The series focuses on the adventures of Bumblebee; having damaged his memory chips, he and Windblade must recover his missing memories in order to help him remember his mission on Earth. Unfortunately, the Decepticons are after them and their friends.
This is yet another Continuity Reboot of the franchise, due to the characters using the evergreen designs introduced in 2017, with nothing to suggest that the series is a follow up to Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015).
Featured characters include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Windblade, Grimlock, Ratchet, Prowl, Wheeljack, Blurr, Hot Rod, Arcee, Drift, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Shockwave, Slipstream, Thundercracker, Acid Storm, Nova Storm, Thrust, and Shadow Striker.
Not to be confused with the 2011 toyline of the same name.
Trailers: Chapter One
, Chapter Two
On October 6, 2020, it was announced that two Transformers Cyberverse TV movies are currently in production.
The first TV movie, The Immobilizers, was uploaded to YouTube on November 6, 2021 and released on Netflix on November 22, 2021. The second movie, The Perfect Decepticon, was uploaded to YouTube on November 20, 2021 and released on Netflix on December 22, 2021.
It also has a video game called Transformers: Battlegrounds wherein the player takes control of an unnamed and unseen human to guide the Autobots (who are the main playable characters) in their battles against the Decepticons.
Transformers: Cyberverse provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: A Freeze-Frame Bonus in the Season 2 premiere reveals that the series' modern day segments take place in 2007.
- A Day in the Limelight: Kup serves as the narrator for the final episodes of the Quintesson Arc, "The End of the Universe."
- Aborted Arc: In Secret Science, Shockwave shows irritation with Megatron's leadership, even suggesting he may attempt to supplant him as Decepticon Leader if Megatron continues to fail at producing results. This never happens, and Shockwave dies in the Season 3 premiere.
- Absent-Minded Professor: Wheeljack tends to forget everything else around him when he throws himself into a project. While showing off his latest inventions to Optimus, he admits that he doesn't remember what some of them do.
- Achilles in His Tent: Megatron after having been pulled from The Loop. He gets better...so that he and Dead End can steal a ship and abandon everyone to the Quintessons.
- Action Girl: Several on both the Decepticon and the Autobot sides. Basically, female 'Bots and 'Cons are just as capable in combat as the guys. While Windblade probably has the worst track record for having to be saved, it's because after she's almost always outnumbered but still only barely at a disadvantage.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Nova Storm, one of the "Rainmakers" from the original seekers, was colored bright yellow. In addition to the Gender Flip noted below, in Cyberverse, she's purple-colored.
- Adaptation Origin Connection: Season 2 shows Starscream using the Allspark to create Scraplets.
- Adaptational Badass:
- This time around Cosmic Rust infects not just Transformers but spreads over all metal and can disintegrate an entire planet in a few hours.
- Sky-Byte in his original television appearances was pretty much ineffective in combat. Here, he is quite a strong warrior. In his original series, he was desperate for Megatron's respect. In this series, Megatron already values him.
- Astrotrain is usually a fairly powerful Decepticon. Here he's a giant, near impervious to harm by normal sized Cybertronians, and can open portals and travel between dimensions.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Thundercracker is pretty incompetent and simple-minded this time out.
- Adaptational Intelligence:
- Most Sharkticons are characterized as barely sentient animals. Here they had their own civilization before their planet was destroyed.
- This continuity's version of Swoop is significantly more intelligent than previous versions, to the point that she's a Gadgeteer Genius.
- Grimlock constantly zigzags this. When in robot mode, he's well-spoken and intelligent. When he transforms to dinosaur mode, his speech and intelligence regress to something more in line with his G1 incarnation.
- Adaptational Late Appearance: Most versions of the Dinobots had the individual members of the sub-faction introduced together (or in the case of the G1 cartoon, had Grimlock, Sludge and Slag/Slug introduced together with Snarl and Swoop added to the roster not long after). In this continuity, Grimlock was the only Dinobot to appear in the main series and the rest of the Dinobots don't appear until the movie The Immobilizers.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Grimlock, generally a firm example of Good Is Not Nice, is a much more polite and overall pleasant individual in this show. Until he's in dinosaur mode.
- Adaptational Nonsapience: A number of sentient Transformers are reimagined as mecha-fauna for this series.
- Air Hammer and Injector are species of wildlife this time around instead of Fuzors.
- Skullcruncher's a neutral animal that found his way inside of Iaconus whereas he's normally portrayed as an intelligent Decepticon. With that said his toy does present him as having a robot mode even if the show never does.
- Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are animals this time around. While their level of sentience varies from continuity to continuity, Cyberverse establishes that there are multiple members of the species that live on Cybertron and these two were just domesticated.
- Adaptation Species Change: Air Hammer is no longer a single Cybertronian with a Fuzor beast mode, but a type of interstellar wildlife. Implied to be the same for Bantor.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Applied to a place rather than a person. Crystal City in the G1 cartoon was hailed as Cybertron's most beautiful city and home to the planet's greatest scientific minds but in the episode "Thunderhowl" it's a straight up Eldritch Location that creates hostile reflections of whoever enters before trapping them in a crystalline prison.
- Unlike past incarnations, this version of Drift is still a loyal Decepticon and his Heel–Face Turn is purely a ruse to allow him to infiltrate the Autobots.
- Adaptational Wimp: Lockdown here is one of Megatron's lowest ranking soldiers, in stark contrast to all his other versions that are neutral, badass bounty hunters.
- Adapted Out:
- While Acid Storm and Nova Storm, both members of the Rainmaker trio in G1, made an appearance in the show, the third member, Ion Storm, is completely absent.
