#Rodimus/high command

[spikezonebby]

Who's more breedable? The guy throwing it back for Megatron, Ultra Magnus, and Drift, or the guy that goes insane for squishy human Noah Diaz?

Picture, if you will:

Rodimus getting passed around during a command meeting until his thighs are trembling and his knees give out.

Or...

Mirage holding his own legs up over his helm while Noah puts his whole goddamn heart and soul into filling the puss with jizz.

Back again guys

[windamp]

obviously since hot rod doesn't know starscream knows him, i can only assume starscream just like tried to do it w/ like swindle who promptly realized he could make a buck so he was like w/e how about you buy things from me. i have bombs. ;) instead of doing any sort of recruitment

but now im imagining a hilarious reality where starscream did in fact try to recruit hot rod personally.

[driftkinnie]

rossums trinity or something

(psst @veryradtransformersgal217 @dimensional-traveler3 for you)

[coalballbaby]

While I have my TF mic in my hand. Maybe I am a little more severe on Prowl than what my heart truly believes in... but I really can't express enough how much I've really seen it all. Highs and lows. So so so many lows. And if me being a little harder on him for the consequences of his actions (specifically on other characters) will balance out the amount of excuses I've seen made for Prowl by the fandom then so be it. I really do think it does a disservice to other characters within IDW by ignoring the butterfly effect. I will move a mountain to get even one person out of the individualistic Prowl-only-focus era

[enby-rodimus]

Going about my day and then I remember when Autocracy implied that the people Optimus & co. arrested back when he was an enforcer working under Zeta were hooked up to the energon tanks and died because of it.

[drill-bits]

That being said, I still bave this old thing lying around

SO WHAT HAPPENS IS: RIGHT BEFORE THE RECEPTION, Drift tells High Command about his. Condition!

Rodimus then, immediately after, shares that information with his buddy Swerve.

You can assume what happened next from there.

[tinydefector]

Ooooh my good TINY

I THINK I HAVE A GOOD IDEA

For human effect

When the human will arrive on Cybertron, they have to wear uniforms. MILITARY UNIFORMS OR ANY STUFF, AT THE MOMENT THEY ARE UNIFORMS AND THEY ARE ALL PRETTY. Hair done, some makeup on, the humans are all shiny and beautiful. And interacting with AUTOBOT HIGH COMMAND make them super hot bc for once the humans are serious, very diplomatic, very formal,...

Idk why i though about it but it's crazayyy

It will start a uniform kink oh my gooood yessss ....

I can see Rodimus or Skids or Swerve leaning on a wall and struggle bc "primuuuus they're hot... i can't..."

jeez i had too much math for today i gotta cope im sorry

Omg I love this idea. Watch out Bee I'm probably gonna add this in.

Watch the Ambassador's uniform be how Prowl and Ultra Magnus becomes Simps badly.

Ultra Magnus: looking over their uniform to make sure everything is in position and they look respectable. Him rearranging something. 'Oh primus they are so small in my servos, but they look so good, I can't ruin their uniform this goes against every code from 34 to 47.

Prowl: is so pissed off he can't go off at them for anything being wrong either their uniform to the point he wants to ruin it in the best way so he can tell them off.

[startheskelaton]

Do you have a timelime for your sparkplug au?

Yes and It's LONG. This isn't even all of it but it's what I have written out at least

Timeline: important plot points 

Pre war

Orion pax and D-16 are born 

Both experience the loss of parental guardian 

D-16 is taken to the pit 

Orion pax breaks into the pit, he and Dee start the foundations of the Decepticon cause 

Revolution starts to take shape on Cybertron 

Orion is killed in an attempt to stop D from falling down the slippery slope of a rage filled warmonger 

Orion is brought back as Optimus prime 

OG Ultra Magnus makes him a general in the Autobot ranks 

During war 

War goes on for like…. Long ass time

Autobots land on earth 

Main decepticons fallow suit and step up shop due to amount of resources

Governments make deals with different factions in place of protection and access to weapon technology

Eventually Megatron has a “oh fuck” moment when he invades an illegal mining operation in central Africa. It puts into perspective how far he has fallen, seeing his commanders make deals with those who profited off the mines, just like those in power back on cybertron. 

