#transformers theory

[dezmolad]

it's not a crazy idea that Ratchet remembers and associeates autobots by their dumbest injuries he had to treat. BUT. imagine if he'd recognise a decepticon by the damage they caused, and those things being main things he connects to a 'con. He sees a patient and goes like "oh! shot in the back, null ray, Starscream!". Megatron could have a crisis if he'd ever known that for Ratchet he's not "the scary warlord" or even "the slag-maker" but "fusion canon, lausy aim".

[mintaikkcorpse]

Shout out to Elita in Cyberworld. One of the first few pieces of media (other than TFO) where she's a main role (avoiding Skybound bcuz it scares me) and I really like her, and I have shit about her I wanna yap about

The series is really silly and Elita is sometimes silly with it, but you can tell she also just wants to leave so fucking badly. In her first introduction in the series, she literally screams at OP and Bee for messing her up, and then it's a running gag in the series that Bee and her tend to fight about random things. Idk. I just like characters that come off as rude or abrasive because they care more than they let on. Really hope we learn more about her team and how she lost them (plz involve Firestar and/or Nautica I wanna see Firestar and/or Nautica so fcking badly 🙏🙏🙏🙏. I LITERALLY JUST WANT NAUTICA IN *ONE* ANIMATED SERIES!!! THAT'S ALL I ASK OF!!!)

Wait ommggggg imagine if her team were all aquatic themed (ignore Wheeljack. He can just stand in the corner and play with a rubix cube for a minute). Team of Nautica, High Tide. Riptide, or Thunderblast or smthn. That'd be cool.

BOAT ALT MODE???? I like the accommodations that come with it and her having to use the others like a skateboard to get around quicker. Also, the design just looks cool. I like the things on the side of her head looking like targets bcuz she's a sniper. I like her having a more bulkier bukd compared to her previous counterparts. I'm also incredibly biased bcuz she's pink and, if a character is pink or blue, my chances of liking them raise by 50%. My thoughts still stand though. Also, does her mid section look like a sword to you? It does to me. Idk if that was on purpose, but it's neat. Could be a reference to how she seems to be the most aggressive on the team (I yap about that later)

I like that she's revenge-pilled. Tactical advantage of getting rid of Skye Byte? He'd stop bothering her for one. But also it's because it's she's mad he killed the rest of her team. Sometimes, a girl just needs to kill a guy and just let it be. Also, it's an interesting contrast to OP, who doesn't think revenge is the best option. Sadly, I'm on Elita's side here. I like revenge

I don't think that it's ever confirmed she was the leader of her team, but I think she was. She makes a lot of the decisions and plans when talking with the team and is very sure of herself when it comes to it, and she'll get frustrated when others argue back or don't listen (*cough* Bee *cough*). It makes me think that 1). She was leader of her team and 2). Her team trusted her and her decisions a lot and now she's not used to having people push against her (*cough* Bee again *cough*)

Character dynamic thing I realized is that Elita tends to choose the more aggressive option. Optimus tries to defuse the situation, Bee will make a snarky comment or joke, Wheeljack will try to analyze, and Elita starts accusing or being aggressive. I just think it's neat

Back to the boat alt mode thing. Since she can't escape quickly like the others can, her fighting style seems to be distance related (she has a massive fucking sniper) and she's the most agile on their team (aura farming by doing backflips and running fast). I just think it's a cool attention to detail that the only one who can't drive has to have a more agile fighting style

I honestly assumed everyone went into Cyberworld at the same time bcuz I'm bad at paying attention and annalyzing things, but she mentions she's been there for cycles, and she assumes everything is a threat, which is why her first answer to a problem is aggression. I don't think she was always like that since OP says that that's not like her when they first met. How long has she been in Cyberworld compared to the other characters? And how badly did it fuck her up if she now goes into most situations with aggression?