- The only Stunticon to appear is Dead End.
- After the End: The Sharkticons survived the destruction of their homeworld and now fight amongst themselves over the planet's remains.
- The Ageless: The Transformers themselves, as usual. Even more explicit here as the Autobots crash landed on Earth at least 65 million years ago, which is far longer than even the original cartoon's Great War, which lasted for about 9 million years from beginning to end. However, most of them were in stasis for most of that time.
- Alien Invasion: As per series tradition. Season 3 adds a twist by having Cybertron itself invaded by the Quintessons.
- All for Nothing:
- Teletraan-X reveals once he's away from the Decepticons that he doesn't actually know where the Ark or the Allspark are making Windblade's sacrifice the previous episode meaningless.
- Slipstream manages to escape Starscream's clutches to tell her fellow Decepticons where Starscream has taken the Allspark and Vector Sigma. Unfortunately, no one will listen to her believing that she is a traitor as well. She manages to get the information to Windblade, just before being killed by Bludgeon, which triggers a brawl between everyone gathered and derails the attempt to broker a truce between the two sides. Further, when the Autobots actually follow up on her intel, Starscream has already left.
- Chromia and Perceptor launch a daring prison escape at the start of Season 3 to warn the Ark that the Decepticons are prepared for their arrival. However, they're both captured before they can reach the ship and the Autobots aboard the Ark already suspect a trap and avoid it anyway.
- Ambiguous Situation: Are the Sharkticons serving the Quintessons as baliffs the same Sharkticons that Cheetor, Bumblebee and Hot Rod encountered in "Wiped Out" or are they from another universe? They brush off Hot Rod when he tries to establish rapport with him which could mean that they're ignoring him or they genuinely do not know him. The original leaders of the three Sharkticon tribes are absent and in their place is a Sharkticon calling himself Lord Gnaw, who doesn't look anything like statue we saw earlier.
- Amnesiac Hero: The premise of the Season 1. Bumblebee is trying to restore his memory and remember his original mission on Earth.
- Anachronic Order: Bumblebee's memories are recovered out of order, noticeable in that Bumblebee cannot talk in some periods and others he can due to losing his voice and having it repaired later on in the timeline.
- Ancient Astronauts: In The Visitor, Teletraan-X makes an offhand comment about Aztec Astronauts once living on the Moon.
- Animal Motifs: Bumblebee is strongly associated, with, well, bees, what with his stingers, black stripes, and the honeycomb pattern of both his grill and his mental landscape.
- Antagonist Title: Episode 9 is called "Shadow Striker", named after the eponymous Decepticon.
- Anyone Can Die: Despite its overall child-friendly tone, the show does not hold back in terms of the body count. Season 2 sees Slipstream, Thundercracker, Nova Storm, Acid Storm, and Thrust all bite the dust. Then, Season 3 ups the ante even more with the deaths of Prowl, Cheetor, Drift, Shockwave, Maccadam, Iaconus, Starscream, and Megatron.
- The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: Blurr's arrogance and Hot Rod's hyper-competitive streak disappear as soon as the Rust Plague appears.
- Appears again during the Quintesson arc where bitter enemies on both sides put aside their differences and manage to overthrow the Quintesson. Megatron of all bots winds up saving the day in the end, after initially abandoning everyone.
- Arch-Enemy: Megatron is this to Optimus, as usual, but Shadow Striker is poised to be this for Bumblebee as well. A special kind of hatred also quickly develops between Slipstream and Windblade.
- Ascended Extra: Many, many characters who appeared briefly in flashbacks become prominent in the second season.
- Assimilation Plot: Starscream's means to end the war is to take "When All Are One" to its extreme, and just terminate every living Cybertronian so that they will be united in the Allspark.
- The Dweller who resides at the bottom of the Argon Sea. Upon awakening, he seeks to force all Cybertronians to become his "citizens."
- Badass in Distress: Optimus Prime in "Shadow Striker", Bumblebee at the start of the series. Bee was originally one of the Autobot's most skilled warriors. When we meet him in the present he's lost and oblivious to the danger around him.
- The entire Decepticon Army falls prey to this when Starscream overwhelms them with an unending horde of Scraplets. Megatron is forced to call Optimus for help before before succumbing himself.
- Jetfire falls into this when he's shot by Astrotrain's experimental weapon which shifts parts of his body in and out of Unspace, starting with his wings while in flight.
- Bad Boss: Starscream and Shockwave are quick to insult and belittle their subordinates. They also show very little concern for their survival.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Maccadam's generally a jovial, upbeat bot, however when Megatron threatens to violate his establishment's neutrality, he reveals an gigantic altmode seemingly made almost entirely out of guns that frightens everyone present and forces Megatron to retreat.
- Big Bad: Megatron originally seemed to be this role at first just like in most Transformers media, being the leader of the Decepticons and the one mainly responsible for kickstarting most of the conflicts of the series in the first place. However eventually it's revealed that Starscream is this role instead, due to practically everything is based off him with him being the biggest threat/focus in the show.
- The Quintessons (and Starscream) during the Invasion arc.
- Big Brother Mentor: Windblade serves as a rare male to female example to Bumblebee. She trains, teaches, and keeps the young scout out of trouble as he recovers from his amnesia.
- Hot Rod behaves this way towards Bumblebee and Cheetor. In turn, Bumblebee serves as one to Cheetor and teaches him how to be an Autobot scout.
- Big Good: Optimus Prime. Also Maccadam as well since he's actually Alchemist Prime.
- Blow You Away: One of Windblade's special attacks, using the VTOLs on her wings.