Midlife crisis, Megatron leaves the Decepticon cause, he takes Soundwave with him. Declares he will do whatever he needs in order to free those enslaved on this planet

Megatron joins the Autobots, this cases Prowl to leave and switch sides 

Battles pick up heat as both sides are desperate 

Millionaires and those in places of high power use Cybertronian technology to flee earth and live in space as earth is being destroyed

Starscream kills Optimus Prime in an attempt to kill Megatron. Both sides retreat as a result 

Optimus splits the matrix and gives it to Hotrod and bumblebee, 

Rodimus prime and Vespa Prime are born 

Optimus Prime’s spark is put in a reformation chamber with parts of Megatron in an attempt to bring him back 

Treaties are made and the decepticons take Cybertron as the Autobots stay on earth 

Post war 

Decepticons start rebuilding Cybertroinian society 

Shockwave finishes creating a replacement for Soundwave

Soundblaster is born 

The first sparkling born on Cybertron in millenia emerges

Nightflyer is born 

Due to the splitting of the matrix of leadership, dormant energon on earth awakens and allows for new sparklings to emerge 

The attempt the revive Optimus prime’s spark fails 

Sparkplug is born 

A new era 

Earth 

The Autobots have made it their mission to help reform the planet and help the humans rebuild 

Rodimus prime leaves earth in a hope to find some kind of explanation for why he feels like everything is in the shitter 

Subsections of colonies start to pop up, some keep to themselves, others work directly with the autobots, some hate transformers entirely 

Railroads are made more efficient in order to transport supplies across countries 

Earth starts to heal with the help of the matrix, forests grow and temperatures fall to a normal level 

Major cities act as sanctuaries for the human population, help from other alien races arrives as well, helping earth to become a space traveling hub 

Cybertron 

The Decepticons no longer go by that name, no longer wanting to be associated with the past. They go by Workers of Prime 

Shockwave has put together a complicated and purposeful chain of command and leadership that he sits at the top of. However Starscream is the “king” of Cybertron, while being a puppet 

Prowl takes care of enforcing laws and regulations to the planet. Along with trying to unite the cities with one another 

Cybertron now has a entertainment industry, focused on promoting good morals to the population along with keeping bots distracted 

Cybertron only communicate with it’s colony planets, trying to form a stronger relationship between all transformers 

“Peace times” (start of the story) 

Sparkplug is currently working as the assistant of Ratchet under the blessing of Megatron and Elita one 

Sparkplug trains in her free time to be a scout and will sneak off every once and a while to play basement concerts 

On Cybertron, Nightflyer is top of his class while training to be a high guard soldier. He is chosen by Shockwave to go on a mission to earth and infiltrate the Autobots

Cybertron is in desperate need of resources 

Nightflyer lands on earth and pretends to be a Decepticon defector, Sparkplug is wary of him 

Nightflyer manages to become an Autobot and meets Sparkplug during the scout tryouts 

Reluctantly Sparkplug is passed but gets put on the Energon transportation and quality control team, she’s fine with this as she just wanted to see the world 

Nightflyer gets put on a mission team, meeting Landlot, Defender and other bots his age. 

During this time we get our first mentions of a cult ran by a former Decepticon that’s turning humans into purple energon

Both Spark and Night explore earth and meet new and old bots.

Example: Sparkplug gets to know earth born transformers, Nightflyer gets to meet bots like Skyfire 

Back at the base, Sparkplug gets annoyed with how much fanfare Nightflyer is getting, while she still gets treated like a sparkling 

She breaks Night’s social mask and gets to know the real him. A romance between the two starts to form 

Shockwave informs Nightflyer that they’re sending a team to take over the main Autobot base 

Shockwave employs the DJD to help in the Autobot attack 

Return to war 

Sparkplug confesses to Nightflyer, Nightflyer returns the feeling as he does like her.

Right before the invasion he tries to convince her that living on Cybertron wouldn’t be so bad. Sparkplug refutes that she likes Earth and that Cybertron would probably hate her.

The DJD and a group of seakers make their way to Earth and start fucking shit up

Big dramatic reveal to the characters that Nightflyer was a spy all along and is Starscream’s ward

Things are going in the bad guy’s favor until Tarn realizes Sparkplug is part Megatron.

 He orders his men to capture her and kill everyone else, as they have a new leader of the Decepticon cause 

The battle becomes even more messy as sides are switched and the Autobots and seekers are now fighting to survive

While attempting to help Megatron fight off Tarn, Sparkplug is grabbed by Soundblaster, who hopes to bring her back to Shockwave in order to get in his favor. 