I think out of everyone, she misses her home the most. She obviously dislikes Cyberworld, but while other characters seem to have more curiosity for it while also wanting to leave, Elita seems sick of it and just wants to go back to Cybertron. DON'T THINK I DIDN'T SEE THE CAMERA LINGER ON HER AND HER FREEZE WHEN OP SAID THEY DON'T EVEN KNIW IF THERE IS A CYBERTRON TO RETURN TO IN EPISODE 28 (or maybe I'm just delusional and she only stopped and didn't say anything bcuz she was focused, but shhhh 🤫🤫🤫). She also shuts down OP whenever he tries to figure out *why* Cyberworld is a thing. She's been here for cycles and you know how the longer you're in a situation you don't like, the more short-tempered you become and less curious you become? I think that's her. "Idc that we're stuck here, I just care that we LEAVE here", or smthn like that. Wonder that, I'd they stick to this, how far it will go? Watching her slowly lose it as time goes on would be cool. I don't think they're gonna do that, but it's nice to think about

I think Elita also has really black and white thinking, or at least holds onto beliefs that she doesn't think of changing. She thinks that Cyberworld is Megatron's fault and, when Bee brings it up that OP doesn't thinks Starscream was convinced it wasn't Megs, she incredulously said, "So we trust Starscream now?!" Wheeljack, despite trusting him, doesn't believe him when he says that, since they don't know anything, anyone here could've been the cause of Cyberworld. It could also be that she trusts her team enough to know that she won't hurt them, which is sweet

Sadly, that's not enough for me. She isn't considering any possibilities. "Megatron probably got us all trapped here to defeat us", and she won't listen to o anything else, which shows that she has beliefs she sticks to and isn't willing to change. While bad for her bcuz it means she is unwilling to edit her beliefs which could later harm her if more evidence keeps coming up, I'm rubbing my hands together at the potential. If it really is OP, how eiuld she react? How much of what she knows would she have to question or change?

Right now, all she knows is that the bots she knows and trusts are alive. But, if she can't trust one of them now, will that make her not want to trust any of them? I can really see it as, something happens where she can't trust her team, and then she leaves and tries to leave Cyberworld at any means nesecary, which could make her go through really unhealthy habits and thinking/coping mechanisms to just try and *leave* so things can go back to normal.

Lightfoot. Lightfoot plz. Plz give us something. It's been 28 episodes and we only have some minimal character stuff and explanation on Cyberworld. Lightfoot, plz. Listen to me. Plz. Ik you probably won't bcuz this is a kid's series but kids deserve cool things to. Plz. Pleeeessssee

Anyways: Bee and Elita dancing bcuz I like them and thought their little spin was funny

[crystaltrainwrecks]

Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack: What the hell is their history together???

So I’m going to start out by saying that, while I am a VERY strong shipper of these two, that’s not really the lens I’m looking at this through. It’s just that there are so many little details tossed in about their pasts that I just GOTTA ramble about it. Because the more I think about it, the more interesting it gets. But ANYWAYS HERE WE GO LADS—

1) “Feel free to choose the path of least resistance, as you did before.”

This is what Ultra Magnus says to Wheeljack in Season 3 episode 5 during a dispute regarding Wheeljack’s reckless behavior. Why I find this interesting is that this not only means that he remembers when Wheeljack left the Wreckers after he took command, but that he ALSO holds some bitterness on the subject. Of course the emotion and intent behind this line could be interpreted a multitude of ways, but I do find it oddly fascinating that it clearly shows that Magnus is actually still at least somewhat upset by that event even all this time later. There is ALSO the fact that Wheeljack actually pauses after that line—almost as if he’s at a loss for words—before storming out of the base. To me, this could almost be read as guilt on Wheeljack’s part, as if he regrets having left the Wreckers behind 👀

2) Ultra Magnus was Alone

When we are first introduced to his character, he is on his own under the claim that he is been searching for other Autobots. But here’s the thing—his last known post was with THE WRECKERS! Something I have a very hard time believing he would have simply abandoned, especially after his comment towards Wheeljack. Meaning something really REALLY bad must have happened for Ultra Magnus to leave his post.

3) “Roadbuster, Pyro, Impactor, Rotorstorm, Seaspray, all dust.”

This line is said by Wheeljack to Bulkhead in Season 2 Episode 6. Combine this with the fact that he was clearly surprised to stumble across Bulkhead back in season one, AND the fact that he seemingly ALSO stumbled across Seaspray by accident before trying to plan a meet up with him, and it becomes very clear very quickly that something bad must have happened to the Wrecker’s at some point. Whatever the event was, it caused the deaths of multiple comrades, while scattering the rest from each other entirely.

4) “Guys like Optimus. They talk a good game. But when you’re in the scrap, they don’t wanna get their hands dirty.”

AND

“It’s like I told ya. When the scrap hits the fan blades, the generals are the first to bail.”