- Bolivian Army Cliffhanger:
- Season 1 has Bumblebee and his team succeed in awakening Optimus Prime and the Ark's crew just in time for Starscream's Decepticon armada to arrive on Earth. The season ends with the two factions ready to fight once again.
- Season 2 has the Autobots finally returning to Cybertron and revived it with the power of the Allspark. However, the Decepticons are already awaiting them there to ambush them.
- Breath Weapon: Grimlock gains his classic fire breath near the end of the season.
- Breather Episode: "Cube" is a lighthearted, low stakes adventure placed in between two rather intense episodes.
- Broken Pedestal: In the pre-War, pre-Faction period, Bumblebee and many others admired Megatron as gladiator and political reformer. While suffering amnesia, he begins to idolize him again, much to Windblade's chagrin. As Bumblebee is reminded in his flashbacks, his view of the Decepticon leader soured as Megatron's cruelty and lust for power became more apparent.
- Bug War: In the distant past, Maccadam tribe fought against a army of Transformers sized insects. In the present day, drones based on them are housed within Iaconus and used for training simulations.
- Chooser Of The Chosen One: Alpha Trion who held the Matrix in hopes of finding a worthy bearer which winds up being Optimus.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Bumblebee, thanks to his memory loss and radio-clip speaking style, friend and foe struggle to understand him. He's much more coherent in his mind and in the past.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Windblade is tasked with looking out for him and reacquainting him with the war and what's going on.
- Colony Drop: Season 2 begins right in the middle of a Decepticon operation to drive our Moon into Earth.
- Composite Character:
- Grimlock's characterization as eloquent in robot mode, but brutal in dinosaur mode, is similar to the portrayal of his inverted counterpart from Transformers: Shattered Glass, but as a heroic Autobot.
- Bumblebee's design is based heavily on his body from later installments of the IDW comics continuitynote , but he has the damaged voice box from his movie and Transformers: Prime incarnations, as well as his Animated counterpart's stingers.
- Shockwave’s voice and mannerisms are heavily reminiscent of his straightforward Aligned counterpart, though in one episode he doesn’t rule out overthrowing Megatron due to growing weary of his failures, just like his counterparts in the original G1 comics as well as the 2005 IDW continuity (though an Aligned novel had Megatron privately muse that he felt Shockwave would turn on him one day, it never came to pass anywhere in the Aligned continuity).
- Conjoined Twins: Rack'n'Ruin. Before the war, Shockwave attempted to weld a second head on a normal Seeker's body.
- Continuity Nod: At various points, often relating to the Anachronic Order of the flashbacks.
- In "Cube" Bumblebee recovers a heavy Gatling gun from the Decepticon ship's storage. He later grabs it and uses it against pursuing Decepticons.
- In "Whiteout", Windblade strictly warns Bumblebee against pressing a glowing button on the ship's console. Later, in "Sabotage" she tells Bumblebee to activate it after Shockwave takes control of the ship, turns out it was the ship's Self-Destruct Mechanism.
- Cheetor recalls he first saw Bumblebee and Windblade in the desert, which references Windblade finding the amnesiac Bumblebee back in the first episode.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: After Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), Bumblebee is the main character again, but is younger and less mature than even his Transformers: Prime self.
- Cool Big Bro: Windblade is this to Bumblebee in flashbacks and as the season progresses.
- Cool Crown: Grimlock has one that doubles as a tracking device that allows him to find his old base after millions of years of stasis.
- Cultured Badass: Grimlock may be a mighty warrior, but he could not turn down building a hot tub into his base.
- Cute Mute: Bumblebee during the flashbacks where he is unable to speak at all.
- Cyber Cyclops:
- Shockwave and his drones.
- Clobber. She'd like a second eye.
- Whirl fits this as well.
- Dark Action Girl: Shadow Striker is the best example so far, but it applies to all the female Decepticons for the most part.
- Dark Messiah: Starscream manages to convince the Seekers that he's come back from the dead and will end the war by unifying all within the Allspark.
- Darker and Edgier: While lighter than Aligned on the whole, this show is darker than the mainline shows that immediately preceded it.
- The third season moves the focus from Earth and space to the grim dystopia of a Cybertron conquered and occupied by the Quintessons.
- Death Course: Both Croaton and Iaconus's inner depths are made up of these.
- Demoted to Extra: Humanity as a whole; humans make only very sporadic appearances throughout the show and unlike previous Transformers series, the Autobots make no human allies upon coming to Earth. With the main cast departing Earth for Cybertron two-thirds through Season 2, it's unlikely they ever will.
- Detachment Combat: Windblade can launch her VTOL turbines, and Starscream is capable of shooting off the tips of his wings like throwing knives.
- Designated Girl Fight:
- In "Memory", Windblade is quickly positioned to take on Nova Storm in the air while Bumblebee dukes it out with Thundercracker on the ground.
- In other episodes, Windblade goes toe-to-toe with Slipstream.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Hot Rod expresses disappointment when he learns that the primary reason the Quintessons wipe out universes is that the multiverse has too many different universe.
- Autobots and Decepticons alike express annoyance when they learn that Starscream's reason for allying with Quintessons to wipe out universe is to get back at them for being mean to him.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Starscream's design has been differentiated from the other Seekers', with his Null Rays being mounted on his lower arms rather than his shoulders, a lack of shoulder intakes, a different-looking jet mode, and most of his finer details.
- Driving Question:
- Where is the Allspark and what became of the Autobots who went searching for it?
- Pivoting off that, how did Bumblebee lose his memory?
