History Fanfic / TFAKaleidoscope

* GlassCannon: Optimus starts out as this, as he was reconstructed with inferior Earth metals. He still has his strength, but is more fragile than the police drones and takes a lot of damage when he fights Pyro Goblin. After Sari fully repairs him and he merges with a nearby fire truck, he upgrades to an all out LightningBruiser.
* AGodAmI: After their mutations, Dauros starts to get more angry and prideful to the point where he develops a full-blown God-complex and sees anyone who opposes him as sacrilegious heretics.

* HaveWeMet: Some of the people Sari interacts with find her familiar, but have a hard time recognizing her. She often does her best to avoid being recognized for fear of being put into child services or being reminded of her non-existence. One of the police officers (Officer Lander) ''did'' recognize her as the same girl who helped with Pyro Goblin when he helped her bring Prowl his severed leg.

* IHaveManyNames: PlayedForLaughs in regards to the Beast Pretenders. They tend to cycle through new names for their group so often that nobody can get their name right. So far they've had Monster Men, Horror Mercs, Beast Warriors, and Monsters of Myth and Mayhem. They can never seem to pick one. They eventually get stuck with Beast Pretenders after the Autobots screw up their robbery.

** Ratchet has the role of Canon!Optimus, while still maintaining his position as the team's medic.
** Wheeljack gets some elements of Canon!Ratchet as he's now the team's scientist.

** Arcee was a teacher back on Cybertron, but the Great War caused her to lose everything, including her memories. Since she sustained sever damage to her core-programming, she was barred from returning to her original occupation.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The story has a notably more mature and serious tone than the show did. Themes such as isolation, orphan-hood, and WarIsHell tend to be pretty prevalent.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Given to a great number of characters in this story, mostly due to the Great War having a deeper affect on them.
** Unlike the cartoon, Wheeljack is exiled alongside Ratchet and the others on the Orion Crew where as in the original, he was still living on Cybertron.

** Besides living through the Great War, Ratchet also lived through Cybertron's totalitarian caste-system before the war began, and it's clear from his conversation with Optimus that he remembers every horrible moment of it.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Propaganda from the Great War paints the conflict as simple: Autobots are good, Decepticons are evil. Ratchet states that this is all just lies and that the actual reality of the war was far more gray.

* PoliceAreUseless: {{Subverted|Trope}}. The police are pretty competent at their jobs, with the only instances where they falter involving opponents well out of their league like Decepticons or super-villains, and they hold their own against the human super-villains well enough.

* ForWantOfANail: Sari being an orphan and Optimus not being one of the Orion crew leaves the Earthbound Autobots a lot more dysfunctional and detached from the humans than they were in their home series. Ratchet's leading style forbids human interaction to put their focus on getting back home and the lack of connections means that the Orion is their main base 24/7.

** Since Longarm is a separate character from Shockwave, his personality is more in line with ''G1'' Red Alert.

* {{Determinator}}: Optimus will do whatever it takes to protect the Allspark and has forced himself to endure some intense pain. Ratchet stated that for him to reactivate with all his fried circuitry would render him unconscious again, but not only does he force himself to reawaken for a long period of time, he also traverses underwater into the city while it's in the middle of a rainstorm, despite any contact with liquid making his agony even worse.

* DeathByAdaptation: Issac Sumdac dies somewhere before the story begins. There's some elements of UncertainDoom in there though, and the details on what precisely happened are sparse, though it's implied that Megatron did ''not'' deliberately cause it, since Isaac was searching for his body.

** Zig-zagged with Arcee. On one hand, she doesn't remember the war and isn't forced into serving as the Decepticons' access key to Omega Supreme. On the other hand, it's because she doesn't remember her past that she's part of the exiled Orion Crew and her inability to remember who she was causes her a lot of grief and frustration.

* TimeAbyss: Most Cybertronians are older than every human on the planet combined, with three of the Orion Crew having experienced the events of the eons long Great War. Optimus far exceeds the rest of the Autobots (expect Ratchet) in age and has been in stasis lock for about ''4 million years'', and has been fighting in the Great War for perhaps even longer than that. Not to mention that Optimus and Ratchet were also brought online during the era of the segregation classes on Cybertron, which is ''before'' the events of the Great War even began.

** Scalpel is the main one for the Decepticons.
** Blackarachnia is implied to be one, though for more sympathetic reasons since she's trying to become a normal Cybertronian again.
** Wheeljack is a good guy variant. He loves inventing and 97% or the time, his creations explode.