Space distortion happens when Skywarp tries to help get Soundblaster out of there and accidentally sends him and Sparkplug halfway across the universe. 

This cases the DJD to leave as they are now looking for Sparkplug, and the seekers(after getting beaten by the DJD) are taken prisoner for now 

Depression but in space 

 Sparkplug and Soundblaster are in the middle of nowhere on a deserted planet. After trying to restrain one another, they realize they need to help each other if they wanna survive this mess

Back on earth, Rodimus comes back from space due to getting a SOS message, he is yelled at by his family

Acidstorm, Slipstream and Airachnid are absolutely furious about being stuck on earth for the time being. Nightflyer is currently being used as a verbal punching bag for the Autobots 

Back in Space, Sparkplug and Soundblaster start to develop a chemistry as they learn more about each other.

Rodiums takes it upon himself to get Sparkplug back as a way to make up for leaving everyone years ago. This is a big reference to “the lost light”, characters like megatron, rodimus, swerve and others join, along with some OC’s like Nanabah (native american sharpshooter) who forms a friendship with Preceptor, and Lobo (the lowrider transformer born on earth) 

Rodimus takes nightflyer under his wing in an attempt to reform him  

In space, Spark and Soundblaster start to feel romantic feelings for one another. However this is interrupted by them getting found by the DJD.

Soundwave takes it upon himself to split off from Rodimus group as he might be able to locate her better through his mind powers (I don’t know, it's all space magic man)

Sparkplug properly meets Tarn and is quickly given a new frame and alt mode against her will. 

Soundwave finds the DJD with Spark on it and sneaks on, However he is caught, and even if he fights well, he can’t fight off all of them.

Tarn forces Sparkplug to finally give into her anger when he kills Soundwave in front of her and lets her kill him. 

Spark takes on the name “Megatron” and is then forced to eat Tarn’s spark in an act of dominance. She is now the leader of the DJD 

There will be more to come!!! this is not all of it

Part two

[earthsparked]

So you want to join the coterie, huh? And you want to know what you're getting yourself into.

You know I can’t take sides in command arguments, captain, you gently remind Rodimus for the fifth time this week. I have to honor my obligation to the entire crew.

Rodimus shoots you his best look that says “I’m very sad and betrayed despite having been the one to sign your contract in which this is stated,” and goes back to arguing with Megatron and Ultra Magnus.

Privately you think Megatron is in the right on this issue. Tragic realization: the mech who tried to murder your entire species on several occasions, actually has good leadership skills and knows what he’s doing. But when Rodimus manages to wheedle Magnus into seeing things his way, you can only sigh and double check that your little bag of tricks stored in your utility scraplet, Scrappy, is fully stocked.

It’s going to be one of those days.

It’s not all roaming the galaxy having fun. Sure, there’s plenty of that. You're going to see wonders that human eyes have never seen before. But it’s a lot more, too.

You wriggle backwards out of Brainstorm and Perceptor's mystery machine. You're covered in thick, black grease that’s making your skin itch; they didn't think to check for skin-safety before asking you to crawl into it and fix some finicky little part. You scramble to your feet, a stained shop towel in one hand and a half-used can of solvent in the other. The fumes in the enclosed space are making you a little high.

You kick the access hatch shut and stand back. Go on, Percy, try it now.

Perceptor frowns as the machine whirrs to life, but the screen still throws off an error message. You sigh and shake your head. Your sensitive ears that always made you hate the hum of ceiling lights and refrigerators, are telling you something still isn’t right.

Kill it, I can hear the pitch is still off. Fine, I’ll just take the whole damn gear assembly apart!

Don't touch any of the exposed wires! You'll undo all my work! Brainstorm demands. And adds, belatedly, Also it'll kill you. Why don't you humans have any decent insulation? Terrible design. I could do better if I created a species in my recharge.

You don't think you want to hear where this is going. Grabbing your tools, you crawl back in the mystery machine.

Don't worry about learning mechanical stuff, earth's systems are completely different to their engineering anyway. Besides, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never held a blowtorch in your life, you’ll pick the skills up along the way. A flexible mind and willingness to learn are the only real criteria for any potential coterie member.