- For the first part of season 2, Who is the moon cheetah and why is watching both Autobots and Decepticons?
- Early-Bird Cameo: Many characters appear in the background before getting speaking roles or playing a role in the story. Chromia, Ratchet, Arcee, among others.
- Enemy Civil War: Season 2 features a conflict between Megatron's Decepticons and the Seekers loyal to Starscream.
- Enemy Mine: A brief one between the Autobots and Megatron's Decepticons in season 2.
- Entitled Bastard: Starscream in the past. He brags about how Seekers are always invited to major events, like the Cube Finals, but doesn't really enjoy the event. Instead, he spends his time belittling others and eventually tries to sabotage the game out of boredom.
- Evil Plan: Megatron ultimately plans to use the Allspark in conjunction with Vector Sigma to create an endless army of Decepticons.
- Energy Weapons: The melee weapons used by both sides of the conflict.
- Epic Flail: Megatron wields his classic Energon Mace in this series.
- Expendable Alternate Universe: Over the course of Crossroads, two different Autobot Ark crews are introduced and disintegrate after spending too long in Unspace, dooming both the characters and their Cybertrons. Fortunately, nine Arks manage to escape.
- The Quintessons feel this way about every universe and have travelled the multiverse wiping out countless universes because they feel that there are too many different universes.
- Eye Scream: Percpetor uses a set of hovering lenses hidden behind his optic to break himself and Chromia out of jail, but the resulting backlash destroys both his regular optics and leaves him blind.
- One of Megatron's eyes is destroyed while escaping The Other One. It remains absent for the rest of the series.
- Face Death with Dignity: Grimlock's computers warned him of the meteor that would lead to the extermination of the dinosaurs, however he did not have the time or resources to do anything about cataclysm. He did film a video with his friends affirming that they would not give into despair, but face the future confidently. Obviously, though he ended up in Stasis Lock, he recovered.
- Fake Memories: Shockwave invades Bumblebee's mind and plants one of these that casts Bumblebee, and later Optimus, as Decepticon deep cover agents.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Aerial Transformers look down on land-based transformers. For their part, land-based Transformers think aerial transformers are arrogant.
- Shockwave thinks that Seekers objectively have low intelligence.
- Under Cybertron's surface, the Energon Masters look down on the Bugs that live outside their city. In reality, the Energon Masters and Bugs have identical robot and beast modes, but neither side realizes this.
- Fastball Special: Grimlock in dinosaur mode throws Bumbleebee and Teletraan-X at the Seekers attack them to great effect.
- Fictional Sport: Cube.
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Applies to the Autobot team in the present day. Windblade with her psionic powers and wind based attacks is the mage, Grimlock's raw physical strength and durability cast him as the fighter. Bumblebee who relies on stealth, speed, and his hidden shiv (the stinger) is the thief.
- Flying Mook: The Decepticon Army's primary foot soldiers are the Seekers.
- Forgot About His Powers:
- Windblade manages to beat Thundercracker by kicking him off a cliff... despite the fact that he can fly. This happens again in the episode "Whiteout", leading one to assume this is a consistent problem for him.
- Subverted by Bumblebee, who despite memory loss still remembers how to transform and quickly figures out how to access his stinger.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Promotional art depicts Transformers with four-fingered hands. The show and toys, however, have 5 fingered hands.
- Gender Flip: Several traditionally male characters are made female in an effort to diversify the cast: Nova Storm, Acid Storm note , Clobber note , Skywarp, and Cosmos.
- Genius Loci:
- Teletraan-X once he takes over as the Ark's computer.
- The titan Croaton.
- The war titan Iaconus.
- The Crystal City.
- Ghost Ship: While in Unspace the crew encounter another Ark nearly identical to their own, but missing its Autobots. They learn their fate when the ship disintegrates as a side-effect of staying in Unspace for too long.
- Ghost Town: Windblade takes the Allspark to a seemingly abandoned city on an unknown alien world. It is revealed that the city is the dormant form of a titan named Croaton who's inhabitants have been taken by mysterious abductors.
- Gladiator Games: Megatron was a champion gladiator before founding the Decepticons.
- Grand Finale: The series comes to an end with "The Other One", which had the Autobots and Megatron reluctantly teaming up to confront an alternate timeline counterpart of Megatron called Megatron X.
- Happy Ending Override: The "Battle for Cybertron" opening episodes of season 3 end with the Autobots victorious and the Allspark returned to Cybertron. The next episode, the planet's been taken over by the Quintessons and everyone but Hot Rod and a couple others have been placed in a Lotus-Eater Machine.
- Hate Plague: Starscream hacks Wheeljack's commemorative party favors to produce one of these during the Autobot's victory celebration.
- Helping Hands: Shockwave still has his left hand which serves as a lab assistant.
- Hero of Another Story: Many of the characters (Thunderhowl, Meteorfire, Hammerbyte, etc.) who appear in the final arc come off like this. They have backstories and character arcs that tend to exist independent of the Autobot-Decepticon War at the center of the series.
- Heroes Gone Fishing: While more prominent in earlier flashbacks, the heroes are often shown enjoying simple pleasures during their down time like a pickup game or trip to a bar. Hot Rod and Bumblebee's trip to Velocitron in particular took place after they received their Autobrands.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Windblade's weapon of choice is a curved, laser blade.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Blurr, who after being infected with Cosmic Rust, stays behind to close the Space Bridge and quarantine Velocitron. He crumbles to dust seconds later.
- Non-lethal example, Windblade closes off silo and stays behind to hold off the Decepticons while Bumblebee and Teletraan X escape.