* DemotedToExtra: After they stop Starscream, Optimus and Sari become OutOfFocus, not counting a cameo appearance in "Ghost in the Machine, Pt. 3". This is somewhat justified by Optimus not being part of the Orion crew and his key objectives being to protect the Allspark and Sari. Unless those end up overlapping with any of the other Autobots' predicaments, he won't get involved much. In Sari's case, she's a street orphan here and not the Autobots benefactor and guide to human society, so she's not really familiar with any of them barring Optimus (her guardian) and Bumblebee.

** Sentinel is less of a BoisterousWeakling here and more of a snooty elitist.

* BlatantLies: When Arcee asked how Sari knew so much about the layout of Sumdac Tower, she hastily and awkwardly said that she's been there on field trips. Of course, she comes off as a BadLiar to the readers, but Arcee pretty much accepts the answer, in part because they're in a hurry and she doesn't really have time to think about it.

** Sari was forced to live on the streets after her father died due to not having any legal documentation to confirm her existence.

* BlatantLies: When Arcee asked how Sari knew so much about the layout of Sumdac Tower, she hastily and awkwardly said that she's been there on field trips. Of course, she comes off as a BadLiar to the readers, but Arcee pretty much accepts the answer.
* BodyHorror: Time has not been kind to Optimus while he was in stasis. Before his repairs, his body was heavily eroded over and rustic, with [[FacialHorror his face being almost completely gone and left in its place was a warped metal skull]] alongside exposed wiring. Sari thankfully uses the factory equipment to repair him when she learns how to use her key. Though she doesn't manage to fully repair him until later.

* ChekhovsGun: Following the arrest of Pyro Goblin, one of the chapter epilogue scenes ends with energy sparks arching across Kelly's police car for a brief moment. Knowing ''Transformers'', guess which Cybertronian is most associated with being a police car?

* DeathByAdaptation: Issac Sumdac dies somewhere before the story begins. There's some elements of UncertainDoom in there though.

** After Powell's takeover of Sumdac Systems, the company has mass produced more machinery on a greater scale compared to when Sumdac ran the place. However, their products have seen a large drop in quality, which leads to them cutting corners and relying heavily on the original base for most machines. This was the key factor that allowed Megatron to gain control.

* DemotedToExtra: After they stop Starscream, Optimus and Sari become OutOfFocus, not counting a short appearance in "Ghost in the Machine, Pt. 3". This is somewhat justified by Optimus not being part of the Orion crew and his key objectives being to protect the Allspark and Sari. Unless those end up overlapping with any of the other Autobots' predicaments, he won't get involved much. In Sari's case, she's a street orphan here and not the Autobots benefactor and guide to human society, so she's not really familiar with any of them barring Optimus (her guardian) and Bumblebee.

* RuleOfFunny: How can Starscream yell at his frustrations while in the vacuum of space where no sound can travel? Because it's funny.

* DeathByAdaptation: Issac Sumdac dies somewhere before the story begins.

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: Optimus, due to being an outcast, is detached from the Orion Crew while his show version was close with all of them (barring Wheeljack and Arcee, who weren't members in the original).

** The Autobots and Optimus didn't exactly work together on the best of terms.

* GreatOffscreenWar: The Great War happens in the backstory and plays an integral part in the backgrounds of Ratchet, Wheeljack, Arcee, and Optimus, but it's never seen. The closest we get are small glimpses and minor flashbacks from Optimus every now and then.

* AgeLift: The ages of certain characters are altered in the story.
** Optimus is much older, having fought in the Great War for a long time before being discovered by the Autobots and lived through the pre-war Cybertron caste-system. This makes him comparable in age to Ratchet, if not younger, since he also grew up on a pre-war Cybertron.
** Sentinel is implied through dialogue to have fought in the Great War, which would make him much older here.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Optimus develops this toward Sari, even scolding her like you'd expect an elder brother or parent would after he finds out she was in danger. This also has a few shades of PapaWolf as well, since Optimus also comes across as a father figure on some occasions.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: When Sari took over Lt. Kelly's police car, her driving was pretty absurd. Justified because she's a kid, so it's not like she's ever driven a car before that moment.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Optimus has this dynamic with Sari (with some shades of ParentalSubstitute as well), as he cares for her and bickers with her the same way you'd expect an older brother would.

* HeroWithBadPublicity: The Autobots don't exactly have good public support, though this trope ultimately gets zig-zagged. People tend to be just as quick to throw them under the bus as they are to praise them for any heroic action they may commit. The police do have enough tolerance of them to work alongside them when they need help, and they point out that news and media only focus on the bad aspects and paint them in a negative light for the sake of sensationalism, and that the public is actually more divided on them than outright against them.