Once again, these lines are said by Wheeljack to Bulkhead, Season 2 Episode 6. This shows that Wheeljack believes generals, commanders, and any higher ups to be unreliable if not just straight up cowards. With the fact that he mentioned this TWICE, I don’t think it’s too far fetched to say that some experience in his past is why he has come to believe this. Afterall, these comments seem to be less aimed at Optimus specifically, and more so at ALL generals/commanders.

So What the Hell Does All This Mean?

My best guess? I think Wheeljack left not long before the Wrecker’s were attacked by the Decepticons, leading to the deaths and/or scatterings all of his former comrades. Wheeljack’s guilt is due the fact he wasn’t there, and this could also be why Magnus may still hold anger for Wheeljack not having been present that day. I ALSO think that there’s a very high chance that Wheeljack blames Ultra Magnus for what happened, especially seeing as Magnus has been flying around on his own ever since then. Do I think Magnus abandoned the Wreckers during their time of need? No. HOWEVER, I could totally see Wheeljack thinking that about his former commander. Especially seeing as he never liked Magnus in the first place.

See stuff like this is why I so so so SO badly wish we could’ve gotten more episodes and character development between these two. I WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THEM DAMN IT😭

Anywaysssss there’s my transformers prime ramble, I hope you all have a lovely day :D

[lostshots]

forever thinking that it's possible starscream's and thundercracker's colours were swapped very early in production

here's my 'proof' for this crackpot theory:

exhibit 1: thundercracker is front and centre in the first intro with the other 2 seekers. the leader is usually leading the others, so starscream was possibly meant to have the blue colour scheme

exhibit 2: starscream has a similar colour scheme to optimus prime,

why is this important? in thundercracker's original bio (that wasnt expanded on in show but in later continuites) it states that he wasnt fully committed to the decepticon cause

primary colours are usually reserved for more heroic characters, so this is in line for thundercracker's future defection to the good guys (i'll give him a pass. blue and red is still pretty heroic)

exhibit 3: some swaps were already confirmed. skywarp and starscream's specs sheets were switched by accident in the original run (from the transformers wiki)

tldr: starscream was supposed to be the blue one, and thundercracker was meant to have primary colours

[kaontic]

*Couple theories*

Good.

Because Optimus Prime is gone. We lost him.

No you don’t.

No you f**cking don’t care otherwise Spike wouldn’t be saying this. You’d help him and Carly understand that all sentient beings are supposed to be equal (and not just be [maybe] seen and not heard).

You wouldn’t put it on everyone else, and especially Magnus (who was tortured for hundreds of years if not way longer) to look after young sentient beings who need you, Optimus.

Who you promised to take care of.

…

Oh what?

Haven’t you learned by now after 6 months of hopefully getting to know us, before the 3 volumes of scrap hitting the fan one right after the other, how dangerous we humans can be? How much damage we can do out of ignorance, fear, and even selfishness? Remember how Spike got injured? And how he can’t do much because of his injury?

Why did he have to give you a pep talk Prime?

And now…Spike will likely die. Why?

Because he was deemed to be weak. To be useless by someone whose job, he would basically tell you, condescendingly, it is to maintain strength (sound familiar?)

Instead of…idk…defense. In a smart way. Or preventing crises. In a smart way.

(It brings me comfort to know that Flagg in the last crossover, would mince Skybound Flagg, and not gaf if he’s executed for it)

Yeah you guys notice how Flagg didn’t even introduce himself to Spike.

And show up alone. With guns (he did not have this when he was with the Autobots).

Totally not f**king creepy at all.

(Look, if you want to make yourself look less intimidating…bring non-armored witnesses, and one of them has to be a woman that’s not up for debate)

(Wearing gloves + keeping head down very smart of her yes. Hope she’s okay cuz I’m sure you know how lots of women are treated in the US military)

Yeah as for Carly, with her being good with guns…

Wait…

How did she get those guns? Didn’t Sparkplug’s fellow vets provide them?

And how did…again, how was Magnus tracked down so fast—

“Carly’s backpack remember?”

…

No. No you’re not f**king saying—

“Listen to me, Anioł. Betrayal is our best friend. Suspicion swirls in our soul. Look at the evidence provided”

*Deep breath*

There’s a couple possibilities here, yes.

“She has parents. With an ‘s’. It was not a typo in Volume 1 the writers may have a plan here. When she tried to find her mother after Starscream’s retreat, when things calmed down, she found Flagg instead. He said that he would keep her mother safe only if she were to do what he says and help protect the country”

I’m following.