- Cheetor, after seeing Shockwave send his spark into the AllSpark to corrupt it, sends his own spark into the artifact to reverse its corruption. He succeeds at the cost of his life.
- Maccadam shoves Hot Rod out of the path of an incoming deflected shot from Iaconus and ends up getting vaporized for it.
- High-Class Glass: Perceptor has a targeting monocle like the one his IDW counterpart attained in All Hail Megatron. Shadow Striker also has one in the form of a three-lensed optic, for more of a Wicked Cultured look.
- Hope Spot: Once Megatron and Optimus dismiss their subordinates and talk alone they actually manage to make progress and seem on the verge of a breakthrough. At the same time, Slipstream manages to reach Windblade and tell her where Starscream is hiding with the Allspark. Then Bludgeon stabs Slipstream, igniting a brawl that spills into Optimus and Megatron's meeting and convinces Megatron that he has been deceived, ruining any chance of a truce as Slipstream passes on.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Windblade is captured by the Decepticons, Teletraan-X tries to console Bumblebee with the fact that she was not a crew member. This doesn't help the situation.
- Innocuously Important Episode: "The Journey" doesn't seem terribly important at first, showing the Autobots simply struggling to secure Energon for the longer quest, but their failure ultimately leads Optimus to place the entire crew in stasis right before the Allspark is located. The crew being in stasis is also implied to play a role in the ship's disappearance for millions of years.
- Insult Backfire: Inverted in "Memory", when Bumblebee's random one-liner to Thundercracker ends up angering the Decepticon greatly despite him not understanding a word of it.Thundercracker: You Autobot scum!Bumblebee: Really? 'Cause my friend's cousin's neighbor, like, totally saw you at the roller rink last night...Thundercracker: I will destroy you for saying... whatever you're talking about!
- In Name Only:
- Lockdown is not an unaligned bounty hunter on Megatron’s payroll in this series as he usually is, instead being portrayed as a lowly Decepticon grunt.
- Deliberately averted with Clobber. As her design suggests, she was originally meant to be a female incarnation of Lugnut, but not only did Hasbro object to making the character female, the show’s creators ultimately realized that she would become this trope due to her characterization and arc.
- It's All About Me: Starscream's self-absorption is his defining trait this time around. Cowardice, treachery, and cunning take a backseat to his ego.
- Kid-Appeal Character:
- Bumblebee, as usual.
- Cheetor and Hot Rod fall into this role as well.
- Knight of Cerebus: Most of the series is rather lighthearted, but Megatron ends up significantly darkening the tone when he appears, with "Megatron is My Hero" highlighting his gradually escalating series of horrible actions in the name of power. He eventually beats Starscream to death in retaliation for an attempted coup. Starscream recovers somehow.
- Left the Background Music On: Sometimes the background music is revealed to be Soundwave messing with people.
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the previous Aligned Continuity, the series is much lighter-hearted and focused much more on characterization and worldbuilding, with Bumblebee and Windblade both being fairly quippy. However, the implications on the War on Cybertron are not unnoticed, and the Decepticons are portrayed as fairly dark characters.
- Lack of Empathy: Shockwave's only focus is on completing his mission and couldn't care less about the well-being of anyone else.
- Starscream is defined by this trait as well.
- Legacy Character: Teletraan X purpose is to serve as the backup memory drive for Teletraan 1. He takes over as the Ark's computer when it's discovered that Teletraan 1 is damaged beyond repair.
- Local Hangout: Maccadam's, before the war. During the war, it became a Truce Zone before finally shutting down.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Quintessons trap the population of Cybertron in one of these; everyone except Hot Rod and his crew believes they're in a victory parade that endlessly repeats.
- Lovable Jock: Hot Rod loves sports, competition, and himself, but is a hero through and through.
- Mental World: Windblade helps Bumblebee access his so that he can begin to repair his memories.
- Merchandise-Driven: It is a Transformers show after all.
- Mid-Season Upgrade: Towards the end of the Quintesson Invasion arc and about halfway through Season 3, Megatron returns from his travels across the multiverse and bestows new powers some the Autobots and Decepticons which allows them to turn the tide on their invaders. Bumblebee in particular gains a Flying Car alternate mode.
- The Mole: The false memory that Shockwave creates to brainwash Bumblebee casts Bumblebee as one of these
- Mole in Charge: The false memory ultimately casts Optimus Prime as this and that is ultimately what causes Bumblebee to reject the memory completely.
- Music Soothes the Savage Beast: A music box chime played by Teletraan X calms Grimlock down and brings him back to his senses after being brought back online in dino mode.
- Multiversal Conqueror: The Quintessons are the self-proclaimed masters of the mulitverse, traveling from universe to universe and wiping them out one by one.
- Near-Villain Victory: Starscream comes dangerously close to defeating both the Autobots and the Decepticons once he gets his hands on the Allspark.
- First, he unleashes a horde of scraplets on the Decepticons and has them at his mercy. An Autobot strike force answering a distress call is quickly overwhelmed and only Cheetor's connection as guardian of the Allspark allows to sever Starscream's connection to the Allspark's power.
- Later, Starscream unlocks the power of the Allspark, he gains near omnipotence and takes out the combined Autobot and Decepticon forces sent to stop him. A last ditch blast from the Matrix of Leadership from Optimus is the only thing that saves everyone.
- Nerves of Steel: Windblade is rarely put off or shaken even in the direst of circumstances.Lord Gnaw: Impressive. You show courage. Now let me show you fear!Windblade: I don't do fear.
