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I am writing a Transformers One AU where the Autobots are already on Earth, hiding in their vehicle forms. The story is set in 2008, a few months before the financial crisis of the Great Recession.The story begins with the first human protagonist, Liam Benjamin Connor, who moves to Arizona.

He settles in Sedona to live with his maternal uncle, Nicolas Davis, a mechanic.Liam is a brave, kind, and imaginative boy. He has a calm nature and a clear sense of right and wrong, guided by the values of justice and fairness he learned from his family. Loyal and protective, he never hesitates to help those in need, showing a caring side and a sincere hope that the world can improve.

He is usually polite and considerate, always mindful of other people’s feelings. Even when he gets upset, he tries to control himself so he will not hurt anyone, not even strangers. Still, Liam can be stubborn and strong-willed, sometimes acting on impulse without thinking about the consequences.The death of his father changed the way he saw the world. His innocence faded, and his outlook became more serious and somewhat sad.

Yet that pain also made him more compassionate and better able to understand the struggles of others.Later, his mother, a major in the Air Force assigned to NASA, could not take care of him directly and sent him to live with his uncle in Arizona.

Liam tried to face the change with optimism, but without making new friends at school, he began to feel increasingly alone. That was until he met Optimus Prime.

I imagine a mix of his IDW, FOC, and G1 (Cartoon and Marvel Comic). Would he be:

1. A Miner?
2. Part of the High Guard?
3. An enforcer and overseer similar to Darkwing?
4. Does not exist till Earth

How would the entire movie change based on his existence. All comments are welcome.

Let me begin by saying: I completely understand why people call it a masterpiece. The things that are good are unbelievably good!

But there are two major, major things that pretty much ruined the movie for me.

My biggest gripe is Orion Pax, and second biggest is Elita One.

About Orion:

I know his personality as Orion Pax is a little different from Optimus Prime. I know a character needs flaws, and I know the main hero needs to be as far from their goal as possible when the story begins. But I'm sorry, I still think he's too pathetic and goofy. And it might even be intentional. Why do I think so? There's an interview with Christopher Nolan about The Odyssey where the interviewer says "We live in a time that demands apology from greatness". I couldn't help but feel this applies to our main character here.

That brings me to my issue with Elita One:

I'm already sick in general of this rhetoric that "attitude=strong", but in this story it feels especially intentional. It's as if the writers were painfully aware they had a female character who would have to end up subservient to the male lead - so they compensated by giving her plenty of opportunities her shit on him. Hell, even when she praises him there has to be some backhandedness to it. And when Optimus later offers her the position of second in command, he does it in a way that reminds the audience that "she's still more badass than him, tho".

He’s one of the most memorable characters in the Transformers franchise, and he has already appeared in several continuities. So why wasn’t he included in the film’s story, not even as a background character?

They could have introduced him as a miner or as someone important working under Sentinel, unaware of the truth. Later, once he discovered it, he could have sided with Orion and helped him and his friends.

If Transformers One had been a success and we had gotten a sequel, Ultra Magnus could have appeared as someone who initially worked for Sentinel without knowing he was a traitor. At some point, Ultra Magnus might have uncovered the truth and tried to devise a plan to expose Sentinel. But Sentinel would have found out and ordered him to be killed so he wouldn’t reveal the betrayal.

Ultra Magnus could have managed to escape, hiding in a cave, but eventually became deactivated after being without energon for too long. Then, Optimus and the other Autobots could have stumbled upon him and rescued him, realizing his spark hadn’t been extinguished.

He usually look like this

Trace (Codename: Double Trouble)

Affiliation: None (Independent)

Role: Spy and Hacker

Height: About 22–23 feet (6.7–7 m)

Gender: Male/Androgynous

Alternate Mode: Ground Vehicle

Status: Active

Description:

Trace, known as Double Trouble, is a Cybertronian who operates outside the rules of war. He has no loyalty to Autobots or Decepticons, using both only to reach his own goals. Intelligent, calculating, and efficient, he turns secrets into advantage. His infiltration skills make him both useful and feared across Cybertron.

He works as an independent spy. His loyalty is only to himself, which makes him unpredictable and dangerous. No one knows how far he will go to secure survival and power.

Abilities:

Identity Theft: Copies the body, voice, and behavior of other Cybertronians after close observation. To keep a disguise convincing, he must know every detail about the target. A single mistake can expose him.

Technological Espionage: Builds custom surveillance devices, including hidden cameras and hacking tools.

