TFs: DARE TO BE STUPID

Spoiler: long

Yeahhhhh, so that's not on you, that's definitely on the writers, because this part of the story is insanely confusing XD Phase 1 (which is even more unevenly written than dark cybertron) had this complicated, confusing subplot where in the past, Shockwave was off wandering around the galaxy doing Weird Science Shit. The dinobots followed him to earth because of ????grudge reasons, where because it was in the distant past, on earth, they took some native alt modes, which at the time were... dinosaurs. They fought shockwave to a standstill, but grimlock did a failsafe thing where he programmed their ship to shoot up the whole fight zone if none of them came back to turn it off. So they spent a good long while trapped underground before being unearthed in the present day. Grimlock went to gay baby jail garrus-9 for breaking orders, and the other dinobots are pissed at him for betraying them with the program-the-ship-to-shoot-them-up thing.

But Shockwave is what's most relevant to DC. So... nobody really knew what Shockwave was up to. In-story or out of story. Which makes it a REALLY frustrating plot element to try to get ahold of. Especially after he starts playing with time-warping, universe-warping shit. It's just.... super weird and NOT well explained.

Lemme see. Setting the stage for DC.

So one of the last major plot elements in phase one was the partial return of one of the old timey primes. Nova Prime (later calling himself Nemesis Prime) tried to go out on a space adventure like six million years ago, except his scientist guy (Jhiaxus) was doing mad science because ?????????????? and took them through a portal into the dead universe. It is later revealed that Jhiaxus was Shockwave's teacher/mentor back in the day and shared a lot of this work with Shockwave before he went missing. In the dead universe, the crew rotted for a couple million years. There were a few people left hanging on alive, mainly Nova, Galvatron, Jhiaxus, Scourge, and Cyclonus. The barriers between the dead universe and the universe-universe started breaking down in spots, letting some people come out back across, and I have no idea on the why/how logic, but it might have been to do with Shockwave's science shenanigans. At this point, Scourge got turned into a flock of clone soldiers (the sweeps), Cyclonus was under partial mind control and nipping across the boundaries between universes to do fighty things, Jhiaxus was doing mad science, and Galvatron was doing... stuff. It is one of the worst-written and worst-drawn parts of phase one, and I genuinely struggle to even read it.

Spoiler: large

(the wiki is a good resource for things like this, but it's just... not a very well done storyline)

BUT, after this. There's a good story arc (Chaos Theory, I think?) to wrap up phase one, culminating in a fight with autobots+decepticons versus galvatron fighting for control of Cybertron. They manage to win, Cyclonus breaks free of mind control, and Megatron supposedly dies in the fight. Cybertron itself is revitalized and sends out some kind of pulse throughout the galaxy telling cybertronians to come home. Cue end of phase one.

Phase two starts off with a tiny little one-shot before mtmte or exrid called The Death Of Optimus Prime, which I... don't enjoy very much. But it's partially about Optimus deciding that he's done being Optimus Prime and he's going to go off on space adventures have fun without him byyyyyyyye.

So mtmte has an advantage in that they mostly break free of the complicated political tangle right away and can just do their own thing. But exrid is ALL about that complicated political tangle. In some ways, that makes it hard to get into (and the early art is okay, but it's not my favorite, and it's a bit confusing to follow for new readers), but it some ways it's really fascinating.

HOKAY. At this point, Shockwave is nominally a decepticon again, ridiculous suspicious science shit aside. The autobots are nominally in charge of the one semi-rebuilt city currently on cybertron. Both of them are missing their big figurehead leaders. And because there's millions of years of ugly war behind them, the decepticons are kept in.... bad living conditions. It's a step above prison camps, but not by much. And that's how you end up with the decepticons with nasty brain sploding chips in their heads.