- New Era Speech: One of Bumblebee's flashbacks has him watching Megatron deliver one with the first reveal of the Deceptibrand.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Optimus Prime has the Allspark thrown into a Space Bridge to keep it out of Decepticon hands which works, with the unfortunate side-effect of causing sickening the planet to the point that it starts to die.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Slipstream's trap to capture Bumblebee and Windblade backfires spectacularly as it leads them to Teletraan X, Grimlock, and ultimately the rest of the Autobots aboard the Ark.
- After capturing Soundwave, the Quintesson Scientist notices that he was damaged as a result of being forcibly pulled out of the loop. He quickly repairs him and Soundwave thanks him by immediately attacking him.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Optimus Prime and Megatron's voice actors, Jake Tillman and Marc Thompson, respectively, are both clearly trying to channel the Peter Cullen and Frank Welker incarnations of the characters (with the Megatron's voice particularly sounding similar to his predecessor from the previous Aligned Continuity).
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Megatron lays an epic one down on Starscream after he makes way back to the Nemesis following Starscream's brief coup attempt. After beating him to death, he tosses his lifeless shell off the Nemesis.
- No Place for a Warrior: Iaconus struggled to find his place after of the Age of Expansion and ultimately turned his weapons on Cybertron itself. His former citizens ultimately gave their lives to seal him and save Cybertron.
- Not So Similar: Season 2 makes a point of showing how Autobots and Decepticons are very similar to one another in terms of personality, skills, and reactions to events. However, the Autobots are capable of mercy, teamwork, and self-sacrifice, traits the Decepticons lack to their detriment.
- Oh, Crap!: A purely vocal example in Fracture, when Bumblebee's "answering" Starscream's hailing of Thundercracker and Nova Storm's ship with a sick guitar riff causes the Decepticon to exclaim the Autobot's name in fear and surprise.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Starscream holds this view after being revived by the Allspark. The Quintessons hold this view in regards to the multiverse.
- Only the Worthy May Pass: Parodied with Teletraan X who makes a point of reminding anyone he's talking to Autobot or Decepticon that they are "not crew". He cheerfully drops this when talking with Bumblebee who has no idea of what he's talking about.
- Subverted with the Matrix of Leadership. In most continuities only a chosen Prime can wield its powers. This time Megatrons, both the original and his much eviler counterpart, are able the wield it the same as Optimus.
- Out of Focus: After the "Battle for Cybertron" premiere, Teletraan X is given much less screentime.
- Pintsized Powerhouse:
- The cave monsters in episode 4. They shrug off the Autobots' weapons and prove capable of taking them down, despite only coming up to their ankles. The creatures eat energon, which renders Cybertronian weapons ineffective.
- Bumblebee himself. In the past he's shown holding his own against foes larger than him.
- The Plague: The Plague of Rust which infects not only individual bots, but destroys all metal structures.
- Percussive Maintenance: After being improperly removed from the Quintesson Lotus-Eater Machine Soundwave ends up glitching every so often. When he freezes up during an attack and begins to play the parade music, an annoyed Dead End whacks him like a faulty jukebox and that seems to bring him back to normal for the moment.
- Pet the Dog: Shadow Striker recovers Windblade after the Quintesson arc and has her put on life support. She even returns her to Bumblebee.
- Portal Crossroad World: Unspace. Wheeljack initially theorizes that it serves as the space between Spacebridges. Over the course of the series finale, we learn that it serves this role for Spacebridges across the Multiverse.
- Put on a Bus:
- The Decepticon Army during the space arc.
- Starscream after he escapes The Ark and winds up stuck to Croaton.
- Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: The initial Cybertronian Resistance is made up of Autobots and Decepticons pulled from the loop by accident with survival being their only unifying motive, at least at first.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Starscream and Shockwave seem to comprise this dynamic. Starscream is prone to emotional outbursts while Shockwave is always calm and composed.
- Red Shirt: Parodied and averted with Red Five. He has the same design as the generic Autobot soldier, but with a bright red paint job. He's introduced suddenly in Escape From Earth with no build up and his ship is destroyed shortly after the mission begins. Only he wasn't actually onboard and is perfectly fine like the others.
- Redshirt Army:
- A G-rated version of the trope is reflected in the Seekers in this continuity, who seem to take the same role as the Vehicons in Beast Machines and Transformers: Prime. There are both named individual Seekers as well as generic, army-filling versions.
- The Autobots seem to have their own equivalent, with recurring blue, red and white-colored model Autobots.
- Revisiting the Roots: This show returns the traditional Autobot-Decepticon conflict to the fore after several years of shows that took place after the war.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: When Starscream is brought before the Quintessons he is immediately found guilty and set to be executed. Terrified he tells them about Cybertron and the Allspark. The Quintessons amend their verdict and bestow upon the highest honor available: being forcibly turned into Quintesson judge and given the right to judge his home universe.
- Rummage Fail: Windblade pulls out some kind of clamp while looking for the cortical psychic patch.
- Running Gag: In Season 2, every time Rack'n'Ruin try to arrange their boxes, they are always thrown everywhere.
- Save the Villain: When Starscream overruns the Nemesis with scraplets and has the Decepticons at his mercy, Megatron sends out a distress signal to the Autobots, which Optimus predictably accepts.
- Bumblebee makes a point of saving a comatose Starscream from a collapsing cave, reasoning that he should face justice for his actions.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The Insecticons opt to flee Cybertron rather than stay and fight with Megatron against The Other One.
- Astrotrain decides to skip dimensions as soon as the Perfect Decepticons appear.