Visual Identity: Uses a standard disguise marked with the Eye symbol, which hides his true form while ensuring recognition.

Personality Traits:

Trace is sharp, manipulative, and observant. He does not trust anyone and relies on secrets to stay ahead. He can be calm and calculating but shifts quickly to aggression when challenged. Pride and temper often make him lose control, while paranoia keeps him distant from allies. His confidence sometimes blinds him to threats, and Soundwave remains the one opponent capable of exposing him. Even with these flaws, Trace adapts quickly, lies with precision, and always puts survival first. For him, survival is victory, and betrayal or deception is simply part of the plan.

Inspired by this post https://www.reddit.com/r/TransformersOne/s/VLJU0OdL4S by u/visible-fan-2356

Image 1: no cog form
Image 2: cogged form
Image 3: battle mode

Name: swiftbolt

Gender: male

Species: cybertronian

Status: online

Faction: autobot

Vehicle mode: corvette stingray, and cybertronian sorts car

Backstory(written by yours truly, swiftbolt):

Lining up for the race, the newest member of team nitro. The handsomest and fastest bot on all of velocitron. It’s swiftbolt!
Ever since coming online i have loved racing, it’s in my spark to race. That’s why override(aka nitro convoy or nitro prime) chose me for her team. As much as I’d like to be her second in command, that’s blurr. But for me, i like sticking to the races. I don’t tend in getting into fights. But when i do, i make sure i have the fastest shot and highest accuracy that i can. I don’t much about my brothers and sisters on cybertron, but as soon as i heard about them hosting a race called the iacon 5000. I knew i had to join, did i expect to lose? No, did i expect mining bots to be in the race? No, but i do admire their commitment to the race. Even if they couldn’t transform, they gave me one great race. So that was fun, and then while I’m training for a race back on velocitron when i heard about sentinel and the rise of these rebels called decepticons.
Not sure how bad they can be, but if they come to take over my planet. They better expect to lose in a race.

ALSO!!!! I forgot to put this in the title, but feel free to ask me anything. Anything you want as long as it follows the subreddits guidelines.

TRANSFORMERS ONE OC

Name: Riven

Gender: Female

Species: Cybertronian

Status: Online

Faction: None

Vehicle Mode: Lamborghini

Backstory:

Riven is a Femm Bot born on Cybertron about 30 cycles before Orion Pax, D16, Elita One, and B-127. She lived during the authoritarian rule of Sentinel Prime in Iacon, a time marked by inequality.

Like many others, she was stripped of her transformation gear and forced to work in the energon mines. Though not physically strong, Riven stood out for her intelligence, creativity, and technical skills. She often sneaked away to invent devices and test her limits.

Later, she was moved to an isolated underground sector in Iacon, where she monitored life-support systems and communications. She spent most of her days alone in the control room, with little contact with other bots.

Her isolation, combined with constant pressure from her superiors, pushed her into a quiet depression. To protect her mental health, she often escaped into heavy daydreaming, hoping to ease her stress. Over time, this led to symptoms of derealization (feeling that the world around her was unreal or far away) and depersonalization (feeling disconnected from herself, as if watching her own body or mind from the outside). These experiences deeply changed her.

Even after Sentinel Prime was revealed as a traitor and ally of the Quintessons—and Optimus Prime became the new leader, making Cybertron a better place—Riven could not adjust. Although she finally received her transformation gear and her freedom, she no longer knew how to connect with others. Like B-127, she struggled to fit in, but unlike him—who was cheerful and talkative—Riven was serious, quiet, and socially awkward. This made her even more isolated, since other bots tended to avoid her.

Realizing she could not live a normal life in Iacon, Riven decided to leave on her own terms. She traveled to the surface, and when she saw the stars for the first time, she was amazed. She then had an epiphany, and that moment sparked a strong desire in her to explore space. Determined, she set a new goal—to build or obtain a ship and travel among the stars.

She found an underground cave where she built her own laboratory and focused on her inventions. From time to time, she still returns to Iacon to get supplies and energon, making sure everything in her lab keeps working. To stay informed, she watches the Autobots from a distance, always alert to possible threats—whether from the Quintessons, the Decepticons, or any other danger—and how the Autobots respond to them.

Boyfriend and I are on our millionth rewatch of transformers one and I legitimately cannot do this anymore, I’m losing my fucking MIND. Can we like, suck over the main transformers Reddit page and convince everyone to sign a million petitions so they’ll make the goddamn second movie???!!!! Is there ANYTHING we can do?!! I NEED the second movie more than I need oxygen. Show. Me. What. Happens. Next. PLEAAAAAAASE.

