity of the characters in question, the artists (especially Alex Milne) manage to pack in an incredible amount of detail into every panel without things ever getting too cluttered, and making the characters incredibly expressive without ever seeming too "organic."
• Awesome Ego: Rodimus. His level of self-confidence goes beyond "reckless" into the "potentially lethal", he makes Whirl look positively selfless and insecure, and his ego is approximately the size of Unicron. All of this would be bad if his plans didn't end up working more often than not. Best exemplified in this exchange from Season Three.
  Swerve: Even if you're right, you can't just- you can't just demand an audience with God.
  Rodimus: Watch me.

B

• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Minimus Ambus's presence is a major one for being an especially drastic change to a long time Transformers character. The idea that Ultra Magnus has been dead for some time and Minimus is the current Magnus threw a lot of people for a loop. From there fans saw it as an especially great change to the status quo especially seeing how many of Magnus's appearances were consistently Minimus in the armor; or they saw it as too drastic of a change that pushed an artists original character as being a long standing Transformers canon character.
  • Star Saber being a violent religious zealot. Though it comes as no surprise to readers of Robert's TFMUK stories, the direction he's taken is a debated one. Some like the new role and enjoy him as a villain especially those that feel his original personality was just a boring good-guy and Optimus Prime copy. Others hate the new direction and view it as an unnecessary vilification of a popular character.
  • Megatron joining the cast in season 2 was a major split. Some felt it was one of the best written depictions of Megatron with a fully realized character both sympathetic yet still the despot he was previously. Even as he tries to make amends, scenes like the makeshift grave of flowers, allow the audience to mull over what he's done and if there's a point of no return. Others hated the depiction either because heroism was too big of a departure for Megatron's character or because they felt that the story downplayed many of his atrocities (often accused of a Draco in Leather Pants scenario made canon). Similarly some felt Megatron's arc dominated the season and took up way too much screen time while others felt that he had a suitable amount of screen time for a big name and the supporting cast still got their due.
  • Trailcutter's death. Much like the demise of Breakdown on Transformers: Prime, some see it as a bold move reinforcing that Anyone Can Die, while others view it as an unnecessarily cruel Bridge Drop on a promising character.
  • The Personality Ticks from issues 41-42. To some they're a Creepy Awesome brand of antagonist whose anatomy and powers are great examples of "out there" sic-fi that's perfectly at home with the comic's tone. To others they're just characterless monsters whose powers and biology push past the suspension of disbelief and end up looking stupid.
  • Anode. For a lot of readers Anode is a godsend. A transgender character without the very unfortunate baggage of Arcee possessing a charming, goofy rogue characterization and love that two new characters are being given a lot of developmental time. Another group might appreciate the inclusion of a transgender character but find Anode abrasive and argue she's given far too much focus in the much slower paced first year. And then a third group who just rejects transgender characters that the other two groups wisely ignore.
  • As the Scavenger arc was revisited in Lost Light, the newly added character of Nickel caused a bit of a divide. Either its great to have this popular new character brought in, given emotional and comedic moments while also finding a new home with the Scavengers. For others, Nickel is a completely unrepentant member of the one group everyone in universe either hated or feared and her being given emotional baggage of missing a group of violent murderers screams of trying to appeal to the small but vocal part of the fandom that frequently defended the DJD's actions on social media.
  • Getaway's portrayal in Lost Light. Some like the idea of a downright evil Autobot (rather than just morally gray) who you loved to hate-not to mention the catharsis for when he finally got his just desserts. Others felt like it was a total, out of nowhere 180, going from a villain with a few justifiable grievances (Megatron getting off the hook, Rodimus being incompetent), even if his actions aren't excusable, to a total bastard who kicked the dog every page he was on with no qualms about his actions, throwing out any nuance the character had.
• Bizarro Episode: Issue 43. It's comparable to the weird, one-off genre homages Community often did. Word of God suggests that it was deliberately designed this way.
• Broken Base:
  • Josh Burcham leaving and being replaced by Joana LaFuente. Just about everyone wished Josh good luck when he announced he was leaving MTMTE but still working on other IDW titles, and are happy that he went on to color The Transformers: Sins of the Wreckers, but opinions on LaFuente are mixed. Some feel Josh's pastel muted-color pallet was more suited to the series, while others feel her more loud color pallet is an improvement. Naturally a third faction has cropped up that just holds the two as different, but still contributing well to the series.
  • The art of Issue 22, or rather, the inking, which makes the issue awfully dark and gloomy, even though it's a lighthearted issue.
  • Hayato Sakamoto due to his Old Shame background. Some like his art and feel he's a surprisingly good fill in for Milne while others dislike his background as a doujinshi artist and feel his fanservice laden stories from the TFCC and the Japanese pack ins are excessive and tasteless. His old art is especially controversial with several fans accusing him of promoting pedophilia to where even the TFWiki.net tried to call him out; while others feel that the whole issue is overblown.
  • Who's Holomatter Avatar designs are better; Guido Guidi's or Alex Milne? While Depending on the Artist can be handwaved (the bot's themselves mention that they can change their looks to how they want), there's obviously differing opinions on some of the designs. Whirl: better as an adorable little girl (suiting his Psychopathic Manchild nature), or a more punk inspired teenager (suiting his rebellious side)? Rung, better as a plain looking guy (suiting his non-memorable role), or the handsome redhead (suiting his intelligence and dignity)? Are Guidi's designs too simple? Are Milne's too detailed?
  • Tailgate's age tends to come up when debates about shipping flair, especially with issue 47. Age itself is a different concept with Cybertronians, where things like Fort Max being very young and Whirl being very old never really seem to be a factor. However then there's Tailgate who's mannerisms and holomatter avatar (which is supposed to represent his mental image) are that of a young child. This has lead to some fans feeling that putting Tailgate into a romantic relationship (within canon) is squicky because Tailgate seems underage. Not helping this is Getaway's courting of Tailgate is framed like an adult creepily attempting to pick up a child (and is even referred to as grooming). Others feel that these are semantics, and Tailgate himself is only child-like, and his actual age makes him considerably older (seeing as he was born during Nova Prime's time), thus a romantic relationship isn't out of the question.
  • The Reveal that Tarn is actually Damus/Glitch and that Roller was a Red Herring. Many fans are enraged that all the evidence to Roller being Tarn's true identity was pure misdirection, and claim it was an Ass Pull. Others contend that Tarn being Damus/Glitch makes sense and did have several instances of Foreshadowing, and that James Roberts has used a prominent Red Herring before. Some feel that The Reveal lacks any emotional impact since Tarn was revealed to be a minor character as opposed to a long-missing Ensemble Dark Horse. Word of God contends that Tarn's identity was planned from day one, for what it's worth.
  • And hot off the heels of that Broken Base comes the deliberate use of Anti-Climax Boss for the Season 2 finale. On the one hand you have those who agree with it as an Intended Audience Reaction as the DJD, the most feared monsters in the Decepticon Army, are all quickly and brutally killed by an empowered Megatron which also gives them a suitably karmic Undignified Death. Others felt that Intended Audience Reaction or no, it was a very uninteresting way to end the fight and a disappointing end to the DJD especially as the other 3 that were killed weren't nearly as well developed and characterized as Tarn was.
  • The Tone. MTMTE's tone was very popular when the comic debuted, with Roberts revamping the comics into a Dramedy not seen in Transformers fiction, at least not the extent it was. Many praised the witty and funny dialogue especially Swerve's Rapid-Fire Comedy and Whirl's Black Comedy. However, as the comic went on, the humor became a major point of contention. For some it stayed as one of the most consistently good things about the series and prevented Too Bleak, Stopped Caring that the comic book medium could at times be infamous for. For others it became a gratingly self-referrencial World of Snark with too many wisecracks and indulgent pop-culture references.
  • Lost Light #18 for some. You either love Lost Light #18 because CyGate is made not only canon, but they magically get their happy ending as it turns out Tailgate is alive "somehow", or you have a problem with the emotional fake out on a reveal ^note The Afterspark is an illusion created by the Mederi Euthanasia Clinic. Such illusion includes the appearance of previously revealed dead bots. and the logical inconsistencies that Tailgate being alive and real creates, regardless of how you feel about Cygate in the first place. And of course, you have the small group of people that don't like gay robots in the first place, but they have always complained, so this issue would not be the first time they're vocal.
  • The fake outs. Starting with issue 6, MTMTE quickly gained a reputation for killing off characters with James' willingness to snipe well developed or well loved individuals undergoing a Memetic Mutation. However unlike it's sister book (where it became more common for deaths to stick), MTMTE actually has a relatively low body count among significant characters for a 6 year series, with a very large number of Disney Death. Some deaths like Pipes and Trailcutter stuck but many, many times a character was portrayed as dead only to be either severely wounded (Rung, Red Alert, Ultra Magnus) or were perfectly fine the next issue (the most infamous example being Cyclonus seemingly being torn to shreds by laser fire at the end of an issue only to be 100% a okay in the next issue with no explanation). For some fans, the drama of these moments was the important thing (as the fake outs were generally all well executed)and they didn't want those characters to die anyway. They also point to the number of B and C tier characters (as well as occasional A like Skids and the first Rewind) who did pass on to show there were real stakes. For others the constant fake outs meant that would be moving or shocking moments were treated with disbelief, bordering on disdain as the series moved on. These readers also say the deaths that did happen either didn't have enough effect on the main cast (e.g. the deaths in the sadly rushed final arc of Lost Light)too frequently unimportant to the plot. Ironically the handling of one death that was hit both these points was not well loved (Nautica's arc relating to Skids) in many circles and Roberts has said it's one of the stories he wishes he had a chance over with.

