Transfomers Prime Season 3 is a fanfiction anthology made by the author LuisJM
, and was created in response to some of his own issues with how Season 3 of Transformers: Prime was handled as well as his initial perceived issues with the season (he began this series before season 3 aired and vowed not to watch it while he was working on the first two episodes). Needless to say, things diverge heavily form canon.
Currently, six episodes have been posted:Rebirth Prime Headmaster Family Dobule Trouble, andShattered. There is also a prequel episode, Jon and Elsa.
Transfomers Prime Season 3 provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass:
- Jack, Miko, Raf, and June all get a couple dozen levels in badass once they become cybertronians.
- Sparkplug, Sari's pet, is a Scraplet, making him far more deadly than a robot dog.
- MECH remains a consistent threat to the Autobots throughout rather than fade into obscurity after Silas's betrayal.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Predaking only shows up midway through the third season of Transformers Prime. Here, he shows up during the raid on Darkmount. It's also confirmed that he is sapient in his debut appearance, while in canon this wasn't fully confirmed until he transformed.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- Canon never explains anything about Jack's father, who isn't even named in Prime. Here, it's revealed that his name is John, he left Jack and June after his brother was killed in the Middle East to seek vengeance, and eventually ended up joining the Special Welfare Agency, becoming a Composite Character to Lauro, Elsa's fratello.
- Elsa's reasoning for being part of the Special Welfare Agency is never stated in canon. Here, she was picked up after an explosion in Catania orphaned and almost killed her.
- Adaptational Explanation: Sierra's absence from the story is confirmed to be a result of her seeing Arcee's hologram form and coming to the wrong conclusion with Jack, which lead to her actively avoiding him. It's also confirmed she was one of the first people out of Jasper when the Decepticons attacked.
- Adaptation Species Change:
- Sari is 100% human here and isn't half-Cybertronian. Word of God has implied that she will become one eventually, but that's not for a while.
- Sparkplug goes from being a robot dog to a Scraplet.
- Age Lift: Sari is a teenager (about 16, the same age as Jack) rather than a child.
- Badass Family: The Darby family excels at kicking ass.
- June and Jack get turned into cybertronians: June develops into an excellent Combat Medic, while Jack is chosen to be the next of the Primes.
- John, June's estranged husband and Jack's dad, is a Badass Normal operating with an Italian anti-terrorist unit.
- Elsa, who's effectively adopted into the family, is a Cyborg counter-terrorist despite being younger than Jack.
- The Bus Came Back: MECH makes its return in the first episode of the series, and their actions end up completely altering the direction the series takes.
- Composite Character: After getting turned into a Cybertronian, Jack takes the name of Rodimus. As the next episode reveals, he's this universe's version of Rodimus Prime, and the successor to Optimus as Prime.
- Continuity Snarl: During the prequel story, Jack tells Arcee that she has no idea what it's like losing someone close to you when discussing his deceased uncle. Arcee seems to concede the point, despite Prime making it very obvious that she still hasn't got over the deaths of Cliffjumper and Tailgate, which gets directly referenced in the second episode of this series, Prime, when Jack, Raf, and Miko find Cliff's memorial.
- Crossover: In addition to the canon characters from Prime and several Original Characters, Sam Witwicky, Sari Sumdac and Elsa de Sica are major characters in this story.
- Disappeared Dad: John Darby, Jack's dad, who never showed up in canon, shows up here. it's revealed his brother, Jack's uncle, was killed in a terror attack, and that he's been trying to find out who caused the attack ever since, and eventually just disappeared. He ended up joining the Special Welfare Agency along the way, and became Elsa's fratello.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Jack is very nonplussed to learn that his dad left him and June for years in the name of getting Revenge for his brother Kevin.
- Drowning My Sorrows: After Megatron's public declaration of war against mankind, and with no news on the fate of his wife and son, John starts drinking heavily. Elsa and the rest of the SWA call him out on it.
- Expy: The story's iteration of MECH seems to be lifted from Project Freelancer in Red vs. Blue. The director is lifted straight from the latter series down to the name, as are the Blood Gulch Reds and Blues, who are mooks for MECH here.
- First-Episode Twist: Jack, Raf, Miko, and June are captured by MECH and turned into cybertronians three chapters into Rebirth. It is impossible to discuss any other episode in the series (excluding the prequel episode John and Elsa) without mentioning this fact.
- Fix Fic: Played with. While the story was written to repair any perceived issues that the author thought season 3 would suffer from (as it was written before season 3 aired), it ultimately diverged into re-imagining season 3 in its own way.
- Foil: On the organizational level, MECH is this to the Decepticons. MECH is a human organization that wants to subvert cybertronians and their technology for their own purposes while the Decepticons are a cybertronian force that wants to rule Earth. The Decepticons favor open conflict while MECH prefers subterfuge. MECH's leader, Director Leonard Church, is a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wants to advance mankind while Megatron is a power hungry Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Isaac is lousy at judging motives and true intentions until it's too late to do anything about it. He honestly believes MECH is a benevolent organization when he's initially hired by them, only realizing otherwise when he witnesses them test an experimental procedure on civilians.
- Mutual Masquerade: The Social Welfare Agency and Team Prime are completely in the dark about each others' existence. Justified in that the two stories take place on different continents and that neither group had a reason to get involved with the other.
- Official Couple: Arcee and Jack eventually become sparkmates.
- Original Flavour: Subverted. The story starts off having differences but at least a few similarities, but then veers far off into it's own story. The author's refusal to watch season 3 even while it was airing adds to this, as it allows the story to be unique without relying on anything from the season.
- Rotating Protagonist: Villainous example - episodes 1-4 switch between MECH and the Decepticons as the primary antagonists, with MECH occupying the role in "Rebirth" and "Headmaste" while the Decepticons take center stage in "Prime" and "Family". "Double Trouble" subverts this by having MECH and the Decepticons both feature in the plot - Jack, June, Raf and Miko face off against the Decepticons at Darkmount while Jon and Elsa investigate MECH.
- Shame If Something Happened: After Isaac realizes MECH's true intentions, Commander Rourke threatens to hurt his daughter should he try to leave the organization or tell anyone of what he saw.
- The Unmasqued World: Unlike in Prime canon, the Decepticons broadcast a declaration of war to the entire world, followed by Optimus giving a Rousing Speech after being rescued from Darkmount. This understandably causes singnificant amounts of chaos and unrest worldwide.
- Unwilling Robotization: MECH believes that Silas' failure to create a successful transformer was due to relying entirely on machinery for the creation, with no regard to the 'Human Factor'. Thus, they decide to see if it is possible to create transformers with living humans.... and their unfortunate test subjects are Jack, June, Miko, and Raf.
- Wham Episode: Episode 2: Prime. Jack is revealed to be the next Prime and defeats Predaking, and the Autobots learn that the Decepticons are planning a full invasion of Earth.
