Nov 2, 2025
I'm not sure if anyone else has made this meme but I haven't seen it.
seen from Japan
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seen from Israel
seen from United States
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seen from China
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seen from United States
seen from Australia
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I'm not sure if anyone else has made this meme but I haven't seen it.
That's What Legendary Transformers Villains Do!
Shockwave broke his fucking hand!
And he did that!
That's what legendary Transformers villains do!
Megatron
Legendary.
3-1 comeback
CAME BACK!
Getaway took over the Lost Light-
He didn't score, bro!
He didn't put up no buckets!
Stop calling that man legendary because he won with Sunder-
The greatest serial killer ever.
Froid-
A top 3 IDW original villain ever.
Stop calling him that.
Because when Atomizer went down-
He got smoked out by the Protectobots.
When they played the Scavengers-
He got smoked out.
When they went up against the Lost Light crew.
He blew a 3-1 lead.
HE CHOKED!
Legendary- Starscream
Shockwave
Megatron
Even fucking Liege Maximo
Tarn as a rookie!
Overlord
Legendary-
SUNSTORM IS MORE LEGENDARY THAN GETAWAY!
THAT'S WHO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT!
Stop talking about Getaway like he's that guy!
He's not that guy!
He's a coward and he's garbage when it matters!
He's garbage!
This is pure speculation but if Rung got disbarred for lack of professional distance (which is separate from excessive self-disclosure/verbal closeness), I can imagine Rung is the kind of therapist more comfortable with casual touch.
Which makes it funnier in context that Froid greets him with a big hug when he's trying to manipulate him for his patient files.
Also Froid is the last person to be talking about inappropriate patient/practitioner relationships with whatever he has going on with Sunder.
But Rung is based on Carl Jung...
An Analysis of Cybertron's Morality
(Major spoilers for various Transformers media)
People say politics should be kept out of Transformers.
The claim that "politics should be kept out of Transformers" ignores that the core conflict is fundamentally political.
The Core Political Foundation
The core conflict is freedom ("Freedom is the right of all sentient beings") versus tyranny ("Peace through tyranny")
G1 Transformers was about Optimus Prime, a heroic figure championing freedom, against Megatron, a tyrant trying to conquer and extract resources. That was the plot for episodes that were criticized as 30-minute toy commercials in the 1980s. This wasn’t subtle.
Now a tyrant trying to conquer to extract resources isn't new in politics but for those in power there was a pretense of this not being exactly what they wanted.
We want nuance in Transformers, but politics has become cartoonishly evil.
Half the population seeming to embrace fascism was just something that happens in cartoons, right? Unfortunately, unlike cartoons, there's no easy switch to flip them back.
Politics is in Transformers, like all art, here's an analysis of Cybertron's morality for example.
The Spectrum of Moral Failure on Cybertron
Apathy and Self-Interest as Moral Failures
In The Transformers #1, Huffer says "Oh, I say we leave right now and forget about traipsing after the stupid Decepticons."
Huffer's suggestion to abandon Earth and seemingly let the Decepticons conquer isn't appeasement, it's moral apathy. It's indifference to suffering when it doesn't directly affect you. It's no wonder he's unpopular among in-universe Autobots and fans alike, because apathy erodes collective resistance.
In "Power Play!" The Transformers UK #3, Mirage internally questions his allegiance, "Bah! The Decepticons will not pander to this world's populace! They'll simply seize what they need! Perhaps Mirage is on the wrong side!"
He sympathizes with the Decepticons as "brothers" and just wants the war to end so he can go home, questioning if he's on the wrong side because Decepticons take what they need without pandering. His motives blend nobility (desiring an end to war) with selfishness (personal escape from war). It's understandable, but ultimately selfish.
Transformers is often marketed as a black-and-white good-vs-evil story, but the canon repeatedly undercuts that.
Honor as a Liability in Authoritarian Movements
In Beast Wars, Dinobot and Silverbolt join the Maximals, with Silverbolt's honor even swaying Blackarachnia.
In Transformers Prime, Starscream shows fleeting honor by sparing Arcee, yet reverts to treachery.
Dreadwing is a loyal Decepticon warrior with a strong sense of honor, respects the Autobots as enemies, and ultimately turns against his own side after Starscream's desecration of his brother Skyquake by reviving his brother as a zombie. Yet Megatron kills him to protect the treacherous Starscream, showing how honor is a liability in an authoritarian cause that values control over principles.
In the Skybound Transformers comic series, Thundercracker develops a genuine pity for the human population of Earth, and disgust for the senseless violence and needless cruelty of the Decepticon campaign on Earth. Thundercracker ultimately defects, choosing to join the Autobots.
Moral Failures on the Autobot Side
Systemic Rot and Police Brutality
The judicial system in Transformers Animated is shockingly flawed.
In "Autoboot Camp" Transformers Animated, Bumblebee unwittingly frames Wasp based on planted evidence by Shockwave (disguised as Longarm), this leads to Wasp being imprisoned for years in the stockades, and severely traumatized. This exposes Cybertron's flawed justice system—rushed, circumstantial investigations, wrongful convictions, and implied mistreatment of "Decepticon" suspects.