C-D

• Cargo Ship: Brainstorm sometimes gets this with his briefcase, which was kind of inevitable given that he's so attached to the thing that he brings it to a funeral. James Roberts jokingly suggested that this trope is in effect with Nautica and her wrench.
• Catharsis Factor: The villains of this series are, almost without exception, complete and utter bastards, so it's incredibly satisfying as a result whenever any of them gets their just desserts.
  • Red Alert shooting Pharma in the face in revenge for Ambulon's death.
  • Chromedome sending Overlord flying with one punch when his Berserk Button is pressed. Even the wiki specifically captions this panel with "Admit it, you cheered a little at this."
  • Megatron slaughtering the DJD like animals in Issue 55.
  • Alt Rung mocking the Functionist Council to their faces, with "All hail the useless one." as the cherry on top of the insult sundae.
  • Cyclonus slicing Star Saber cleanly in half in Lost Light Issue 20.
  • From that same issue, Getaway being devoured alive by red scraplets.
• Character Rerailment: After some minor derailment under the pens of Mike Costa, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning (thanks to carrying the Idiot Ball), Rodimus and Cyclonus are put back into their usual characterizations thanks to Character Development in the previous ongoing.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Contested Sequel: Lost Light was this to More Than Meets the Eye. Essentially, if one enjoyed the later issues of MTMTE, then they'd enjoy Lost Light. The comic either continued the highs of MTMTE with its humor, world-building, and high minded science fiction ideas or suffered further under an inconsistent tone, messy plotting, and lack of substance. One of the biggest changes was in the art department as Jack Lawrence replaced Alex Milne as the main artist. Opinions of his art being are over the place both for his quality and whether or not it works for the book.
• Continuity Lock-Out: One of the few real problems with the comic is that it's clearly intended to be read from the very beginning; there's loads of continuity, set-ups, characters, subplots, and jokes that can all appear or disappear at any time and it's not uncommon for the running gags to get zig-zagged all over the place.
  • This was somewhat lessened at the beginning of Season 2, since it provided a much more detailed recap page, but it's getting as bad as Season 1 was as it progresses.
  • Lost Light is proving to be the same. It might have had started with a #1 issue, but since it basically functions as Season 3, it does require a lot of previous knowledge. They attempt to have a recap, by giving you a summary of season 1 and 2, but it is up to debate on how effective it was with new readers.
• Crack Ship:
  • Brainstorm/Atomizer seems bizarrely popular, despite the fact that they never spoke to each other until issue 33. The fact that they were both stationed at Kimia might have something to do with it.
  • Misfire/Fulcrum is also surprisingly popular even though Misfire is kind of a dick to Fulcrum in the comic.
  • Helex/Tesarus from when Milne drew Tesarus holding up Mistletoe and smirking at Helex on his Devientart.
  • Overlord/Trepan has gathered a number of fans with the revelation that Overlord kidnapped Trepan and forced him to teach him mnemosurgery. Fans of Teacher/Student Romance and Mind Game Ship both hopped aboard.
  • Dark Cybertron made Whirl/Arcee remarkably popular. It helps that they're both maniacs who get hopped up on violence, and they even got a Back-to-Back Badasses moment against the Ammonites - which, for these two, probably counts as flirting.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • Whirl is very likely insane, and his impressive amount of jerkassery and insanity gets him through the day. When beaten, impaled and then threatened by a crazy Shell-Shocked Veteran, Whirl's response is to taunt him in cruel and amusing ways, diffusing the situation, and then impaling the guy when things heat up again. Rewind casually mentions that Whirl punched himself in the face to prove that he's "super-unvincible," and apparently introduces himself by saying he has no known weaknesses. He solves the problem of moving Ultra Magnus by having everyone's avatar jump on him till he transforms. As of issue 28, he's the only person in the history of the franchise to kick Megatron in the crotch.
  • Then in issue 10 Orion Pax flies down from the sky out of nowhere and slams down on top of the guy attacking Chromedome and Prowl. Chromedome assumes that he probably jumped off a random rooftop to do this but isn't sure...
    Chromedome: He did that sort of thing a lot.
    • A later issue has him take down an orbital platform by having Trailbreaker wrap him in a forcefield and Windcharger hurl him at it like a living missile. He tears right through, destroying the platform in a single blow. Tailgate declares it the most awesome thing he's ever seen.
  • Brainstorm practically runs on this.
  • Rodimus is the biggest Cloud Cuckoo Lander and least mature person on a starship full of them, and yet he's a damn good captain who wins more often than not. Best exemplified in Season Three, when he seemingly gets disintegrated only to find himself face to face with the Guiding Hand. His response? Smile and ask them for a handshake.
  • The entire Scavenger crew in general get this every time they appear. For a bunch of backstabbing, stupid and disreputable Decepticon rejects so immature and unstable they make the crew of the Lost Light look functional and well-adjusted, they've made it through some ridiculous adventures - including facing off against both Fortress Maximus and the D.J.D. - with barely a scratch on them.
• Creepy Awesome: The DJD, Overlord, Pharma, and The Functionist Council.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Whirl is constantly crossing it. At one point he tries to defuse a hostage situation by straight up telling a Shell-Shocked Veteran to shoot him and Rung.
  Rung: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?
  Whirl: You tell me - that's your job, isn't it?
  • Then there's the way that Whirl (supposedly) dealt with Killmaster offscreen - by breaking into a hospital and crushing his brain while he was recharging, and then taking his wand and shoving it somewhere rude.
  • After Flywheels falls in battle against the DJD, the Scavengers pay their, um, "respects"...by arguing over what parts of his body they're going to salvage.]
  • Brainstorm's "My First Blaster" gun that he gave Swerve. It's an obscenely large gun that's apparently designed for children judging by the design. If you get a direct hit with it, it makes a little jingle and says "You got a direct hit!" like a toddler's toy.
  • In issue 20 when the Killswitch hits Constancy and starts affecting Krok, Spinister, and Crankcase, if you look in the background you can see that Grimlock (still mentally disabled from whatever happened to him on the Worldsweeper) is playing Jenga with some toy blocks.
  • Rodimus asking for his innermost energon to be sold, with the proceeds used to hire a bounty hunter starts out dark... and then it becomes funny again when he says that he wants his remains to be built into a blaster that can be used to shoot Getaway in the face. He then complains that he wants the blaster to be in his colors.
• Designated Villain: Mirage does nothing other than open a bar, but Swerve is able to drive him out of business without any repercussions. Conversely, Swerve comes away from the situation looking like a complete asshole. Ratchet doesn't come off looking much better, since the whole thing was his idea.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Pharma got a little bit of this after How Ratchet Got His Hands Back due to his backstory and hints of Jerkass Woobie. His later appearance in the Remain In Light arc changed that.
  • Surprisingly inverted with Whirl. Despite his tragic backstory making him a perfect candidate for this trope, most fans seem to prefer him as a complete asshole.
  • Played a bit straight with Cyclonus. His fans gloss out his initial abuse of Tailgate, including the slapping and kicking after Tailgate tells him he lied to him about the war in Life After The Big Bang. Of course, Cyclonus grows out of it, becomes a nicer guy, and saves Tailgate's life in the Remain In Light arc — but the abuse still happened, and it isn't until Elegant Chaos Part 2: Stet when Cyclonus apologises for it.