“We’ve learned Flagg’s damn good with guns in the OG. Shooter directly reported to him despite them having never met according to him in Declassfied. She knows how to take pain here. And in some ways…so does Carly in terms of her emotions”

…

“He thought Carly after everything he invested into her was getting too close with Transformers. That’s what he doubted. After Carly almost said ‘I’m sorry’ to Arcee when Magnus got—”

Stop. Oh God—

“She’s an Iron Apprentice and he’s Chiseled f**king Steel, son. And you can’t have steel without iron”

STOP. NO—

NO DON’T SAY THIS—

“She’s an Ulchtar going to be turned into the next Starscream, Anioł, and if you weren’t replaced with Nemesis Prime at Shadow Watch, or you’re not still infected by Megatron, Optimus Prime—

You’re going to be very f**king sorry”

[lockheed-martin-unofficial]

After @randomationality mentioned Starscream getting thrown around often here, I remembered him being shiny for the first few episodes and decided to do some digging and figure out exactly when he lost the shine.

In Episode 1, while Megatron is still gone, Starscream’s chest has a very prominent shine.

Then again, Episode 2, Megatron returns and he is very shiny.

In Episode 3 he’s not as shiny as earlier (possibly due to the lighting, possibly due to offscreen Megatron) but we do see the glow of his weapon reflecting on his chest.

Same for Ep4, continuation of the Fowler scene. But at the end of Episode 4, Megatron beats Starscream on camera for the first time. And when you watch Episode 5,,,

You can clearly see he’s lost the shine. The same lighting is hitting both of them and while it reflects from Megatron, it doesn’t from Starscream.

Worth noting that Ep 6 does give him back a bit of shine, he never quite recovers to the same degree as the first few episodes. I stopped watching carefully after that point. Make of this what you will. The animators tweaking his design after the first few episodes, or an intentional change to show Megs’ abuse.

[nukeli]

Tarantulas' Origins

Tarantulas' and the Tripredacus Council's origins in Beast Wars were unrevealed beyond them not being descended from the Autobots or the Decepticons, at least not in a way that they would be affected if Optimus Prime and Megatron I were killed in the past by a time traveler which would erase their descendants. There was vagueness, uncertainty, and fan inteprations.

The Unicron line, the writers' Cybertronian Empire idea, and my own alternate suggestion.

Unicron (Popular Idea)

We know that after Tarantulas' death, Megatron II called him a "Unicron's spawn". While a lot of people took it literally for some reason, both story editors, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio, have said they never meant it that way (it was meant to be equivalent to "son of a bitch") and that Forward regrets the line.

He was depicted as a herald of Unicron in 3H Productions' Beast Wars comics and the Japanese "Yokohama Decepticon Secret Base" manga, and rumored to be a descendant of Unicron in Transformers Roleplaying Game, but all three are obviously different continuities from the Beast Wars cartoon and shouldn't be viewed as proof of an unicronian origin for the BW cartoon Tarantulas (also, the 3H continuity was only a BotCon comic anyway, basically Hasbro-condoned fanfiction).

(A 3H panel left, a "Yokohama" panel right. I couldn't find any 3H panels outside tfwiki, so no Unicron appearance or mention in that one)

.

Cybertronian Empire (Would-be Canon?)

DiTillio, in the same message where he said that Forward regrets the "Unicron's spawn" line, said that they never settled on an origin for Tarantulas and the Tripredacus Council– but had the show continued, "It might very well have been that they were part of the Liege Maximo or Jhiaxus faction from the comic books".

Said faction is/was the Cybertronian Empire from Marvel's Generation 2 comic, a sequel to Marvel's G1 comic. It got started after the disappearance of Optimus' and Megatron's core groups when the Ark crashed on Earth and were gone for four million years – some Decepticons left on Cybertron recovered their ancestral ability to reproduce by mitosis, called "budding", which their creator Primus had locked away after the first ever transformers had used it to multiply faster to spread through the planet.