In "First (and Second) in Flight" Transformers Animated: The Arrival #6, we get Jetfire and Jetstorm’s backstories. Ultra Magnus views certain bots as "expendable" for experimental procedures (like grafting Starscream's programming).
In "This is Why I Hate Machines" Transformers Animated, Sentinel Prime's regime turns Cybertron into an authoritarian police state, with publicly-broadcasted propaganda, shutdowns of "all potentially subversive gathering places", and curfews.
Police brutality recurs as an inciting incident for conflict. Hefter's death in custody in IDW's Optimus Prime mini-series. (Optimus Prime implying the old Senate was homophobic).
Orion Pax (pre-Optimus)'s role as a propaganda tool as a "hero cop" but adopts shoot-first tactics and a guilt-by-association mindset until he begins to question the system from Zeta Prime's quoting The Birth of Cybertron to justify a lack of concern about the suspicious death of Hefter in police custody.
The bar fight involving Senate cadets igniting the war by leading to Megatron's radicalization in More than Meets the Eye.
Deputies like Needlenose and Horri-Bull’s abuse of a neutral followed by lethal enforcement via I/D chip.
Drunkatron's killing by the Badgeless (gestapo-like secret police) in Till All Are One.
Enabling the System: Fanatics, Appeasers, Collaborators, and Corrupt Authority
Lugnut is a simple-minded sycophantic bootlicker. He's not an appeaser. Lugnut's unwavering devotion to Megatron and the Decepticon cause makes him a fanatic, willing to die for the cause. Megatron’s ability to mobilize an army of such fanatics through promises of glory and insurrection mirrors modern strongman leaders who cultivate cults of personality among segments of the population that feel disenfranchised or humiliated by the existing order.
Megatron plans an insurrection of Cybertron using the space-bridge technology. A strongman leader causing an insurrection of his simple-minded fanatical followers seems familiar.
In Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Issue #9, Quark fears he would be dead if the "menial" Decepticon types rose to power because the Functionist system benefits him—a traitor to his people for personal safety. He likes the degree of occupational freedom he gets from the Functionists, making him a privileged appeaser.
The Functionist Council enforces Functionalism, a religious-fascist ideology that form dictates function (bio-essentialism), with punishments like empurata (government-sanctioned mutilation removing faces and hands of dissidents) and shadowplay (lobotomizing dissidents). Shockwave, once a progressive senator, was mutilated and reprogrammed by the Senate.
Froid and Trepan represent collaborators, work with the Functionists to shadowplay (lobotomize) dissidents, enforcing eugenics. Trepan even has "cleanse and control" engraved on his wrist in case the message wasn't clear.
When the war crimes of the Autobots were judged, all were cold constructed. Tyrest's genocide against cold-constructed bots (believing they're morally defective) is another form of bio-essentialism/eugenics. Religious zealots like Star Saber pushes atheist genocide under divine sanction.
Other dubious Autobots include Pharma (organ harvesting), Sunder (serial killer post-mnemosurgery), and Getaway (mutiny).
Post-war Cybertron remains oppressive: Prowl's secret assassinations to kill Ratbat and Starscream's Badgeless (gestapo-like secret police).
The Worst Offenses: Ends-Justify-Means
In Transformers: One (2024), Sentinel Prime's exploitation of cogless miners—stealing their transformation cogs to enforce a permanent underclass—mirrors caste systems, labor exploitation, and modern inequalities where elites hoard power while the working class is deemed disposable, exploiting them to pay off alien overlords (Quintessons), while posing as a savior.
In Transformers: More than Meets the Eye Issue #9: Proteus and Sentinel plotted to kill thousands at the Primal Basilica with a bomb hidden inside Nominus Prime's corpse, which they would declare a Decepticon terrorist act, allowing them to capture and brainwash all those who had registered under the Decepticon Registration Act, rendering them passive and docile (lobotomized).
In "Crisis of Command!" The Transformers (UK) #42, Prowl wanted to create the Ultimate Autobot Warriors with an intent of forcing a swift, brutal end to the war that would do less harm to Earth than a prolonged struggle. Optimus Prime refused. He felt the ends did not justify the means. (Paralleling debates over weapons of mass destruction or the atomic bomb — ends vs. means).
In Sins of the Wreckers #3, Prowl's false-flag Decepti-Bomb destroys the neutral city of Carpessa, killing 1,438 civilians and framing the Decepticons to boost Autobot recruitment.
The Real Warning
I think we miss the plot when the Decepticons are cannibalistic alien bug monsters. Because we shouldn’t be watching out for cannibalistic alien bug monsters. The real dangers are tyrants who conquer for resources, fanatical followers who enable them, governments that enforce state violence/eugenics, religious defenses, and maintain class divides.
I genuinely love the end of Transformers: Lost Light is like-
(Spoilers for Transformers: More than Meets the Eye #49)
Technically, Sunder is an Autobot.
Froid using Trepan as a rebound after fumbling Rung before meeting Sunder.