E-G

• Ensemble Dark Horse: More Than Meets The Eye is arguably a series known for taking a group of previously obscure characters within the franchise as a whole, and turning them into a bunch of Ensemble Darkhorses:
  • Whirl, thanks to a combination of his tragic backstory and being a complete murderous lunatic.
  • Swerve, typically a rarely noticed background character in other continuities, has quickly become popular due to his fast talking, smart-assed, hilarious, and very personable portrayal in this storyline.
  • It's almost impossible not to like Skids, quick-witted badass and amnesiac spy extraordinaire.
  • Roberts' character Rung has also picked up a posse of fangirls, due to his awkward, adorably gangly design, and matching adorkably geeky personality.
  • Tarn, the leader of the Decepticon Justice Division, if simply for looking really badass and having several cool gimmicks going for him. He became even more popular after issue 39, where he was given more character depth and shown to be a Tragic Villain. The DJD in general, are widely popular with the fandom- the number of fanart pieces featuring the DJD definitely far far exceeds the number of MTMTE panels featuring a DJD member. Though none of the rest of them have received as much characterisation as Tarn has (consequently, Tarn gets the most fandom focus), the group as a whole is adored because of their awesome and unique designs, and the strength of the DJD as a concept (a band of fanatically loyal roaming torturers dedicated to killing Decepticon traitors, is a helluva cool idea).
  • Brainstorm, a Meta Guy extraordinaire with a penchant for brilliantly outlandish inventions (see Crosses the Line Twice). This increased after his complex backstory and motivations were revealed in season 2.
  • Getaway started as this, being a flashy superspy update of a well-liked character from Fuman's run. Then he turned his attention to Tailgate and things... changed. Ironically, the reveal that he really is an utter, utter bastard won him back quite a few naysayers, with many liking the vicious subversion of his introductory appearance and being warm to the idea of an evil Autobot on board.
  • Nautica, for being extremely Adorkable and nice towards everyone.
  • Nightbeat, who was already a massive Ensemble Darkhorse for the rest of the franchise.
  • The Scavenger plotline in general. They only appear every dozen issues or so and have yet to majorly impact the Myth Arc, but they're just as popular as the Lost Light crew.
  • In one bizarre example, the segway/scooter that Rung is seen riding in issue 37 has become beloved by fans.
  • Nickel, for being a hilarious Team Mom for the DJD who creates some of the most absurd Mood Whiplash ever seen.
• Epileptic Trees: This comic inspires some truly insane speculation; just look at the WMG page. Some of the more out-there theories include Rung being one of the Guiding Hand and a flashback in issue 35 actually being an alternate timeline created by Brainstorm going to the past. Note that both ended up being correct. Brainstorm and the DJD are Epileptic Woodsmen.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: The series ends with the crew of the Lost Light that was copied into a new universe, allowing them to stick together for the foreseeable future exploring the new universe. It's rather uplifting. However, the fates "original" crew who returned home are a lot more bitter, and they are who we spend the majority of the final issue with. Rodimus becomes a drunk washout who keeps trying to recapture the magic of the Lost Light's voyage just one more time without success, Ratchet dies of old age, Rewind gains a neuro-degenerative disease that eventually leaves him trapped in the form of a USB drive, Whirl falls into a life of alternating between petty crime and jail, and a now fully-repentant Megatron is heavily implied to have been executed for his crimes. It's not all gloom and doom, there are some happy endings among the crew, but it is rather somber. And as Rodimus notes, they have no way to ever know if their attempt to duplicate themselves in another universe ever worked, so all they can do is hope that it did.
• Even Better Sequel: To The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers, which it takes several semi-major plot points from.
• Evil Is Cool: The DJD, Tarn in particular.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • What kind of adventures did The Alternate Lost Light have before the DJD attacked? Well, according to James Roberts that's up to you, so hop to it.
  • The ending is rife for this on two fronts. On one front, you've got the Quantum Duplicate versions of the Lost Light, now in a brand new universe free for any writer to choose. On the other, you've got the versions who broke up following their Lost Light's deconstruction, and the adventures they individually had before Ratchet's funeral, Rodimus' time in Thunderclash's crew in particular.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Domey" for Chromedome after Rewind referred to him as such for one line in issue 9.
  • "Gay Robots In Space" or some other variation for the series as a whole in reference to both the canon couple and the huge amounts of Queer Romance in the series.
    • Also "Sad Robot Space Soap Opera"
  • With Drift being Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, people are pretty much done calling him Poochie and calling him Dorito-kun instead. "Weababe" also crops up from time to time. "Driftaboo" is an older one, but it's used a bit more affectionately than it used to.
  • Before his identity was revealed, the person responsible for Overlord being on the Lost Light was called "The Conspirator" by fans.
  • The "Lost Lighters" for the crew of the Lost Light.
  • "Trailguy" or "Trailmix" for Trailbreaker, due to Executive Meddling forcing the writer to call him Trailcutter, complete with an issue being devoted to explaining this.
  • New character 'Riptide' quickly gained the moniker of Boatstorm.
  • Megatron has earned the title of "Sad Old Man With a Cat"
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Skids/Swerve are getting extremely popular.
  • Rodimus/Drift, too, though not quite to the extent of the first two.
  • Nautica/Skids is probably the most popular hetero ship in the whole fandom.
