Transformers Prime is set in the franchise's "Aligned"
continuity, which also includes a number of contemporary books and video games like
Transformers: Exodus,
Transformers: War for Cybertron,
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron,
Transformers: Exiles, and
Transformers: Retribution. The series is notably the first work within this continuity to not focus on the
Autobots and the
Decepticons' war on their home planet of Cybertron (though glimpses of it are shown in various
flashbacks), and instead takes place primarily on Earth during the
modern era. The series chronicles the adventures of an Autobot team known as "Team Prime" led by
Optimus Prime and originally consisting of
Arcee,
Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet, and
Cliffjumper (who is killed in the five-part pilot “Darkness Rising”). The team operates from a former American military
missile silo near the fictional town of Jasper,
Nevada, and tries to conceal their existence from humanity while continuing their fight against the Decepticons. The Autobots make several human allies throughout the series who agree to keep their secret, including high school students Jack Darby (and later his mother,
nurse June Darby), Miko Nakadai, Rafael Esquivel, and American government agent William Fowler. In the second half of the series, more Autobots join Team Prime, including Bulkhead's friend and former teammate
Wheeljack (who helped Team Prime several times during the first two seasons but did not officially join them until the third season), the ambitious rookie
Smokescreen, and Optimus's chief lieutenant
Ultra Magnus. The Decepticons, led by
Megatron and briefly by
Starscream in the former's absence, operate from their warship, the
Nemesis, and briefly from a base called Darkmount, which is built in the season two finale and then destroyed by the Autobots at the start of the third season. At first, Megatron, Starscream, and
Soundwave (as well as his minion
Laserbeak) are the only notable Decepticons, as they command a legion of identical drones called Vehicons. More Decepticons join the ranks over the course of the series, including the narcissistic medic Knock Out, his partner
Breakdown (who shares a rivalry with Bulkhead), the sadistic murderer
Airachnid (who is Arcee's nemesis due to their history),
Insecticon hive leader Hardshell, Seeker captain
Dreadwing, and Decepticon scientist
Shockwave. The series brings several notable changes and additions to
Transformers lore. For example, both the Autobots and Decepticons use Ground Bridges (scaled-down versions of the Space Bridges, which also appear) to travel across the Earth, and the ancient planet-sized Transformer
Unicron serves as the planet's core, emphasizing the idea of Earth and Cybertron being "twin planets". The series also marks the first appearance of the
necromantic Dark Energon, a more unstable and dangerous version of Energon (the substance that powers all Transformers), which can be used to bring the dead back to life as mindless
zombies (called "Terrorcons"). In the third season,
Predacons (Transformers who resemble
dragon-like creatures) are introduced as the Transformers' ancestors, having gone extinct until they were recreated by Shockwave to serve the Decepticons. Initially, only one Predacon is created, Predaking, who later goes independent from the Decepticons upon learning that Megatron had ordered the destruction of his unborn siblings. Two more Predacons, Skylynx and Darksteel, appear in
Predacons Rising.
Synopsis Season 1 Season One opens with Cliffjumper being murdered by Starscream, who leads the Decepticons on Earth during Megatron's absence. Following Megatron's return, he uses Cliffjumper's corpse as a test subject for Dark Energon, which he intends to use to create an undead army from Cybertron's fallen warriors. The plan fails when the Autobots destroy Megatron's Space Bridge, leaving him in a comatose state floating in space, and allowing the treacherous Starscream to claim leadership of the Decepticons once more. The rest of the season takes on a more episodic approach, with each episode focusing on Team Prime having to overcome a new enemy or threat, usually in the form of one of Starscream's schemes. However, some episodes feature other antagonists, such as Skyquake, an ancient Decepticon warrior who is awakened by Starscream to eliminate the Autobots, only to be killed by them;
Makeshift, a shape-shifting Decepticon who impersonates Team Prime's ally
Wheeljack to find their base (though he is killed before he can actually reveal its location to Starscream); M.E.C.H., a human organization led by the terrorist Silas who seek Cybertronian technology for their ultimate goal of establishing a new world order; and
Airachnid, a rogue Decepticon and Arcee's nemesis who previously killed her former partner Tailgate and pursues her own vendetta against the Autobots before later rejoining the Decepticons' ranks to become commander. Knock Out and
Breakdown also join the main Decepticon cast, establishing rivalries with Bumblebee and Bulkhead, respectively. Eventually, Megatron recovers from his coma and reclaims leadership of the Decepticons from Starscream, who later defects to follow his own path and is replaced as Megatron's second-in-command by Airachnid. In the season one finale, the Earth starts to witness several natural disasters, later revealed to be caused by the awakening of Unicron. The Autobots and Megatron join forces to prevent the rise of Unicron, who is ultimately defeated after Optimus uses the
Matrix of Leadership to knock him back into hibernation, at the expense of his memories. Regaining his pre-war personality of Orion Pax, he gets manipulated by Megatron into leaving the Autobots and joining the Decepticons.