Because of the power vacuum, things are... complicated. Starscream and Ratbat angle for power openly, Soundwave is quietly taking charge of a lot of things, but what we see less of is that Shockwave has the freedom to do all the sketchy, suspicious shit he wants. Megatron had been suspicious back in the day (and soundwave too), but megatron is gone and soundwave is busy. Meanwhile, the autobots are having a complicated time too, where Bumblebee does not especially enjoy being a leader, but people like him and listen to him. And Prowl is very good at the minutiae of governing, but is also cold, manipulative, and tends towards being unlikable and suspicious (part of this is down to the brain control thing, but it's also the natural state of prowl)

Back in phase one, they each had some significant backstory. Optimus Prime wasn't leading the autobots because [reasons] (it happens every so often, I think he might have done a thing about atoning for the damage cybertronians did to the earth and stepped down?) and there were arguments over leadership, autobot groups splintering, bumblebee accidentally in charge, kind of miserable and taking a lot of shit, but also he was the popular choice. He balances responsibility and being good with people better than a lot of the other characters, which means he catches shit from all kinds of directions. Prowl struck up a friendship with one Spike Witwicky, who is the fuckiest motherfucker to ever fuck, and when Prowl found out Spike carried out a summary execution behind his back, that went... badly. When Prowl cares about/trusts someone and something goes south, Prowl does badly.

(that summary execution was one of the constructicons, meaning they can't form devastator without another mech. which is where prowl's combining thingy comes in)

And... augh, these storylines are the WORST for getting tangled, the mtmte cast is much easier to track XD

Shockwave is doing his mad science in the background. Every so often the exrid art gets hella ugly and we see Optimus and company checking out sites of previous mad Shockwave science in other corners of the galaxy.

I'm still not sure how any of this works, but I think that Shockwave wants to merge the dark universe and the universe and destroy existence in the process??? God, I really need to reread this stuff. But Shockwave really thinks at a totally disjoint angle compared to everyone else in this story. Some of it is probably down to whatever he and Jhiaxus had been trying to do millions of years ago, and some of it is definitely down to the shadowplay, but he steers the dark cybertron plot more than anyone else, and everyone else in the universe is pretty much like 'what the fuck, dude'

ANYWAYS. The good news is that the storylines that follow this in exrid and mtmte are some of the most delightful parts of both series. In exrid, we start drifting over towards earth (not ideal, imho), but for the first time in phase two, we get to see Thundercracker (IDEAL!!!! MY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). In mtmte, Megatron is an autobot now! SHENANIGANS ensue, and things keep escalating pretty much all the way through the series finale and it's SO GOOD. Dark Cybertron doesn't really impact much in mtmte besides giving a reason for Megatron to switch sides, shuffling the cast a little between series and introducing a few characters, and resurrecting a character from early phase one who was never around for you to miss (nightbeat, but he is a DARLING and I love him). None of them are written in much depth before things get back to mtmte proper, so as confusing as DC gets, whenever you decide to go into either of the ongoing series again, you'll still be in pretty good shape to understand what's going on!

But if you do have specific questions, please feel free to ask me about them. I'm probably being a lot less clear trying to explain things from scratch than I would be trying to answer questions, I'm so sorry for that super confusing wall of text up above XD

 

Spoiler

there are.... shenanigans :D

it's upsetting, but also a DELIGHT and a wonderful plot element in later exrid and the new ongoing that eventually split off from it.

And Megatron's initial turn was a big ol' fuck you to Shockwave, but he gets some DELIGHTFUL character stuff in the second half of mtmte, and it's amazing. As much as he might not have been on board with standard autobot philosophy, he's been cut loose from his comfort zone and the standard environment he's used to, and there's lots and lots and lots of room for introspection and thought. Plus also actual plot-based repercussions for what it means when the big cult-leader-esque figurehead bails on the entire movement and what that means for the people he's left behind, whether they feel abandoned and betrayed, and whether they decide there's still something in decepticon philosophy that's important for them to hold onto!

Plus some extra backstory stuff building on the one shadowplay flashback arc that go into more detail about why the decepticons happened in the first place. The plain facts of the escalating war are out there, mostly in phase one, and tend kiiiiinda towards black-and-white 'decepticons are violent meanies and autobots are gud guys', but this goes into more of the emotions and motivations and background that led to that situation in the first place.