  • Due to the events of issue 33, Nightbeat/Nautica seems to have gained a big boost.
  • Brainstorm/Nautica isn't far behind them, especially following Issue 40.
  • Drift/Ratchet is the most popular ship on Archive of Our Own.
  • Swerve/Misfire exploded in popularity after their meeting in Lost Light 18.
• Foe Yay Shipping: Tarn sure does love getting up close and personal with the competition.
  • Hello, Pharma.
• Fountain of Memes: For transfans at least.
• Franchise Original Sin: Fans tend to see the comic's later arcs, especially Lost Light onwards, as a step down from the first few years, but a lot of the problems to crop up were there from the beginning. Snarky and self-referential dialogue, absurd plots, messy treatment of relationships, slow-burning arcs, and a habit of focusing too strongly on a core cast that displaced a lot of potentially interesting characters were all present - but James Roberts had yet to obtain Protection from Editors, and also had enough time to make sure his plots paid off. In later arcs, the dialogue became a World of Snark, the "Megatron's redemption" arc became a Plot Tumor, the plots moved from "quirky soft-sci-fi" to "flatly ridiculous", and most of the non-core cast was either written out or killed off. It didn't help that the oncoming end of the IDW continuity meant that Roberts had far less time than he seemed to be expecting to resolve dozens of hanging plot threads, resulting in the final arc having to take a lawnmower to the Kudzu Plot.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Doctor Who. Transfans and Whovians have always gotten along somewhat, but this comic pretty much cemented it due to the writer being a fan of Doctor Who and Overlord's personality being based off of the Master (specifically the John Simm version).
  • Also with Arrested Development due to a.) James Roberts being an avowed fan of the show and b.) the comic having a similar style of humor and storytelling to the show.
• Genius Bonus: Quite a lot.
  • Chromedome mentions "Rossum's Trinity", which is both likely a reference to the Biblical Trinity and to R.U.R..
  • "Sound Bombs" are actually possible. There are studies that have shown cephalopods suffering massive trauma caused by noise, in some cases causing the nerves inside their heads to explode, leaving gaping holes in their heads.
  • In "Shadowplay" the Senator refers to his students as "outliers". An outlier is a math term for a number in a large collection of numbers that is different from the rest.
  • The Scavengers' ship is called "The Weak Anthropic Principle", a philosophical belief that claims that observations of the physical universe must be compatible with the conscious life that inhabits it.
  • "Omega's Conundrum" is filled with allusions to the notorious Schrödinger's cat paradox.
  • There is a principle of Cybertronian biology called "Rossum's Trinity", a reference to the 1920 Czech science fiction play "Rossum's Universal Robots", which introduced the word "robot" into the English language.
  • In the 2012 annual we're given a quote from Megatron that paraphrases a quote from Karl Marx; "Religion is the opiate of the people".
  • Issue 9 is titled "Post Hoc" a term that refers to the examination of data in search of patterns after an event. The issue includes a reference to a place called Apophenia, a word which refers to the experience of seeing connections in meaningless or random data.
  • There's a reference to the Möbius strip in issue 13.
  • Issue 14's prologue references a the socialist play "An Inspector Calls".
  • Issue 14 mentions a place called Thymesis; the Greek word for "Remembering". Considering the subject matter of the issue...
  • Thunderclash's ship is called the "Vis Vitalis", which is the name of a classical alchemical principle of a "life force" possessed by living creatures.
  • Tyrest's failed "two-city state solution" is a reference to the fabled "two state solution" in Israel and Palestine's peace process.
  • Chief Justice Tyrest is designed to resemble a Principality a member of the highest order of the Third Sphere of angels in the Christian angelic hierarchy.
  • Issue 19's title is taken from R. D. Laing's The Divided Self, a seminal work on understanding madness.
  • Empurata is an anagram of the Latin word "amputare", meaning "to cut away". In ancient times, amputare was often used to punish criminals, marking them as lawbreakers and publicly humiliating them by removing specific digits or limbs. Sure enough, Empurata is given a similar purpose here.
  • Ununtrium is indeed a real synthetically created element.
  • The "Ambus Test" is a reference to the Turing Test, a scientific exercise designed to test when human-engineered "artificial intelligence" in computers has reached the level of sentience.
  • Cyclonus belongs to a religious order called the Clavis Aurea. "Clavis aurea" is a 16th century theological term that refers to the means by which hidden meanings in texts may be discovered; it means "golden key" in Latin.
  • K'Gard's name is an allusion to the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard.
  • The Ammonites' name refers to both an extinct genus of molluscs and an ancient tribe which existed in biblical times.
  • "Momus" is the name of the Greek god of satire and mockery. It's also the name of an obscure indie band.
  • Nautica is a quantum mechanic, a play upon the real-life field of quantum mechanics. The cheat engines and Möbius ships she professes interest in are also wordplays, on heat engines and Möbius strips respectively.
  • The arena in which Megatron's trial is held is named the "Raskol arena", the Russian word for "split" or "schism". The term specifically refers to the 17th century splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church, triggered by reforms introduced by its patriarch.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series has a decent following in Japan and Spanish-speaking countries.
• Growing the Beard: Hayato Sakamoto's art saw a significant improvement in this series when compared to his Takara pack-in comics and previous Botcon fill-in. His use of perspective has gotten much better, and all the Fanservice was reigned in greatly. His art has been praised for its bright and detailed, yet cartoonish look, similar to Nick Roche, but distinctive in its own right.