(Budding event on the left, semi-identical budded army on the right)

These Decepticons left Cybertron to start their own empire, led by Jhiaxus who was subordinate to Liege Maximo (one of those first ever transformers, and some kind of an ancestor to Megatron I, despite Megatron I being created long after budding had stopped and been forgotten). They then embarked on a campaign of galactic conquest, terraforming and genocide, which eventually led to them encountering the Autobots and Decepticons and going to war with both. The Cybertronian Empire didn't only consider all the other species inferior, but also viewed the other transformers (even the Decepticons) as primitive and disdained them. When the comic was cancelled because the sales weren't high enough for Marvel, the last issue saw the Autobots and Decepticons fighting against the Cybertronian Empire as allies and Jhiaxus died, but Liege Maximo was still alive on the last page and still had a massive army at his command, and presumably the ability to bud more of them as needed.

Also, they're evil because budding diluted Primus' life force in them, which made them amoral, emotionless, and lacking in individuality and which is why they wipe out other species with clinical detachment, unlike Decepticons who are more sadistic.

It makes sense, but there's a slight issue. If Tarantulas was an offspring of somebody in the Cybertronian Empire, he could of course have changed his appearance to blend in with the Predacons (Cybertronian Empire's members are all semi-identical, possibly because of the mitosis or lack of Primus essence), but does the above description of the average Cybertronian Empire bot's personality and the effects of generations of budding describe Tarantulas all that well? He's definitely not emotionless, and he's definitely sadistic. A Cybertronian Empire bot would also be able to just birth an army and wouldn't need to hotwire protoforms.

.

Paradron (Secret Third Option)

My own suggestion, which I don't think has the plot hole the Cybertronian Empire origin would have.

In the G1 cartoon continuity, season 3 episode "Fight or Flee", Paradron is a planet settled by Autobots who fled Cybertron during the "Fourth Great War" which seems to have been before the war Megatron I started, and it's the only known cybertronian colony besides Antilla (where everybody died from cosmic rust an eternity ago). At this point it's important to note that in the G1 cartoon the labels "Autobot" and "Decepticon" predated the current war, because in the G1 cartoon the Autobots and the Decepticons were races; one created by the quintessons to be workers and consisting of "civilian" altmodes, and the other created by the quintessons to be combat drones and consisting of "military" altmodes. While there were civilian vehicle Decepticons who were built by the Decepticons themselves or not implied to be former Autobots, and there was one or two military vehicle Autobots who weren't implied to be former Decepticons, the civilian vehicle/military vehicle division was still the norm during Optimus Prime's and Megatron I's war and they kept mostly building their own type, and the paradronians were all civilian altmode types – and relevantly, every depiction of pre-beast Tarantulas is either a car or a motorcycle, which implies Autobot ancestry like paradronians all have.

The refugees lived on Paradron away from the war until they were discovered by the Decepticons and Paradron was occupied. The Autobots arrived to fight the Decepticons, but weren't able to retake it and so Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus decided to destroy the planet to deny the Decepticons its abundant energon. The Autobots then relocated the surviving Paradronians to Cybertron and Rodimus callously told their leader that Cybertron is better than Paradron was anyway.

It'd be insane if a lot of paradronians and some of their descendants built later on Cybertron weren't angry and vengeful towards both the Autobots and the Decepticons for enslaving them and then destroying their planet (propably killing many). So that's a motive.

And because paradronians left Cybertron before Optimus Prime's and Megatron I's war and only regained contact with Cybertronians after Unicron's defeat, Prime and Megatron I being killed in the past, their factions disintegrating, and their descendants being wiped from existence would not erase a paradronian or a paradronian-descended bot from history, because Paradronians had no relation to Prime's and Megatron I's groups. In fact, destroying Prime's and Megatron's / Galvatron's groups and descendants would be a win for paradronians because then Paradron wouldn't get destroyed. Also Paradron was entered through a weird space anomaly, which might mean it's located in some kind of a different universe and possibly out of Unicron's reach, in which case it wouldn't be paradronians' problem if no one was there to stop unicron in 2005 (or at least paradronian bots could think so).

[jyrinestories08]

Since that skyfire (or “jetfire”) is been confirmed to be alive in the movie by mention and the concept artist confirms that he adds skyfire in it because he likes him.

This made me think that skyfire was part of sentinel guards like darkwing and the other guard bots (except he would be the nicest one). And before the betrayal of sentinel, he was close friends with starscream, after the betrayal, he’s loyal to sentinel and decided to be part of his twisted side.

This also leads to starscream calling skyfire a traitor, just like in G1 where skyfire was called a traitor to starscream and the other decepticons when he chosed the autobot side.