You spring out in front of the big blue mech, making him very nearly step on you with one of his birdlike feet. You know he won’t - for all his jokes, there’s not a mech on this ship that would knowingly hurt you. (Knowingly being the operative word.)

I know what I smelled, Whirl. There’s no disguising it. You have a coolant leak. You got some of that guy’s windshield stuck under your plating when you threw him across the bar, didn’t you? And it’s punctured a line.

His single optic narrows in an expressive glare. So what, Crunchy? Why do you care? Move or I’m gonna have more than glass stuck in my mesh.

He slowly and pointedly brings his foot down toward you, humming the Jeopardy! theme music. You tilt your head and raise an eyebrow higher and higher the closer his foot gets, not moving. When it’s just within reach, you make a wild leap, grab for a safe handhold, and hang on for dear life. Whirl shrills an arpeggio of startled mech curses and tries to shake you off, but you cling like a burr.

If you don’t treat it, it’s going to get worse! It’s either me or Ratchet, Whirlybird, and I don’t throw things! I don't care that you got in a fight, I don't - whoa, watch the wall! - I just want you to not be in pain!

He decides after a few attempts that this is a fun game. You’re dizzy as hell by the time he announces Eight seconds! Fine, cowboy, if you want to be inside me THAT badly.

You roll your eyes and somehow manage not to lose your lunch as he sets his foot down and lets you climb off. Scrappy opens his mouth, letting you pull out your gloves and pliers from one of his compartments. You dig out the shards of glass and patch up his coolant line, feeling relieved as you wrap the punctures and clean away the dried coolant. Having one of your mechs hurt always bothers you.

Yeah, you’re gonna make the best friends you’ve ever had. The kind you’d do anything for. And I do mean, anything. They really overplay the whole "humans will pack bond with anything" stuff a little too much, because they don't quite get how our relationships work. But eventually you will find yourself pulling on wells of strength you didn't even know you had, doing things you never thought yourself capable of. Not for yourself, but for them.

You spit a mouthful of blood onto alien ground and try not to let the glowering mech see you shake. Adrenaline or fear, does it matter which? What matters is Tailgate’s down, hurt and in stasis. You got banged up, too, and stayed behind to guard him while the rest of the landing team pushed through the fighting. They wouldn't have left you or him if they'd thought any of the enemy mechs were still in this quadrant. But this one stomped out of the swirling fog, a hulking shape bristling with combat readiness.

He’s big, but so fucking what? You’ve been passed in the halls by mechs much scarier than this guy.

You flip the safety off your weapon - almost too big for you, but barely a pea shooter to a full-sized mech. At your side, Scrappy hisses and snarls, clacking his sharp metal teeth in threat. Just because he's been altered not to eat metal at random, doesn't mean he can't when given permission.

You're supposed to be a non-combatant, untouchable and marked as such by the coterie patch on your shoulder. At worst, you can be held hostage until your ship pays a ransom. But playing by those rules means standing aside and letting this guy do whatever the hell he wants to one of your mechs.

You glance at Tailgate and your heart hurts. When did this ten-foot-tall alien robot start to look so small and vulnerable to you?

Your eyes blur with furious, worried tears, before fixing on the approaching enemy. You step forward, as if your tiny body can shield the wounded mech lying behind you.

Whatever you came here for, you spit as more blood drips down your chin, you’re leaving without it. Go conjunx a belt sander, you torqueless wonder.

But it gets real when you get to the point where you understand, they’d do anything for you, too.

You’ve been cold forever. Can’t remember ever being warm. The endless white snows of the polar icecap of this godforsaken planet you’d come to investigate, was going to be the last thing you saw. One wrong step and the snowbank had collapsed, dumping you into a subterranean cavern. You’re trapped, alone, hypothermic. Your emergency transponder broken. You'd left your pet scraplet behind out of fear his thin armor wouldn't protect him against the cold. You're never going to see the little guy again.

Without him or the transponder, your mechs are never going to find you here. You’re never going to see earth again. They'll just add your name to the coterie's wall of remembrance, and some other human will be on your ship, caring for your mechs. You hope they'll understand how special they all are. That they'll learn Rung needs a listening ear sometimes, and Roddy's boasting often hides his insecurities, and Ratchet's got a soft spark under all that grumbling...

You think you’re hallucinating when you hear the voice. Wait. Is that a heat signature - it is! Hey, captains! We found them! Over here!