H-I

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Shadowplay arc sheds some new light on many of the actions of Shockwave. Specifically, when he feels emotions in his spotlight and Maximum Dinobot comics, he discovers rage, how to feel anger and hatred and use that to his advantage. He expresses wonder and intrigue at these feelings, which we have just learned he was stripped of before the war.
  • Remember how funny it was that Tailgate got stuck transforming? Well, issue 17 revealed that it's because he has cybercrosis and is rotting from the inside, with the damage including his transformation cog.
    • And then we learn that he was only online for about 2 weeks prior to being trapped under rubble and put offline until found in modern times. He's an infant dying of old age. Makes his baby holo-avatar a lot darker.
  • Ultra Magnus' obsessive compulsive tendencies are pretty funny, right? Ha, he thinks skewed Autobot symbols are tantamount to mutiny. Well, turns out his obsessively compulsive is because he's having a full-on nervous breakdown because he can't handle peacetime. And it turns out his boss Chief Justice Tyrest found out about it and was not amused.
    • Even worse, his Stat-O-Vision in the annual, when he looks at his reflection reads 'laughingstock'.
  • Ultra Magnus chewing out Rodimus in issue 3 over how reckless he was during the Sparkeater incident given that the alternate Rodimus actually died because of his recklessness with fighting the Sparkeater.
  • Brainstorm's advice to Chromedome in issue 16, as issue 38 shows Brainstorm ignored his own advice, refusing to move on from the death of his love and instead attempting to destroy an entire timeline just so he could potentially save Quark at the cost of everything else, including himself.
    • Honestly, everything about Brainstorm once you track down the truth about his past and line it all up. Dude's a Walking Spoiler for a reason.
  • Learning that Brainstorm went back in time just to save Quark's life is sad enough, but it's even worse when you get to Issue 49, and learn exactly how Quark died. At the hands of one Megatron's handpicked students, no less.
  • Everything to do with The Pet once The Reveal is made.
  • In his first appearance, as Skids tries to remember his name, he briefly thinks it may be "Scum". In issue #54, as he lays dying, having regained his memories of Grindcore, his last words are "I'm scum, Ratchet, scum..."
    • In issue 40, Skids is discussing whether the afterlife exists with Nightbeat: "Who doesn't want to survive the dying of the light?". "The Dying of the Light" is the storyline in which Skids dies.
  • In a Real Life case, which James Roberts himself brought up on twitter, was the idea of the State having tons of eyes and ears to look for unwanted people, when the US decided to use their Wireless Emergency Alerts system to look for Ahmad Khan Rahami, just like the functionists did in issue 35.
  • Every single thing Brainstorm's done once it's revealed he's a Decepticon plant. Suddenly those horrific crimes against science stop being so funny.
    • Linked to this is a scene in issue 22 where Rodimus mocks Thunderclash for having a spy in his crew in the form of Paddox.
  • In issue 3 a humorous conversation has Ultra Magnus mention a Decepticon named Blip who thought he was a sparkeater. Issue 39 shows that Blip was later brutally murdered by the DJD for that belief.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In issue #6, Rewind is busted for storing recordings of graphic deaths in his head, basically being the equivalent of snuff films in the Transformers-Verse. Issue #12 shows why he does this- he's looking for a friend that he lost millennia ago, and is looking for any evidence of where he went or what happened to him.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • A lot of fans don't buy Rewind's death, as he was lost in a messy explosion and the body wasn't found. Lampshaded when Swerve recaps issue 33 to the audience and is surprised when he realizes that the audience never really thought he was dead in the first place. The Rewind the crew find isn't their Rewind, either...
  • The fact that Trailcutter died just before the series introduced time travel is raising a few eyebrows. This was partially undone by the Elegant Chaos arc, which made clear that time travel in this universe can't change the past, only act out predestined events.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Cracked once made a list of the "10 Most Useless Transformers," a list which included Rewind, Chromedome, Mainframe, Skids, and Swerve. Come this series, Rewind is a walking database, Chromedome is the best Mnemosurgeon alive, Mainframe one of the central bridge crew, Skids is an enormously badass spy, and Swerve helps figure out a cure to the dreaded disease cybercrosis.
  • An extremely powerful Amnesiac Hero is best friends with a smaller Motor Mouth prankster. The Heroes of Olympus, anyone?
  • Swerve asking Skids if he's an ex-wrecker when they first met. He's from the Diplomatic Corps, another autobot special ops team, seen as a foil to the Wreckers.
  • There is an episode of Futurama in which Professor Farnsworth builds a "Death Clock" that functions almost exactly like the Death Clock Ratchet has. To top it off, in both Futurama and this comic the local Naïve Newcomer is shown to have a very short time to live by the respective Death Clocks.
  • Whirl is shown in Issue 14 having issues with the Targeting Visor as he mentions it was designed for robots with "100% more eyes" than him. Cue The Transformers: Dark Cybertron and Shockwave having a binocular microscope and the Running Gag that came out of it.
  • In issue 12, there's a brief scene during the big fight where Chromedome rides Overkill (a Decepticon who has a dinosaur form). Not even two years later, Transformers Age Of Extinction has a scene where Optimus Prime rides Grimlock into a battle in the exact same way. Made even funnier by the fact that the issue has a scene where Rewind accuses Chromedome of pretending to be Optimus Prime.
  • In the first issue, Rewind complains that everyone makes fun of him because he turns into a giant memory stick and not a "super space tank". Cue the Transformer's Collector's Club second figure subscription service, and one of the figures that is part of it is Rewind (with an Eject repaint) based on the Demolition Rumble toy that was never released Stateside... and turns into a tank. Then in 2016 Rewind receives another toy, this time a tablet computer... that also turns into a tank.
  • Lugnut appears as a member of Deathsaurus' army in the second season finale, part of the joint effort with the DJD to kill Megatron for his defection. The original Lugnut, hailing from Transformers: Animated, was well known for being a fanatically loyal nutcase who praised his leader so much even Megatron got tired of it.
  • In the Functionist universe the council believed themselves to be following Primus' grand design and despised Rung because his alt mode is unidentifiable. Come issue 22 and the reveal that Rung is Primus.
  • The Scavengers' spaceship, the Weak Anthropic Principle, is frequently just called by its initials, the WAP. As of 2020, there's now a popular but EXTREMELY lewd song that shares the acronym, which makes re-reading their stories even funnier.
• Ho Yay: Tons and tons and tons. And this is excluding the canon couple and Prowl and Chromedome's past relationship.
  • Rodimus' texts to Drift might be easy enough to write off as Rodimus being Rodimus. Less so is Drift trying to impress Rodimus by interrogating Cyclonus (which he takes way too far), giving Rodimus sword lessons, complete with a Hands-On Approach shot, or accepting full responsibility for the Overlord affair to shield Rodimus.
    • Lug, through Anode's hallucination even calls them Conjunx Endurae.
  • Cyclonus and Tailgate too. Especially when it looks like Tailgate's going to die. Cyclonus goes so far as to gouge his face in self-loathing when his bad advice makes the little 'bot even more miserable. Season Two ups the Ship Tease.
  • Red Alert's monologue at the comatose Rung's bedside has heavy shades of this.
  • Brainstorm's "highly conflicted Perceptor fanboy" status got a lot of this treatment very quickly. Their interactions in "Dark Cybertron" only added fuel to the fire.
  Brainstorm: You? Me? Simpatico.
  • Tyrest and Magnus's interactions are far more casual than you would expect from either of them.
  • In issue 29 when Atomizer is trying to convince Rodimus to take the voting list he gets a little too close and friendly with him. This had the members of TFW 2005's forums declaring that Atomizer was Rodimus's secret admirer. It helps that Atomizer very much looks as though he's got a Primus-Apotheosis-style hero worship thing going on for Rodimus. Though it's quickly subverted when it's revealed Atomizer was trying to play Rodimus.
  • Tailgate and Getaway in issue 30, so much so that Cyclonus walked out of the room. Come issue #40, however...
  • Fayren's Retailer Incentive cover for Issue 33 looks like it could easily be from a scene of a slashfic featuring Tarn and Fulcrum.
  • Some readers have pointed out the events surrounding the Shadowplay arc and Dark Cybertron imply that one point Optimus Prime had feelings for Shockwave of all people.
  • Ten's behavior around Ultra Magnus go a little bit farther than just being a Fan Boy, and his behavior when Ambus comes to the bar with him feels rather like the shy girl in love with the class president.
  • What's Ratchet's prized possession that he takes with him, and smiles at when he leaves the ship? Ten's replica of Drift. As of Lost Light #24, they have confessed their feelings for one another.
  • Megatron and Soundwave too. Soundwave is just so devoted to Megatron. A lot of his Sympathetic P.O.V. involve Soundwave wishing to bring the world for Megatron and is heartbroken when Megatron left the Decepticons.
• Inferred Holocaust: Bitterly lampshaded by Rodimus and Getaway when they discover that the hot spot on Luna 1 won't reignite, meaning thousands of Cybertronians essentially just died in utero.
• Iron Woobie: Sunstreaker.
  "SORRY SORRY SORRY! I spend my whole life apologizing! Just once- just once- I'd like to have nothing to apologize for!"
• It Was His Sled:
  • Overlord has been smuggled onboard of the Lost Light. It doesn't help that this was revealed only six issues in.
  • Shockwave is a Tragic Monster. This played an important and much advertised role in The Transformers: Dark Cybertron that it's hard to miss.
  • Ultra Magnus is Minimus Ambus. When first revealed, this was a twist that absolutely floored the fandom and was a fresh new take on a character who'd been around for decades. Now it's one of the more well known aspects of the series, and Ultra Magnus's post season 1 role usually references that big reveal. Even his Generations 2015 toy (a widely distributed figure that wasn't an Optimus repaint), incorporated this reveal.
  • Good luck avoiding the knowledge that Megatron joins the quest in season 2. Made even worse by the fact that IDW itself spoiled this through promos.