- Shout-Out:
- On the promotional digital cards, Bumblebee's card description starts with "*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* Yup, that's me, Bumblebee. I bet you're wondering how I got here.", a popular meme joke used to caption images depicting bad happenstances as a reference to the How We Got Here trope.
- The flashbacks centering on the Ark and its crew are influenced by Star Trek complete with similar narration and music.
- Bumblebee watches in "Whiteout" a spoof of Wheel of Fortune.
- Blurr's death by the Rust Plague is similar to the ending of Avengers: Infinity War.
- A Plague of Rust who says "Red rust! Red rust!" is reminiscent of Danny Torrance's mantra "Redrum" from The Shining.
- Pong is the training program of the Decepticons.
- Cube is similar to rugby.
- In the modified memory from "Sabotage", Optimus chases Bumblebee with his axe dragging against the wall, evoking Freddy Krueger's boiler room scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).
- A billboard for "Return of Sharknator" is seen in "Teletraan-X".
- Bumblebee's "Say hello to your little friend!" line is paraphrased from Scarface (1983).
- The inscriptions seen on Grimlock's hideout resemble those from the Dinotopia books.
- Shadow Striker's multi-optic targeting mask is similar to Widowmaker's.
- "Bring Me The Spark Of Optimus Prime" references the title of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia note .
- Starscream's memorial has viewers including several outer gods and SHODAN.
- Show Within a Show: "Alien Hunt! With Meteorfire And Cosmos" a parody of the host-centric travel documentaries. The lead host, Meteorfire is based on the late Steve Irwin.
- Sleeper Starship: With Energon running low, Optimus had all Autobots go into stasis while the ship computers continued the search for the Allspark.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Perceptor. He only appears briefly in the first episode with no lines, but he's responsible for fixing the Space Bridge and sending Windblade to Earth. Later, this convinces Shockwave to repair the Space Bridge permanently and head to Earth himself, ahead of the Decepticon fleet.
- The Smart Guy:
- For the Autobots, Wheeljack serves this role onboard the Ark. Perceptor fills this position on Cybertron. Teletraan-X fits this with Bumblebee, Windblade and Grimlock on present day Earth towards the last third of the first season.
- Shockwave fills this role for the Decepticons. Acid Storm for Starscream's breakaway faction.
- The Scientist serves this role for the Quintesson invaders.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: The Scientist always adopts a calm and polite demeanor no matter who he's speaking with or what the topic is. He's also directly responsible for engineering the destruction of countless universes.
- Sonic Stunner: As usual, this is part of Soundwave's repertoire, but more emphasized as part of his arsenal than past incarnations.
- Southern-Fried Genius: Wheeljack sports a Southern accent this time around, much like he did in early G1 episodes before Chris Latta perfected the voice.
- Spanner in the Works: The Quintesson's invasion was almost complete and was only brought down by three factors:
- Hot Rod was underground during their invasion and escaped capture.
- Perceptor was able to see through the loop and escaped. He's the only Cybertronian who was able to escape unaided.
- Iaconus's cloaking device, which allowed Maccadam to provide the resistance with a place to hide and operate undetected.
- Split Personality: Grimlock's personality is determined by what mode he's in. Eloquent when in robot mode, violent in beast mode.
- Squishy Wizard: The obicular-class parasitic entity has number of powerful mental abilities. Including Demonic Possession and overwhelming a victim with fear, but it can only target one person at a time leaving it wide open to a single punch by Bumblebee.
- Static Stun Gun: Bumblebee's stinger.
- The Stoic: Shockwave rarely exhibits any emotion in the present day.
- Stumbling in the New Form: In "The Immobilizers", the Dinobots combine into Volcanicus for the first time. Unused to the new form, Volcanicus promptly catches his own foot on the ground, tripping himself up.
- Super Power Lottery: Astrotrain is much more powerful than the average Cybertronian. He's a triple changer, a giant, and has the ability to open portals to travel between dimensions.
- Super-Speed:
- Downplayed with Blurr. He's primarily racing in vehicle mode, but is later shown that he can move just as fast in robot mode.
- Grimlock while under the influence of hyperfuel.
- Table Space: During Optimus and Megatron's attempt to arrange a truce to stop Starscream, the negotiations take place with both leaders on opposite ends of a very long table.
- Third Party Stops Attack:
- Shadow Striker is pummeling Bumblebee hard and as she raises her right arm for another punch, Grimlock bites her arm, then tosses her aside.
- Earlier, Bumblebee cheerfully stops Thundercracker from shooting Windblade.
- Third-Person Person: Grimlock while in beast mode.
- Repugnus and the members of his tribe. Interestingly, they don't speak this way while in robot mode.
- Time Skip:
- An indeterminate amount of time passes between Seasons 1 and 2, during which the Autobots and Decepticons reveal themselves to the Earth's human population.
- Season 3 features two. One between the Battle for Cybertron and the Quintesson's conquest of the planet and then another following the Quintesson's defeat and the Cybertronian attempts to rebuild the planet.
- Token Human: Subverted. While most shows include young kids to serve as audience surrogates, no humans have appeared at all, despite the show being set on present-day Earth. We see our first human, a small child who mistakes our heroes for advertising statues about a dozen episodes into the series.
- Toyless Toyline Character: Some characters don't receive representation in the line, but as most of the cast is based on established characters within the franchise, they can be found represented within the Generations line.
- Trailers Always Lie: The trailer for season 3 seems to be setting up that Bumblebee will become an Autobot leader. In reality, this role goes to Hot Rod. The trailer also focuses almost entirely on the season premiere at the expense of everything else.