A few minutes or hours or ages later and Brainstorm, upside-down, lowers through the hole in the crust above. You blink muzzily. ‘m on the ceiling…?

Powerful hands pick you up, and you’re ascending. You don’t remember much after that, except the feel of being surrounded by titans that cared enough to come back. You came back for me.

Rodimus, warmest of them all, carries you to the ship himself. Tucked inside his armor, out of the wind and ice. Nestled right by his spark chamber. You dream of being pure energy, or of being wrapped in pure energy, or that you're one of two waves of energy dancing together with the joy of being alive. In a place where size doesn't matter, and metal and flesh don't matter, because deep down you're more alike than dissimilar.

You're as much theirs, as they are yours.

I wish I could tell you what to expect, but no one has the exact same experience. Not even within the same cohort. It’s going to be unlike anything you imagine it could be. Every day's going to bring new discoveries, new dreams. Sometimes, new nightmares. It's a big universe, and humans haven't even scratched the surface of what's out there. For better, or for worse.

The crate rattles again. Your breathing is loud inside your exo-suit. This bay is kept pressurized, but barely climate-controlled, and close to the ship's heat sinks so it's scorching hot in here.

Scrappy's cameras are transmitting every move you make to the mechs crowded around the monitors on the bridge. You've turned off audio, because between the scientists' incessant arguing and Swerve's fretting over you going into Cargo Hold 3 alone, you weren't able to pay proper attention to your surroundings.

Rattle-rattle. Shake. That container weighs several tons. It's bouncing around like it's a bouncy castle full of elementary schoolers.

No oxygen. Movement. It could be a scraplet infestation. Easily dealt with, for you. Which is why you're here and the mechs are on the bridge, or in lockdown in their quarters.

It could be scraplets. Intuition tells you it's not.

You touch the side of your helmet to activate your mic. Where did you say we picked this up from, again?

The arguing in the background dims as Ultra Magnus answers, disapprovingly, The records for the cargo manifest have been...misfiled. Ergo, we don't know.

You can see him in your mind's eye, glaring at Rodimus. Misfiled? More like Roddy lost them in the skyscraper stack of datapads in his office. If he didn't just set it down somewhere and forget where he put it. Can mechs have ADHD? Would some strategies that work for humans, be helpful for him? A thought to pursue at another time, when you're not maybe about to be eaten by a monster.

You click the mic back off before you can get drawn into the new argument that's starting over the co-captain's lack of organizational skills. And step closer to the shaking crate. No markings that you can read. No packing list on the outside. Does it look a little banged up? Rusted? Or is it the shaky light from Scrappy's headlamp as he hides behind your legs, making it look like that?

Every horror movie you've ever watched at Swerve's on movie night, comes back to haunt you. The aliens out in the dark have their own legends and myths. Some of them, you've learned the hard way, aren't only legends or myths.

Sweat drips into your eyes. Fuck it.

Are you going to play nice, or am I going to kick your ass off my ship?

You slam the augmented crowbar home and pry the lid off –

That's all I can say, really. The rest is up to you. Good luck. Maybe I'll see you out here in the stars. Lost Light ship's human, signing off.

[strawbpusheen]

Lost Light high command polycule is so special to me because they are all rodimus’s emotional support mecha and when they're separated it starts him on a road to the world's biggest meltdown

Sometimes you just need your pookies otherwise you explode into one morbillion pieces

[dundeey-art]

prowl speaking to another autobot high command member. maybe rodimus?

good prompt, thank you.

[archie-sunshine]

Archie ur Rodimus is my beautiful loser wife who i wish to carry around in my pocket i love his design so much aaaaugh

THANK YOU!!! I can tell you a bit more about him too!!

Stragglers Hot Rod's personality is somewhere between mtmte rodimus, g1 rodimus, and tfa optimus! He's a caring leader who genuinely wants the best for his crew, while also desiring glory and the respect of the autobot high command.

He can be hotheaded and impulsive frequently, but he's not as immature as mtmte rodimus, he's more burdened by the weight of his position in this continuity.

additionally, I think his voice sounds like the lead singer of the buttertones!

[grimxark]

rodimus rant numberrrr #whatever.