J-M

• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Whirl, after we learn his Backstory.
  • Chromedome. In addition to having one of the most dour and cynical outlooks of any of the cast, many of his worst troubles can be attributed to his own faults and sometimes questionable ethics. But even taking those into account, so much of his life just sucks.
  • Brainstorm is implied to be one in issue 16. This is confirmed in issue 38; his entire motivation for travelling through time was to try and prevent the death of his one-true-love Quark.
  • Cyclonus. At times he's incredibly cold and abrasive, but when you consider how ridiculously traumatic his past six and a half million years have been, it's a wonder he's coping as well as he is. It gets worse when Tailgate becomes ill.
  • Megatron, who is filled with regret over his actions in the war and desperately trying to atone. Also he's Reformed, but Rejected. Starscream actually lampshades this in his speech at Megatron's trial, portraying Megs as a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who got in over his head and succumbed to the same evil he fought.
  • Ravage. He genuinely believes in Megatron and the Decepticons and is devastated by Megatron's abandoning of the Decepticon cause.
  • Surprisingly, issue 39 reveals that Tarn may count as this. He's secretly horrified and disturbed by the violence the DJD commits and his mask is actually there to hide the fact that he closes his eyes in remorse and disgust when they torture people. He's also implied to be filled with self hatred, with him constantly criticizing himself through his inner monologue. The only reason he even helps them is because he sees his duty as absolutely necessary.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Drift is the most shipped character. Drift/Ratchet is the Fan-Preferred Couple and beyond that Drift/Perceptor, Drift/Rodimus, and even Drift/Wing all have strong shipping followings.
• LGBT Fanbase: This series has gotten a lot of attention from the LGBT community for featuring the first official homosexual couple in Transformers in the form of Chromedome and Rewind. The science fiction world building is used quite well in normalizing the relationships within Cybertronian society in a manner similar to Steven Universe or Welcome to Night Vale and depicting gay characters with conflicts and tribulations apart from societal bigotry. The comic's since paved the way for other same sex relationships and even the future Chromedome and Rewind toys are depicted together by marketing.
• Like You Would Really Do It: While the story hasn't pulled any punches in killing some of the 'bots, a big name bot, like Ultra Magnus, does seem covered by Plot Armor, even with the revelation that Ultra Magnus is a Legacy Character.
• Love to Hate: Prowl, Overlord, Pharma, Star Saber, and now Getaway and Atomizer.
• Memetic Badass: Whirl. Fortress Maximus is one in-universe.
  • James Roberts himself is starting to get this treatment amongst the fandom.
• Memetic Molester:
  • Pharma, after his insanely creepy behavior in issue 18.
  • Amusingly Getaway got a bit of this after a Ho Yay-filled scene in issue 30 where he hangs out with Tailgate. Since Tailgate is mistakenly thought of as a child by some fans this caused some to jokingly compare him to Pedobear. His attempts to turn Tailgate against Cyclonus in issue #40 have only made things worse.
• Memetic Loser: The fans affectionately view almost the entire Lost Light crew, and Rodimus in particular, as this, despite all the bad guys they hunt down and universe-threatening paradoxes they have to stop, they make almost no actual progress and are constantly getting sidetracked from the actual main quest for the Knights of Cybertron. Issue 41 makes it damn near canon In-Universe, Bluestreak mentions that the gong Rodimus has to celebrate a milestone on their quest has literally never been rung before and Rodimus throws a raucous party for the whole crew with a banner that reads "We've Achieved Something."
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Prowl flips tables when angry. (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻
  • Social Justice Tarn. ^note Explanation: A running gag amongst the fandom, portraying the Big Bad, Knight Templar Tarn as a stereotypical Malcom X-style social crusader for Decepticons.
    • On that note, Everyone is Tarn. ^note Explanation: Because Tarn's face is an obvious Decepticon symbol mask, it's a bit of a joke to guess at who he used to be.
  • Courage Rodimus. ^note Explanation: Rodimus is insanely reckless at times and fans love pointing out his insane leaps in logic such as making medics fight on the frontlines or allowing a Shell-Shocked Veteran to walk around with a loaded gun.
  • As of Issue 18, Overly-attached Pharma.
  • FUCK DA POLICE.
    • It's not unusual to be lonely...
  • JAAAAMMMMEEESS ROOOBBBEEERRRTTSS!!!
  • BOMP!
  • Everyone lives Rose! Just this once everyone lives! ^note Explanation: A Shout-Out joke about how Everyone Lives in the dreaded issue 21.
• Moe: Tailgate and to a lesser degree Nautica.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Pharma crosses it when he murders Ambulon just to prove that he is a better doctor than Ratchet and win the "contest".
  • Fangry violently killing Kaput puts him over the horizon. Even his later action of leaving Tailgate to die a slow irradiated death feels like typical Bond villain-esque Decepticon behavior in comparison.