* NominalHero: Optimus only cares about two things above all else: Protecting the Allspark and protecting Sari. When Starscream attacked, he only cared about killing the Decepticon and made it clear that the hostages that he took weren't a priority. He only goes through with Sari's plan to save the hostages on her insistence, and even then, he was very apprehensive about it since the plan involved putting the Allspark at risk.
-->'''Optimus''': No matter what the human media may think of us, we're ''not'' heroes...We cannot ''afford'' to be.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Lugnut is right in that Megatron is alive and functioning, but his beliefs are rooted in his zeal and unwavering loyalty rather than him actually knowing that Megatron survived.

* SamusIsAGirl: Pyro Goblin's thin and lanky frame, combined with her distorted voice, made her appear to look like a man. Lander was shocked when he unmasked her and learned that she was a girl.

* SkewedPriorities: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. While Prowl was concerned by the Beast Pretenders criminal activities, he was more concerned with how they sully the majestic image of Earth's wildlife by dressing up as animals for their crimes.

* StuffBlowingUp: Pick any of Wheeljack's inventions. Explosions ensue.

* TalkingToThemself: Megatron does this ''a lot''. Since he's an immobile head trapped in an inaccessible lab with the only things there being extensions of his will, it's not like he has anyone else to talk to.
* TearsOfJoy: Sari cries in happiness when she sees that Optimus survived his fight with Starscream, even climbing onto him and crying on his shoulder.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Prowl comments that Optimus doesn't look so tough when he saw his fight with Pyro Goblin. Since we later see him take on the veteran Orion crew members and match Starscream in a fight, he really missed the mark on that one.
* UndyingLoyalty: Lugnut has absolute faith in Megatron and is among the few who believe (know) that he's still alive. He also lashes out at anyone who claims he is dead or doubts his survival, referring to them as "traitors".
* UnPerson: Sari doesn't have anything to prove that she actually exists. Arcee connected herself to the human networks and couldn't find anything about her.
* VillainBall: Sky-Byte was able to pin Optimus to a wall and prevent him from retrieving the Allspark back during the Great War. Instead of just taking the Allspark to Megatron, he decides to let loose on Optimus and beat him within an inch of his life, giving Optimus enough time to fight back and get out of the hold.

* AdaptationalBadass: Numerous characters show a greater degree of fighting capability or competence that they lacked in ''Animated''.
** Optimus is now a seasoned warrior of the Great War, being able to fight against Starscream on even footing where as in the main series, he was getting his ass kicked just as much as the rest of the Autobots.
** Starscream, like canon, is much more of a threat than he usually is. The author has gone on to state that this was the intent, as Starscream is the Decepticon 2nd-in-command for a reason. Shockwave even notes that for as much of a nuisance he can be, he does have a remarkable number of followers in the Decepticons and can prove to be a legitimate threat to Megatron's authority, which is more than most incarnations of the character can claim.
** Combined with AgeLift below, Soundwave being a natural Cybertronian who's millions of years old grants him far more experience than his ''Animated'' version had. In addition, being a natural-born Cybertronian also means that he's far more durable compared to ''Animated'' Soundwave, who was a GlassCannon due to being composed of Earth alloys rather than Cybertronian ones.
** Arcee is shown to be a capable combatant and makes actual use of her twin energon blades where as in the main series, she spent the entire show under the Decepticon's heel following her memory loss and never got to fight.
** Thanks to growing up on the streets, Sari is more hardened and less spoiled than she was at the start of the series, in addition to having some pretty impressive parkour skills that let her outmaneuver security bots with ease.
** Kelly is a police officer here and a lieutenant, where as she was just a RecurringExtra in ''RID (2001)'' and TheChewToy in that series, though she's still a ButtMonkey here.
** The author wanted to portray Sentinel as a bit more competent than his BoisterousWeakling cartoon-self. It's also implied through dialogue that he fought in the Great War.
* AdaptationalJerkass: Optimus isn't the IdealHero he normally is, nor is he the NiceGuy he was in the original series. He's now a traumatized warrior who took the [=AllSpark=] away from Cybertron, though not without [[WellIntentionedExtremist good reason]]. He also starts out as rather antagonistic and cruel toward Sari, trying to evict her from her only home because he perceived her as a nuisance and potential threat to the [=AllSpark=]. However, he grows out of this later on and it's replaced with a mix of BigBrotherInstinct and PapaWolf, though he's still more jaded and aggressive than other versions of the character.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy:
** Sentinel Prime is described as being moderately less of a dick than he was in canon. He also shows a bit more affability with the other Elite Guard members.
** Prowl starts out somewhat nicer and more overtly heroic than he did at the start of the series. Certain events, such as Arcee getting grievously wounded defending him from Megatron, have also helped curb his more aloof attributes.
** Fanzone is less overtly gruff here and is one of the first to acknowledge the Cybertronians as sentient beings and not just machines. Keep in mind, he ''still'' hates machines here.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The animal-mutants that Prometheus Black created in the show were originally implied to be people with standard jobs, albeit amoral. Here, they were robbers and criminals long before they became mutants.