I genuinely hate that people keep saying that Rodimus thinks he’s the shit and thinks he’s important/should be important and that he plays up his role within autobot ranks/the lost light but it’s like. He very much is all he says he is? Lmao? He is part of high command. He was on solo missions for years. He did carry the matrix. Sure he can be a jerk about it and he can be really fucking annoying but he’s not like. Playing up his achievements, lmao. I feel like people take the Joke of mtmte (which refuses to take itself seriously at times) and run with it like it’s the whole truth. Completely ignore who Hot Rod was within the comic. Like yeah sure he wasn’t that present but without him, it’s like:

- op wouldn’t have gotten the matrix, which was underneath the rubble of Nyon

- which then would bomb into metroplex not waking up/not being woken up by op

- op, bee, prowl, ironhide would probably be dead asfff lmaao

- no magnificence. It would’ve fallen in decepticon hands or just lost forever

- no omega supreme 2 save anyone in Cybertron, lmao. since hes the only one who tried to contact him.

- Kimia would probably still be standing, though he didn’t rlly play a part in its destruction, it had been his idea to destroy it+calling op a pussy for not wanting to kill a few Allies in order to not have their literal science stolen by Decepticons. It would’ve been taken over by decepticons and the autobots would’ve been gooooneee

- ultra Magnus wouldn’t have gotten involved on Earth, sunstreaker would probably be dead since it was Hot rod who stuck around to try and find him, it was him who found Scroponok, it was him who called Ultra Magnus

- megatron would’ve still had the matrix.

And like a thousand other situations.

And it’s just. He is important. He doesn’t pretend he is. He Is. The fact he knows it and is confident about it doesn’t make him someone who wants to be sooo great I think he mostly just wants to be remembered, but even then, I don't think that's it. frankly, more likely he just wants people to have a new beginning, a peaceful life. He wants to make a difference in the war by being associated with life and peace and not with the destruction he is already associated with so much that it’s practically part of his shadow.

There is a point within mtmte where Rodimus stops being taken seriously forever and the fandom just partook in that joke and never saw beyond it because thats the only way JRO wanted you to think about Rodimus as: the laughing stock. and i dont mean this in an angsty way, i mean his character development was pushed aside and ignored for the sake of Hahaha funny jokes. I have more to say about this but alas I am shouting into the void. go my IDW rodimus media analysis #23485

[yayasvalveplay]

Can you imagine the Lost Light Autobots ensing up on earth mid TFA?

The Spacebridge Team would be forcibly adopted. Tfa perceptor geting Simpatico'ed is the least of High command's issues. Ultra Magnus is getting grilled by a larger Ultra Magnus on his blatent violations down to the most obscure points of the autobot code

Meanwhile Rodimus has to process there is no Matrix, prime is an ordinary military title and TFA Optimus is super young with no real authority or respect. IDW Rodimus is way older than he is. Optimus "the real chosen one" Prime in this univers is some dude who needs to have a drink, a nap, and a nervous breakdown. And he's looking at Rodimus as a role model cause he thinks Roddy has his shit together...

I am imagining this. And you are so right.

Op don't look up to Rodimus he does not have his shit together.

But the tfa crew getting adopted by them all I can see happening. Both Ratchets are worried over them. Why are they so small? What have they been drinking they look malnourished.

Also it would be funny if TFA Optimus and IDW Megatron got along.

[blueikeproductions]

The Quintessons also got cards.

While we don’t know for sure if there’s other members of their race yet, these are a pretty big departure from the original designs, which have remained somewhat consistent.

Most notably the absence of the most recognizable Quintesson Judge is curious. There’s nothing that says they’re not there, but usually the Judge types are front and center for things, so removing them for a new High Command version is interesting.

The High Command and Soldier designs seem closer to some one off Quintessons from the 80’s cartoon.

The Quintessons have a somewhat complex conceptual history.

Their earliest concept looked like this.

A psychic biomechanical humanoid whose psychic abilities were so great they could make a horde of Sharkticons from scrap metal in an instant and probe the galaxy with a simple mind scan. Their head was apparently their true form, as it would eject and fly to another body when Hot Rod tried threatening it. The biomechanical look would persist for their final designs, but more modern media via Aligned and Cyberverse would instead state they’re actually organic creatures that look something like this:

Revealing their robotic bodies as merely being suits they pilot. It’s not clear yet if this is also the case in EarthSpark or ONE, though ONE feels like this is what they’re supposed to actually look like, but more organic this time than robotic as they typically are.