- Transforming Mecha: Every single character that's a Cybertronian will end up transforming into their alt modes and back, otherwise it's not Transformers.
- Truce Trickery: Discussed and invoked when Megatron and Optimus Prime agree to meet and discuss the threat of an AllSpark-empowered Starscream. Neither faction expects much, and some Autobots and Decepticons note that this isn't even the first time Optimus and Megatron have met to try to talk things out. The more cynical among them even note the only point of a truce is "to give ourselves time to rearm". Tragically, the meeting actually goes astonishingly well, with both Optimus and Megatron on the verge of an agreement, but Slipstream arrives to try to warn them about Starscream's plans. Soundwave, thinking her a traitor alongside all the other Seekers who joined Starscream, attacks her and she's stabbed in the back by Bludgeon. Windblade in turn attacks Bludgeon to avenge Slipstream's senseless murder, but all the other Autobots and Decepticons see is an Autobot assaulting a Decepticon while peace talks are on-going, and so a battle erupts. Windblade is later shown to be painfully aware that her rashness left everyone worse off.
- Truce Zone: Maccadam's. Maccadam strictly enforces this to the point that he was able to make Megatron reconsider starting a fight there.
- Uniqueness Decay: Unspace and interdimensional travel. In the season 2 finale, no one even knew it was possible to travel the multiverse and Unspace was treated as a uniquely dangerous place. By season 3, the Autobots, the Quintessons, and The Other One are keenly aware of this and have even found ways to weaponize Unspace.
- The Unmasqued World: From season 2 onward, the Autobots and Decepticons operate in the open and the general public is aware of their existence.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Shockwave, surprisingly enough. When Megatron was still a gladiator we actually shared a hive-five with Bumblebee but as the war raged on he eventually became the Mad Scientist we're more familiar with.
- Wild Wheel was a friendly Autobot before being seemingly abandoned alone on Earth.
- Villain Episode: "Bring Me The Spark Of Optimus Prime" centers primarily on the Decepticons reacting to Starscream's termination and the rush to replace him as Megatron's new second-in-command.
- "Wild Wild Wheel" is about the titular Autobot's return to Cybertron and quest for revenge against Optimus Prime.
- Villain of Another Story: The various entities that come to hold the fragments of Windblade's psyche have no connection to either the Decepticons or the Quintessons.
- Villain Respect: Megatron admits that he admires Bumblebee's courage. Doesn't stop him mutilating him.
- At the very end of the series, the Other One remarks that in this universe Bumblebee actually grew into a hero just before moving to kill him.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Megatron seems to be attempting this, setting up a propaganda video portraying himself and the Decepticons as friends to the people of Earth immediately following an attempt to destroy the planet. It doesn't seem to be working as Optimus is able to broadcast directly to major news outlets while Megatron is stuck with a livestream.
- Voice of the Legion: The Allspark is shown communicating with Bumblebee this way, in the form of numerous whispering, overlapping voices.
- Vocal Evolution: During the pre-War era, Megatron's voice sounded more similar to the original's slightly wheezy rasp. During the current story, it's more similar to his video game incarnation. Of note, when Megatron agrees to talk peacefully with Optimus and they start to reconnect, his gravelly Baritone of Strength give way to his softer, original voice.
- Hot Rod's voice becomes deeper and a little raspier with the start of the Quintesson Invasion arc.
- We Can Rule Together: Megatron offers Optimus this, who refuses in hopes that Cybertron can still be reformed through less violent measures.
- We Hardly Knew Ye:
- Blurr who is introduced and succumbs to the Plague of Rust in the same episode.
- Alpha Trion first appears to bestow the Matrix of Leadership on Optimus and die.
- Prowl and Drift are killed off during season 3 premiere. Neither had much of a chance to make an impact.
- We Used to Be Friends:
- Megatron and Optimus got along very well before the war until the former's action to bring Cybertron to prosperity got too extreme for Optimus to condone. Megatron also seems to have been rather fond of Bumblebee as well.
- Wheeljack and Shockwave were colleagues and friends before the fighting started, even collaborating to create Shockwave's drones.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: While the Ark crashes to Earth several stasis pods fall out of the breach in the ships hull. One of those pods contains Bumblebee but the fate of the others is unknown, if they even had inhabitants.
- Late in the series, it's revealed that at least one contained an Autobot, Wild Wheel. An entire episode revolves around his bitterness at being forgotten.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The series shows that Autobot empathy extends to even non humanoid life forms. The bug creatures in episode 4 swarm and try to consume Optimus, Grimlock, and Bumblebee when the Autobots come across their energon supply. Optimus only opens fire in self-defense and after they escape the swarm he calls off the entire mission. Even though their supplies are low and the bugs attacked first, Optimus refuses to retaliate and take the energon as the bugs need it to live and likely only attacked because they saw the Autobots as potential invaders.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Bumblebee notes that Grimlock's increased power in T-Rex mode may have caused the Dinobot's personality to split between alt modes.
- Word-Salad Humor: A lot of Bumblebee's humor derives from this, with him stringing together a random assortment of unrelated "dialogue clips" to relate them to his current situation.
- Worldbuilding: Bumblebee's flashbacks often serve this purpose, to give viewers an idea on Cybertron before and during the war.
- Would Hit a Girl: Thundercracker is introduced kicking Windblade when he lands. He even lands a couple of good hits during their fight.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: At least part of what convinces Jetfire to save Optimus instead of finishing off Sky-Byte is Megatron congratulating him on his victory and encouraging him to execute Sky-Byte.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Bots infected by the Plague of Rust become zombies that facilitate its spread before crumbling to dust.