Season 2 In Season Two, Megatron manipulates the amnesiac Optimus into decrypting the Iacon archives, which contain the coordinates of Cybertronian relics hidden on Earth. Jack travels to Cybertron, obtaining Optimus’ memories from Vector Sigma, and restores them to Optimus via the Matrix. From this point onwards, most of the season revolves around the Autobots and Decepticons' hunt for the Iacon relics, with both factions retrieving a number of them. Starscream also searches for the relics and manages to beat the Autobots and the Decepticons to some of them. This season introduces several new characters, such as
Smokescreen, the newest member of Team Prime;
Dreadwing which was Skyquake's twin brother who seeks to avenge his death and becomes Megatron's new second-in-command; and Hardshell, leader of an
Insecticon hive that is found by Airachnid and later comes under Megatron's service. Plotlines featured in this season include M.E.C.H. creating their own Cybertronian called
Nemesis Prime; Airachnid killing Breakdown and defecting from the Decepticons to pursue revenge against Megatron, only to be captured by the Autobots; Hardshell being killed by,Miko and Wheeljack in retaliation for hurting Bulkhead during the hunt for an Iacon relic; Silas being gravely injured and fused with Breakdown's body (becoming "Cy.L.A.S." Cybernetic Life Augmented by Symbiosis); and Megatron replacing his right forearm with that of a deceased Prime in order to wield the Forge of Solus Prime and create the Dark Star Saber, a dark counterpart to the Autobots' Star Saber. Eventually, both the Autobots and the Decepticons learn about the Omega Keys, four Iacon relics used to power the Omega Lock, which can restore life to Cybertron. The Autobots manage to retrieve three of the keys, but Starscream steals them and gives them, along with the fourth key, to Megatron in return for clemency. Meanwhile, Dreadwing learns that Starscream resurrected Skyquake as a Terrorcon, thus desecrating his brother's honorable death, and becomes disillusioned with the Decepticon cause after Megatron allows Starscream to re-join their ranks. He steals the Forge and gives it to Team Prime before trying to exact revenge on Starscream, but is killed by Megatron. The Autobots use the Forge to transform their Ground Bridge into a Space Bridge, giving them the means to travel to Cybertron and find the Omega Lock. Optimus ultimately destroys the Omega Lock to prevent Megatron from using it to "
cyberform" the Earth into a replica of Cybertron, but not before the Decepticons use it to create a new base on Earth – Darkmount. The Decepticons then destroy the Autobots' base, unaware the team escaped beforehand using their Ground Bridge, though Optimus stays behind to destroy the bridge, in order to prevent the Decepticons from finding the others' whereabouts, and is seemingly killed.
Season 3 (Beast Hunters) The third season, subtitled
Beast Hunters, opens with Team Prime divided and on the run from the Decepticons, while the severely damaged but still alive Optimus is being looked after by Smokescreen. New characters are again introduced, namely
Ultra Magnus, Optimus's second-in-command and the leader of Bulkhead and Wheeljack's old team, and the coldly logical Decepticon scientist Shockwave, who plans to create an army of Predacons to serve Megatron, starting with
Predaking. Eventually, Smokescreen is able to resurrect Optimus using the Forge's last powers after he dies, giving him a new, more powerful body, and the Autobots reunite, destroying Darkmount. Despite this, the Decepticons remain an active threat, and Shockwave continues work on his Predacon army, until Megatron orders him to terminate it, pinning its destruction on the Autobots, after Predaking shows signs of intelligence and the ability to transform into a robot. During this time, Knock Out experiments on the captive Cy.L.A.S. with Dark Energon, inadvertently turning him into a Terrorcon that feeds on other Transformers' Energon and turns them into Terrorcons as well. He infects most of the
Nemesis' crew before freeing Airachnid (who was retrieved by the Decepticons following the Autobot base's destruction), who puts him out of his misery and claims back leadership of the Insecticons. However, she is quickly dealt with by Soundwave, who teleports her and all the Insecticons to one of Cybertron's deserted moons. Later, Soundwave is ordered to kidnap Ratchet, whom Megatron forces to rebuild the Omega Lock using Synthetic Energon. During his imprisonment, Ratchet informs Predaking of the truth about his unborn siblings' destruction, and he defects, attempting to kill Megatron, but fails. Eventually, the Autobots storm the
Nemesis to rescue Ratchet and destroy the Omega Lock. During the battle, Soundwave is trapped in the Shadowzone (a parallel dimension created by the interaction of multiple Ground Bridges), and Bumblebee is mortally wounded by Megatron. However, he is resurrected after falling into a pool of Cybermatter, regaining his voice, and kills Megatron by impaling him with the Star Saber, sending his body falling back to Earth. Afterwards, the Autobots use the Omega Lock to restore Cybertron and head home victorious via the
Nemesis, bidding farewell to their human allies and Ratchet, who chose to stay on Earth to continue helping humanity.
Predacons Rising The series concludes with a television film,
Predacons Rising, in which the Autobots and most of the Decepticons work together to try and rebuild Cybertron. The Autobots also search for the fugitive Starscream and Shockwave, who plan to create an army of Predacons to exact their revenge on the Autobots. Meanwhile, Unicron reanimates and possesses Megatron's body, and with the power of Dark Energon at his fingertips, he seeks to kill Cybertron's core, which is actually his brother Primus, and eliminate all those who oppose him. To stop Unicron, the Autobots must form an uneasy alliance with Predaking and the first of Starscream and Shockwave's new Predacons, Skylynx and Darksteel. ==Episodes==