Some further revisions to the 80’s movie scripts and marketing of the time originally cast the Quintessons as working directly for Unicron, their mock trials were to punish and destroy any lingering survivors of Unicron’s wrath that passed by Quintessa. While this idea never made it into the original film, it was used in the Marvel comics and later revisited in early BotCon comics, but never became hard canon. The UK comics would make them into aliens clinging for survival as their home planet was destroyed by a time anomaly caused by the time traveling Galvatron. Running out of options, the Quints attacked Autobot City on Earth to try and colonize it, but were driven off by Rodimus Prime and Metroplex, their fate unknown but nevertheless swearing revenge on the Transformers.

The final version of the Quintessons in the cartoon cast them as the ancient creators of the Transformers, with some media explaining they also created Cybertron by terraforming a planet into a factory world (at least it wasn’t a parking structure planet). The cartoon would also establish them as slimy business men, having their tentacles in the affairs of other species for financial gain. Along with the Transformers starting out as in universe products to sell, it seems the writers might’ve been having a laugh at Hasbro.

The Quints’ primary goal in the cartoon was to push the Autobots aside so they could regain control of Cybertron, often conning the Decepticons into doing their dirty work for them. Where the Quints came from is never clear, as the show implies Cybertron was more their home planet originally due to their sentimental attachment to it. Their supposed home planet, Quintessa, is implied to merely be another planet they terraformed after getting booted off Cybertron.

Due to the more popular Primus origin from the Marvel comics, the Quintessons and their hand in the creation of Cybertron and its people was largely ignored in most mainstream media. While they saw a homage in Alpha Q in Energon (the connection to the Quintessons made stronger in the Energon Dreamwave comics), they didn’t really start resurfacing as major characters again until recently. The BotCon comics attempted to reconcile the two origins, stating the Primus origin was also the case in the cartoon, with the Quints interfering in the process, and this early idea served as the basis for the Aligned canon, where the Quints did the same in Cybertron’s early years, conning the young race into becoming their allies (servants), by bestowing both the futuristic space fairing technology Cybertronians enjoy today, their modern hierarchy (that became the corrupt caste system Megatron fought against) and the ability to Transform. Apparently the robots technically could already Transform as they all had Cogs, they just hadn’t LEARNED to Transform yet. Like the 80’s cartoon, these Quints intended to sell off the Transformers as products to the galaxy, with Sentinel (Zeta) Prime installed as their figurehead leader like in TFONE. Eventually they were chased off like in the old cartoon, but Prime nor RiD15 would ever revisit the Quintessons, though the prequel novels nobody read did claim the Autobots and Decepticons briefly became antagonized by them once more during the hunt for the Allspark in space.

Aligned’s main difference that’s fueled most modern interpretations is the Quintessons are the creations of Quintus Prime one of the newly established 13 original Transformers.

Aligned implies they killed Quintus and stole what they needed from him to become space fairing and eventually go to Cybertron, conquering other planets along the way.

The Quints were intended to be allies to Cybertron, as were other Quintus borne races, but this was not meant to be, due to the Quints’ hubris. EarthSpark’s version says the Quints were the first sons of the Prime, and in trying to discover their purpose, they became bitter and developed daddy issues, going around and killing off their cousins on other planets, attempting to acquire the Emberstone for their own use. The Quints and Transformers are strongly aware of each other, and clearly fought before, but their exact relationship has not been established yet, if at all.

TFONE greatly simplifies it to the Quints being an alien race that attacked Cybertron during the time of the Primes, though the hows and whys aren’t clear. What is clear is the jealous Sentinel made a bargain, helping them destroy the Primes and letting him be in control in exchange for paying them off in Energon to leave Cybertron alone. It’s not clear if Quintus Prime created the Quints in this universe, but there is a resemblance.

Quintus at some point: Sorry guys, you know how kids are!

Despite the Quintus origin, some modern media has gone back to the 80’s cartoon origin. Notably Age of Extinction and The Last Knight returning to the aliens created the Transformers idea, but the movies not directly using the Quintessons. However concept art does suggest the original intent WAS supposed to be the Quintessons…

Instead all we have is an alien hand and later Quintessa to go by.