N-R

• Narm:
  • "Primus hates you." It works in context when you take who's saying it into account, but by itself it sounds like the kind of thing a spiteful five-year-old might say.
  • Cyclonus rushing to the medibay is supposed to be dramatic, but the exaggerated fashion in how he's drawn running makes it hilarious.
  • While there'll always be a debate about whether or not writers are making the bots "too human," having Grimlock wet himself in issue 45 was perhaps a step too far. Some even joked about it being akin to a pissing fetish.
  • The dramatic reveal of the DJD's real names is somewhat undercut by an editing goof that swaps out Tesarus and Helex's names. It's especially obvious because Scissorsaw was given to Helex, who's main weapon is a smelter rather than Tesarus, who's main weapons are the sharp blades and saws in his chest. This was fixed in the trade paperback where their names are swapped back.
  • When in mourning Swerve wears a grey Autobot badge. The badge being on his crotch really undercuts a serious sad scene. Swerve could have done it intentionally being the prankster he is, but that'd be outside the bounds of good taste even for him.
• No Yay:
  • Pharma acting like somekind of stalker/jilted lover towards Ratchet in issues 18-19.
  • Getaway's progressively creepier behavior towards Tailgate retroactively sours anything the two had going on between them.
• One-Scene Wonder: Quite a few:
  • Torque, the overly-cheerful suicide bomber from Fulcrum's flashback in issue 8. Even more so after the reveal in issue 16 that he killed one of the Magnus armor holders with his suicide jump.
  • The Megatron-sounding Nautilator and Affably Evil Blip in issue 12 who only show up for two pages.
  • Flywheels only appears very briefly for two issues before getting killed off, but comes across as one of the funniest and most likable Scavengers.
  • Blip, the Decepticon who thinks he's a sparkeater in issue 39. Mainly for having the balls to actually stand up to Tarn and call him out on his hypocrisy even while the DJD are torturing him.
  • Skullcruncher, the self-hating Decepticon comedian.
• One True Threesome: Cyclonus/Tailgate/Whirl is actually quite popular, likely because the other two are just about the only people Cyclonus gets along with, and because of how understanding and uncharacteristically helpful Whirl is when helping Cyclonus deal with his feelings for Tailgate. It even kinda-sorta becomes canon at the end when Tailgate and Cyclonus, now married, invite Whirl to come live with them after he gets out of prison.
• Only the Creator Does It Right: Some fans react this way whenever someone other than Alex Milne or Nick Roche does the art. This view is not helped by the fact several of the artists who have chipped in (other than Guido Guidi) seem to have some trouble staying on model.
• Pandering to the Base: A well-received example. James Roberts admits Nautica was explicitly created with the intent that she would join the Lost Light crew at the end of 'Dark Cybertron'.
• Paranoia Fuel: Issue 28 reveals that Ravage has stowed away aboard the Lost Light and is spying on the crew. This is revealed to us by showing him sitting barely two feet away from Megatron and Rung during their session... without being noticed.
  • Later he manages to sneak onto the Rodpod as the Lost Light is evacuated and keeps hidden almost the entire time. He's only caught when Hound catches a glimpse of him by sheer chance.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • The portrayal of Drift—another author's Creator's Pet—in this series has made quite a bit of headway in redeeming him to some of his haters. Hell, the guy's become a bit of an Ensemble Dark Horse by this point.
  • On the creative level, Alex Milne. His previous IDW work on the Spotlights and Megatron Origin had proved very unpopular, to the point that many were actively dreading him replacing Nick Roche as artist - Roche's colorful, characterful, and expressive style had been nearly the inverse of Milne's Dull Surprise and very overdrawn designs. But when #2 rolled around, Milne nailed the style and designs perfectly, and many are now hailing him as one of the best Transformers artists ever.
  • Getaway became one of the most hated characters in the series after Our Steps Will Always Rhyme with the reveal of his less pleasant characteristics. Some fans despised him for this whilst others felt his creepy behavior reminiscent of some kind of child-molester was inappropriate and was out of place in the comic even with its penchant for Mood Whiplash. Then his gambit arc started and many were quick to reevaluate their opinion on him upon learning how much of an utterly hatable person he was. Many fans were impressed by the idea of such a fanatical Knight Templar Autobot and even though others still hate him, it's clear he's become a Hate Sink rather than a Scrappy.

S-W

• Seasonal Rot: Season Two has been subject to harsher critical reception than at any point in the book's history, largely due to a lack of plot progression, gratituous pop-culture references (summer 2015, see below), plot fake outs (like Cyclonus' Disney Death in #47), developments seen as Ass Pull's (Tailgate becoming an Outlier), and other complaints. It's Lampshaded in the bonus #50 story when Atomizer says that most series hit their stride in their second season - but that's not the absolute rule.
  • The issues of summer 2015 (#41-43) got the worst reception from most fans thanks to Roberts' rampant Author Appeal regarding songs and pop culture references and having little plot development, as well as them being mostly Bizarro Episode's. #42 disappointed fans as it appeared to promise that Tonight, Someone Dies when no one dies. #43 in particular disappointed several fans since the promotional material seemed to imply that Deathsaurus' War World was pursuing the Lost Light, advancing the DJD/Deathsaurus plot introduced in #39. And it ended up being a Bizarro Episode focused on Swerve's mind. #44 is generally agreed to have got things back on track, since it addressed long-standing plots like Dominus Ambus, Megatron's judgment, the actual quest, and the Necrobot.
  • In general, the latter half of season 2 has been recieving harsher criticism thanks to Megatron becoming a Spotlight-Stealing Squad benefiting from Protagonist-Centered Morality, at the expense of other characters.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: A couple examples.
  • A fair amount between Brainstorm/Perceptor and Brainstorm/Nautica shippers.
  • Cyclonus/Tailgate and Getaway/Tailgate are running into this.
• Squick: The DJD making Blip hold his own brain in his mouth in issue 39. Tarn's dialogue doesn't help. It's later learned that Helex does this regularly, including to the quantum duplicates of several of the cast he killed.
• Shocking Moments: "Remain In Light" and "Slaughterhouse".Pretty much all of "Crucible", with special mention to The Guiding Hand's true story, Cyberutopia's true nature and FUNCTIONIST PRIMUS
• Signature Scene:
  • Season 1: The introduction of the DJD in "Rules of Disengagement"; The Reveal that the Senator is actually Shockwave from "Shadowplay, Part 3"; "Under Cold Blue Stars", Chromedome curled up in a fetal position after launching the missiles that hopefully kill Rewind before Overlord does.
  • Season 2: Megatron and Ravage's spark-to-spark in "slaughterhouse, Part 2"; Cyclonus seeing Whirl's holo-matter form in "The Lopsided Triangle"; Megatron vs. the DJD in "The Dying of the Light, Part 6".
  • Season 3: Giant Functionist Universe Rung punching a moon in "Dissolution, Part 6"; Anode's speech in "An Axe To Break the Ice" (which received substantial praise from the trans community); the cliffhanger reveal of "The Return of the King"; and the final shot of the series in which the new quantum duplicate Lost Lighters set course for infinite new adventures.
• Spiritual Licensee: This comic captures the spirit of Star Trek better than any of the actual Star Trek comics. It even has some similar character archtypes (reckless captain, The Comically Serious second in command, grouchy medic, eccentric engineer, etc.). Alex Milne actually makes the comparison that he feels Rodimus is Season 1 Riker and Megatron is Season 1 Picard, although fans seem to have suggested that Megatron is closer to Captain Jellico.
  • Some also feel that it's the closest thing to a continuation of Firefly that we'll ever get.