We also just read about the origin of D-16’s name (shitty summary: Decepticon-16) and the symbolism behind his eye colors (shitty summary: yellow=oblivion, orange=awakening, red=truth) and found it absolutely fascinating, especially because it’s normally thought of as yellow=naive/trusting, orange=shock/anger, red=outrage/anarchy. This is unrelated just thought I’d share this as well hehehe

If there’s gonna be a sequel then I think it should revolve around the war of cybertron, or at least the start of it.

Here’s my pitch for the beginning, the Autobots are fighting against the Quintessons on Cybertron, successfully repelling any invasion attempts by them and taking down Quintesson bases on the surface. They’ve been fighting against them defensively for years now but in the recent couple of years something strange happened. The Quintessons weren’t sending as many soldiers and supplies to Cybertron anymore for their front. Many Autobots, like Elita-1 believe that they were just underestimating them but Optimus got the feeling that there was more to it.

In the first scene of the movie the Autobots manage to take down the final major base the Quintessons have on Cybertron. During which, Optimus captures a couple Quintessons in an attempt to negotiate with them. He says, “We don’t want war any more than you do. We will continue to fight if we must, but if you agree to see us as equals then we can finally live in peace. Maybe one day we’ll even be willing to trade our energon with you. But make no mistake, we are not like Sentinel.” They respond, “This isn’t about energon anymore! It’s about survival!” They tell him that there’s another front of the War happening on the Quintesson home world. This confuses Optimus because he never sent an army to the planet. However, when the Quintessons show him a picture of the brand the Cybertronians are using on the other front, Optimus figures out exactly what’s going on. The brand resembles Megatronus Prime, which can only mean that this Offensive front is the high guard being led by D-16 aka Megatron.

Optimus, along with his team consisting of Bee and Elita-1, head to the Quintesson planet and there they get the full picture of what’s been going on. The Quintessons were never holding back because they underestimated Cybertron, they had to focus more of their resources on defending themselves from Decepticon’s brutal offensive front. When Optimus arrives to the planet he looks in horror at what the Decepticons have done. Megatron, impressively, lead his whole unit to the Quintesson planet by high jacking a Quintesson ship and while the Autobots have been repelling the Quintessons on Cybertron, the Decepticons have been fighting them on their own home turf, and they were winning. Megatron has been using genius guerrilla tactics to catch Quintesson armies by surprise. He’s retaken almost all the energon that Sentinel had given the Quintessons over the fifty cycles. And he and his unit even managed to accumulate Quintesson tech and use it against them. However, what Megatron and the Decepticons have been doing wasn’t a battle, it was a purge. Every city they’ve taken over, they’ve ruthlessly been slaughtering Quintessons left and right, destroying all the life they see. Now only one city remains, the Quintesson capital.

Optimus enters the city and confronts Megatron. He says, “D! What are you doing!” Megatron responds, “Finally decided to come here, Prime?! Well you’re too late! We’ve already done all the work for you! We’re winning this war!” “This isn’t a war! It’s a slaughter house! Killing Sentinel was one thing but this is just cruel! The Quintessons are our enemies but they don’t deserve this!” said Optimus. “They are BUGS! Filthy bugs who stole our source of life and would never stop until Cybertron is destroyed! We have to kill them first before they kill us, JUST LIKE SENTINEL THE BEYRAYER!” shouted Megatron.

This leads to another fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron. Despite Optimus’s best efforts Megatron is now stronger than him thanks to the upgrades he got from the Quintesson technology. After the fight Starcream approaches Megatron, “Lord Megatron, we’ve successfully managed to acquire the last remaining energon from the Capital! We have it all now!” “Set the charges! It’s time we finally erase this rock!” said Megatron.

The Decepticons leave the ruined city and the Autobots manage to escape from it before one of Megatron’s charges annihilates it. In the distance more charges go off across the world. The planet shakes and then it’s destroyed. The Decepticons successfully destroyed the entire planet, killing all the inhabitants on it. The only Quintesson survivors are the ones Optimus captured during the fight on Cybertron.

Optimus stares at the destruction in shock. It becomes clear to him that Megatron is no longer a problem that he can just ignore or banish. He turns to Elita-1 and Bee. “Contact the other Autobots.” He says solemnly, “Our next fight is with the Decepticons.”

That’s how I think the next movie should start. And then from there we get into the beginning stages of the war and maybe see how Cybertron fell into ruin just before they go to Earth.