It’s never clarified if the two are related, with Quintessa possibly being a Transformer and a Prime as well, but she is also called a liar by those formally in her employ so… She IS able to reprogram Optimus into doing her bidding however, so there’s that. She’s clearly inspired by Quintus, but isn’t connected beyond that. Her goal was to restore Cybertron by draining Earth of its life force and destroy Unicron in one fell swoop (as Earth is inexplicably Unicron again like in Prime). The organic Creators meanwhile were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, deploying bombs that converted organics into cyber matter that made the metal of the Transformers. Lockdown was working for the Creators, but with the abrupt inclusion of Quintessa, it’s not clarified if he was working for her instead/also.

Cyberverse cast the Quintessons as major villains, but instead of the creation origin, they depicted them as trans dimensional entities that travel to other Transformers universes to judge them guilty and destroy them for no other reason other than they can. Truly the best kind of villain: petty. Still this Dr. Who meets The Matrix direction with them doesn’t appear to be at all popular despite the arc being regarded positively. I still think Cyberverse is awful top to bottom, but the general idea they went for is decent. The Primes exist here, as noted previously with Alchemist Prime, but it’s never stated if these Quintessons are related to Quintus Prime.

Netflix War For Cybertron and Skybound Energon Universe also return to the Quintesson origin for the Transformers, though in the former’s case, their connection, if any, to the Allspark is never clarified. Skybound’s Void Rivals is currently the main component using the Quints, and dialog heavily implies the cartoon origin, though some minor Aligned concepts creep up as well. Nevertheless the Quintus origin doesn’t appear to be as… nailed down as Hasbro probably would like.

Indeed despite the resurgence in relevance, Hasbro seems somewhat reluctant to use the Quintessons still. The Quintus origin in the modern era had only been used in EarthSpark, and even then it’s not used… super well. The Steven Universe Diamonds that need a family intervention, never mind the genocide they caused, persists here to much chagrin. With the inconsistency on how the Quints came to be in modern media, it also makes Quintus Prime unnecessary, if some media is treating the Quints as separate beings. Even IDW didn’t do anything with this, despite using a lot of the Aligned concepts, and for now Skybound seems content to ignore it also.

I think the reluctance is due to toys of them not doing well, with the Cyberverse ones doing especially poorly. The High Command guy being able to Transform toy wise seems to be an attempt to make it clear they fit in with Transformers, but their peg warming doesn’t seem to be fixing that.

Along with Hasbro and Paramount not handing the transition from Bee to ROTB properly (like how do we jump from what Bee did to suddenly Unicron attacks?), I don’t have high expectations that the Quintessons will be handled well for a possible TFTWO, if they’re even used at all.

Which is a shame because the ONE designs are pretty cool, they made the Quints more appropriately scary and intimidating vs the slightly goofy looking egg shaped Judges. And I like the Judges but still.

[theoceanoasis]

Rodimus nursing a bitty during a virtual meeting with the lost light high command. They did not know he was on leave because he was sparked, they thought he was just on a long overdue vacation.

Then Soundwave walks in kissing his forehead and all slag breaks free

He nervously fixed the camera waiting for the meeting to start. He didn't know why he was nervous. It's not like they'd know he was sparked. He wasn't ready to tell them and was still pretending to be on vacation.

Soundwave sent him a text apologizing because there was a long line at the store. They were running short on supplies and Soundwave had gone to grab them.

He was supposed to be back before his meeting began so he could grab their sparkling and take him to the park. He didn't want him crying during the meeting and alerting everyone to the fact that he had a sparkling.

It made him more nervous and he picked at his fingers when his sparkling began crying.

He immediately rushed to see what was wrong and realized he was hungry. Grabbing his sparkling he fed him while waiting for the meeting to start. He still had time and didn't have to worry yet.

That was until the meeting suddenly started early. He jumped looking over in shock as people began asking him questions he wasn't ready for.

He pulled his sparkling closer panicking when the door opened. Soundwave who's unaware of what's going on grabs their bitty out of his hands and kisses him on the forehead.

Immediately the meeting erupts into chaos with people having a lot of questions. A few began threatening Soundwave and it became so overwhelming he started to cry.

Soundwave realizing his distress turned the meeting off. He then crouched down apologizing for not realizing.

"I had to tell them eventually."

"I know but you didn't want to do it like that."

Their sparkling looked at him in concern and he held his little one, which soothed him a little. Soundwave picked him up and carried him to their bedroom where they cuddled together.