• Take That, Scrappy!: Though the series sees him Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, Ratchet's tirade in issue two about how much of an idiot Drift is probably qualifies.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: This has always been the reaction to the use of Adaptational Villainy in IDW, and Star Saber is no different.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Though many obscure characters are used in prominent roles, just as many are ignored or summarily killed off.
  • A notable example is Countdown, who is a minor Ensemble Dark Horse and Memetic Badass. He appears and is killed off in the space of one issue.
  • Many were disappointed with the much anticipated return of the Protectobots/Defensor, especially those hoping that they'd be fleshed out more, as MTMTE previously only gave First Aid development and they were largely sidelined for Combiner Wars. While the team does get some character bits, they're largely a minor player in their return arc with First Aid once again being the only real important one. Special mention goes to Rook, who spent the last two years having no character and is the first of the team to be killed. And while the rest of the bots had some ambiguity to their fates, Rook had no such luck.
  • Unfortunately with IDW's decision to reboot the franchise, Roberts ended up cutting many of his long form stories short and as a consequence a number of characters never got to do much. Roller is one of the most notable as outside of being a Red Herring for Tarn he's given very little to do as a main stay of the third season. Similarly Megatron's Functionist Universe adventures are all abridged and Terminus is Killed Offscreen.
  • Quite a few fans were disappointed at Getaway's turn to a total bastard in Lost Light. While few would defend his actions, he does ultimately bring up some good points- Megatron is getting off scott free for his actions, and Rodimus is an incompetent narcissist-not to mention, he didn't count on the DJD showing up. Seems like the setup for an interesting conflict, right? NOPE! Come Lost Light, he's total grade A scumbag who throws away the lives of his crew like they were scraps off his plate (including his only remaining friend) in order to save his own skin, all the while being a smug self-centered douchebag all the way.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Decepticon Justice Division were given several moments which went to lengths to humanize them and make them more than two-dimensional psychotic killers. Their refusal to harm neutrals like the Necrobot, expanding on Tarn's character with his apparent disgust at what the DJD does but seeing it as Dirty Business, the introduction of Nickel, etc. Setting them up to have their own set of ethics would have been an interesting means of examining how the DJD followed the ideals of the Decepticons in a post-war world, contrasting them with Galvatron or Soundwave, and had their own sense of camaraderie, like Tarn's concern for Kaon, or caring for Nickel enough to give her a recording of his voice in case of emergencies. It would also better serve the reveal that Tarn was once Damus/Glitch, and could examine how much he actually changed since then. Instead, the group, sans Nickel, is relegated to two dimensional psycho's on the Necroworld, Tarn's character barely different than Galvatron. The aforementioned traits are all reversed, to the point Nickel leaves in disgust after he kills Kaon, and the group suffers an Undignified Death at the hands of Megatron after they push him too far.
  • Atomizer's Heel–Face Turn is often seen as being unceremoniously ended too early. After he was given plenty of focus during "The Mutineers Trilogy" that demonstrated how different he was from Getaway, he chooses to remain behind buying time for First Aid and Riptide to take Thunderclash with them and steal Star Saber's ship, which results in Getaway proceeding to kill Atomizer with his bare hands. Many had wished Atomizer had gone with the others since Star Saber was already incapacitated enough, and point out that he didn't have to die, especially when the only thing to come from his death, the idea Getaway had Froid and Sunder modify everyone's memories to make them think Thunderclash killed him, doesn't go anywhere since the crew are turned into Sparkeaters by time they're next seen. Presumably, this is an unintended side effect of the mandated Continuity Reboot forcing the series to rush towards an ending, as Roberts had admitted to wanting to do more stories focusing on the Mutineers at Botcon 2018, with Lug and Anode even originally conceptualized as being the leads of one such story, but the mandate caused those plans to be scrapped.
• Tough Act to Follow: The Sensuous Frame arc and The One Where They Go To Earth are generally considered the weakest stories so far, partially because they had the unfortunate luck of coming right after a string of wham episodes that propelled the Myth Arc forward, as well as coming right before the highly anticipated second Scavenger arc.
• Ugly Cute: Bob and The Pet.
  • Glitch, one of the outliers from "Shadowplay."
• Unpopular Popular Character:
  • Whirl. In-Universe the Autobots hate or fear him, and Ratchet is uncomfortable with repairing him. Out of Universe he's loved for being a Crazy Is Cool hilarious badass.
  • Cyclonus as well. In-Universe, he is known for having been Galvatron's right hand man, and having killed many 'bots during his assault on Kimia. Even after he pulls a Heel–Face Turn that saves Cybertron, and helps Optimus stop Galvatron, he still gets mislabeled as a Decepticon, others openly reject him because they knew some of his victims at Kimia. Out of Universe, he's loved for his evolving relationship with Tailgate, being a honorable bot, and matching Whirl in badassness. This eventually culminates in him being more accepted by the crew following the Remain in Light arc.
  • And of course Megatron, who's hated by the crew for obvious reasons. Out-of-universe fans like him since, well, he's Megatron.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: As the Transformer Wiki points out, in issue #21, Rodimus allows himself to be strapped to a cross-shaped table so that he can use the power of their creator deity to wipe away the consequences of Tyrest's sins, at the possible cost of his own life. The cables connecting him to the killswitch even make it look a little like he has a crown of thorns around his head.
• Win Back the Crowd: For IDW's Transformers comics, after they had slipped into a minor Audience-Alienating Era.
• The Woobie: Everyone at some point, but even so a few stand out.
  • Tailgate. Guy's just woken up from missing six million years of war, and as such is incredibly naive about what has transpired. He spends an issue walking around an Autobot ship declaring that, based on the history Cyclonus has shared with him, he wants to be a Decepticon, and invites mistrust upon himself before being subjected to a brutal montage of Decepticon atrocities. Add to that Cyclonus beating the crap out of him in issue #4, leaving Tailgate a quivering wreck curled up in the fetal position, and you just want to give him a big hug. In issue 13 he becomes even more Woobie-licious when we find out, he's not a crewmember of the Ark 1 like he said he was. He's just a garbage man who fell while swapping out the ship's coolant and lied because he just wanted someone to actually care about him. Not only that, it turns out that he's dying of cybercrosis from all the radiation he received while in stasis for 6 million years, and before he went missing, he had only been alive for 2 weeks.
  • Red Alert's paranoia is initially portrayed in a somewhat humorous light. Not so much, as the series progresses.
  • Fortress Maximus. To add to the already disturbing implication that he's essentially a Child Soldier, there's his absolutely horrific torture on Garrus-9, which leaves him a violent, psychotic wreck under incarceration for the first half of Season 1. Towards the end he regains the crew's trust and is eventually allowed to police Luna-1, but it's obvious that while he's constructively dealing with his issues, he's not free of them just yet.
  • The end of the "Shadowplay" arc reveals Shockwave to be one. One of the few decent members of the corrupt, pre-War senate, he sacrifices himself to save Roller's life. He is mutilated, and has his personality completely inverted, changing from an outspoken, affable benefactor to a cold, emotionless scientist. He's portrayed with such depth prior to this transformation that we really feel for him, despite the fact that years later, he's one of the Decepticon elite.
  • Ultra Magnus.
  • Rewind. He's been searching in vain for Dominus Ambus for millions of years, only to die terrified and alone, feeling betrayed by Chromedome and with his search unfinished. His other self has it even worse: He had to record the DJD slaughter all of his crewmates to save Chromedome's life, only for Vos to kill him anyway when they changed the terms and Chromedome refused to comply. Given that Rewind admits in issue 16 that he's terrified by the thought of outliving Chromedome...
  • Swerve, after The Reveal in issue 13.
  • Tyrest, pre-Sanity Slippage. He gave his all for the Cybertronian race, and ended up creating a multitude of Cybertronians he believes are predisposed to criminal acts. He starts mutilating himself as penance, and eventually damages his brain, rendering him a twisted, insane shadow of his former self. It gets even worse when it's revealed his actual identity is Solomus of the Guiding Hand, but suffered Identity Amnesia from the God War against Adaptus. He was the wisest of the five and truly wanted to help people, yet not only did Adaptus take that away from him, he also made Tyrest into his Unwitting Pawn via the "Grand Architect" identity. When Solomus finally remembers who he is, you can't help but feel something for him when he's lamenting how his life was taken from him, with his last moments being a Heroic Sacrifice to finish off Adaptus for good.
  • Issue 31 reveals Riptide to be one; he's an MTO and was forced to go through a training exercise so traumatic that he refuses to talk about it. Plus he missed the initial launch and spent over a year being miserable on Cybertron because he got the crap kicked out of him by the Lost Light's prior owners.

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