** Prowl is part of the post-war generation in comparison to his canon counterpart, who was brought online in the waning years of the war.

** Soundwave is one of Megatron's loyal servants, being around a comparable age to the rest of the Decepticons rather than being an Earth born Cybertronian who's a year old at best.

** Ratchet is the oldest member of the Orion Crew, having been brought online during the pre-war era of Cybertron, whereas in canon Arcee and Wheeljack are implied to be slightly older than him and he was brought online somewhere during the war.
* AllAnimalsAreDogs: Ravager and Laserbeak have this behavior.
* AlmightyJanitor:
** Optimus has enough strength and skill to fight off the three most experienced members of the Orion crew singlehandedly as well as match Starscream, the Decepticon first lieutenant. However, he doesn't have the rank of Prime and given how none of the bots who lived through the Great War recognize him, he's implied to have been a low-ranked soldier.
** Almost all of the Orion Crew counts, as they're way more combat capable than a repair crew has the right to be.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Optimus seems to have a pretty strong case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, given his frequent war-time flashbacks at even small reminders of it.
* AnimalThemedSuperbeing: The Beast Pretenders become these after some experiments done on them by Prometheus Black.
** Dauros becomes a Minotaur monster thanks to being fused with ox DNA.
** Blood becomes a mutant bat creature and later starts turning into a full-blown vampire.
** Glimer turns into a shark monster that could give the Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon a run for its money.

** Pyro Goblin is this for the "Fire Convoy" arc, serving as a StarterVillain for Optimus and Sari.

* AxCrazy:
** Pyro Goblin is ''batshit'' insane. She kills people for money, but views the money as a small bonus compared to the slaughter and carnage she gets to cause.
** Starscream takes sadistic glee in brutalizing the Autobots and terrorizing the civilians. He's also shown to not really be mentally stable, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation especially after 50 years of isolation]] in his search for the Allspark.
** After their mutations go out of control, the Beast Pretenders become feral monsters that kill anything on sight. Though Prometheus comments that they weren't all that sane to begin with.

* ButtMonkey: Lt. Kelly tends to be on the end of a lot of slapstick, especially whenever the Autobots are concerned.
* CameBackStrong: After Sari uses her key to restore Optimus from near death following his first fight with Pyro Goblin, he's fully restored back to the same level as he was in the Great War, with all the damage he suffered from gone.
* TheCameo: Swindle and Lockdown make minor cameo appearances in the flashback chapter: "Ripples".

* CorruptCorporateExecutive:
** ''Powell''. How he hasn't been caught yet can only be chalked up to ''very'' good PR.
** Prometheus is just as corrupt as Powell, with the two being frequent business partners.

* FreudianExcuse:
** Optimus's reason for taking the Allspark away from Cybertron was that he felt [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity nobody should have that kind of power]]. He also felt that with the Allspark's ability to create an immeasurable number of Cybertronians, it would render them expendable units that nobody cares about.
** Since Arcee lost everything during the Great War, she's become extremely protective of what she gained afterward.

* AdaptationalHeroism: Thanks to being a DecompositeCharacter with Shockwave, Longarm isn't the mole and is genuinely one of the Autobots, with his friendships with Bumblebee and Bulkhead being genuine here.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Rhodes finds Pyro Goblin to be too insane and disturbing to work with and tells Prometheus that hiring her was a bad idea.
** PlayedForLaughs. Prometheus's criminals may be bad people and know it, but they apparently find ''lawyers'' to be too horrid and amoral even by their standards.

* PronouncingMyNameForYou: Lt. Kelly's full name is Kelly Junko, which is pronounced ''Yun''-ko. She yelled this to Optimus when he mispronounced it.

* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Lt. Kelly's full name is Kelly Junko, which is pronounced ''Yun''-ko. She yelled this to Optimus when he mispronounced it.

* SkewedPriorities: Downplayed. While Prowl was concerned by the Beast Pretenders criminal activities, he was more concerned with how they sully the majestic image of Earth's wildlife by dressing up as animals for their crimes.