I don't like the idea of Shockwave being a scientist. So in my headcanon he's the Decepticons' Military Operations Commander.
Oh wait, that's not headcanon.
That's what he IS.

 

I thought the scientist angle was only a more recent thing. He should always be logical, but that's different.

 

Yep. More nonsense from IDW.

 

I like IDW, I like Shockwave. I don't like IDW Shockwave's ass-pull plots and omnipotence.

 

In Prime and other Aligned related material, Shockwave has been depicted as dabbling in science. Same thing for Cyberverse now. Even if this did originate in IDW, it's hardly out of canon or not included in outside sources. It's a pretty logical step to integrate that into one's head canon and can exist concurrently with him being a military operations commander.

 

I thought Shockwave being a scientist originated in Dreamwave's G1 continuity?

 

Looking at TFWiki, that seems to be the case. This feature of him has become so ubiquitous, I am kind of surprised to see someone challenge its canonicity. I even forgot where it came from.

 

In all fairness, I don't really like the idea of Transformer scientists at all.

 

G1 strategist Shockwave is my Shockwave. Other versions need not to bother me.

 

Built in weapons can fire quicker and have far more ammo but due to them draining a Cybertronian's energon they will never be stronger than a weapon that has its own powersource. That said, certain Transformers seek to make the best of both worlds; Shockwave, for example, has a hidden energy pack in his back that he can draw on for massive blasts while using his own energy for quicker shots. Megatron has experimented on himself to draw his energy for outside forces but this has greatly affecting him mentally and physically.

Many transformers in the movie universe have names like B-127 but they translate them to English equivalents, as these letter and number combinations DO have meaning on Cybertron but sound like random digits and letters to us. B-127, had he not lost his voice and memory, would have chosen the name Bumper.

There are Transformers who are addicted to altering their facial and body features in a quest to find the form that is 'right' for them. This is seen as a disease on Cybertron (much like anorexia).

 

The movie series is in fact a semi-anthological series of stories set in an universal cluster besieged by Unicron and splintered from the Aligned cluster (thus, the Unicron-in-Earth plot point.) In this universal cluster lies the origin of the Chaos Matrix possessed by the Rodimus Unicronus toy.

Spoiler: Really Long; Read At Own Risk; I Was Sleepy

The Bumblebee movie is a prequel to the first three movies, but not AOE and TLK which had events very similar to the first trilogy happening. In the TF1—TLK universe, similar events to those of the Bumblebee movie were set to a WWII backdrop and Bumblebee was left grizzled by the horrors that both humanity and Transformer had committed on themselves. He retreated to Cybertron with Optimus in a "devil you know" situation and the (still alive) Shatter brought forth a greater Decepticon presence by summoning Shockwave to search for the Allspark, being reassigned to find the Matrix shortly afterward.

Shatter was still active when Unicron awoke in the TF1—TLK universe and was the first to come to the Autobots about the situation. Unfortunately, Drift chopped her head off shortly being flung through and disintegrated by the space/time continuum by the rising Unicron as the apocalypse overtook them.

The crew of Hound, Simmons and Quintessa happen upon a point in space-time shortly after the Bumblebee movie, where there Optimus had started to transform himself closer to his "Knight" form. Quintessa enslaves this Optimus into an agent against the Unicron insurrection, eventually killing Unicron by absorbing his lifeforce into the Chaos Matrix — an event which across the universe's space-time, drawing the Primes (their Quintessa included) to the Earth, Megatron, the Allspark, etc. This also makes the sequence of events pure jank. Quintessa found the universe displaced corpse of DOTM comic Optimus and transferred Optimus's personality (more or less) into it, in order to try to set the timeline back in order.

Quintessa, Hound, Nemesis Prime (Quintessa's Bumblebee movie homunculus) and Simmons as a result have become "Wanderers" as a result of this time-space fuckery, meaning they can pretty much show up anywhere at any time in any form they wish and are effectively immortal as they can simply rematerialize in another universe — things that make the Transcendent Technomorphs a little nervous.

Another universe to survive is the DOTM novel universe — the first universe TF1-TLK Hound arrives at. (That universe already having a Hound, he decided to use his newfound powers to cruise around the multiverse as Bulkhead, occasionally switching behaviors for shits and giggles.) They used a similar method to kill Unicron (Tyran one of the few clusters to have two Unicrons), but unfortunately the duality lead the Chaos Matrix to be one of those to become a Wanderer. Their Quintessa tried to stage a coup of Cybertron shortly thereafter, but was killed by the Megatron/Optimus duo. Being one of the few surviving universes and the only one with a recollection of Unicron, they use their Wanderers to warn other universes of it when they could. They also speculate (correctly) that a corrupted Optimus may be traveling the multiverse much like the Chaos Matrix.

The Chaos Matrix — or the Dark Spark — has relocated itself to the Prime Wars cluster, ready to be picked up by any dunderhead so they can be turned into a battle hungry despot (although easy to be controlled by anyone wishing to pull some strings.) Nemesis Prime, curious of this object, has followed it. Generally, if there is an Optimus there he kills them — having inherited Quintessa's feeling of and desire for superiority over her "creations." Giza and his arm cannons are mementos from worlds conquered. It is unknown how Wandering Nemesis would react to a world under threat by the Dark Spark but without his preferred rivals — Megatron/Galvatron, Star Saber Motormaster, Thunderclash and Optimus Prime.

To simplify, Tyran is defined by several commonalities:

- Bumblebee scouted Earth in the 20th Century.

- The Primes, Allspark, Ark and other Cybertronian events all take place on Earth because of an ancient Transformers related evil being present.

- Quintessa created the Knights, Optimus, Megatron and Dinobots.

However, there are three "main" universes if you will and they are differentiated by several factors:

- In the Bumblebee movie universe, Bee arrives to Earth in the late eighties and bonds with Charlie, there is no Unicron resident to the planet and it is followed by the first three movies.

- In the DOTM novelization universe, Bumblebee comes to Earth in the late eighties and bonds with Charlie, is followed by the first three movies but Unicron is inside the Earth.

- In the AOE/TLK universe — what you might call the "original" — Bumblebee scouts Earth during WWII and doesn't bond with Charlie, the Earth was formed around Unicron and the first trilogy is canon in broad strokes.

Together, they effect each other and the multiverse as a whole:

- Unicron wins in his universe and travels to the BB Movieverse, where he is defeated by those who survived from TLKverse.

- In BB Movieverse, Quintessa builds/discovers a new body that she implants the resident Optimus into while utilizing BB Optimus for her Nemesis Prime project. This sets the stage for the different looking, violent Prime we know in TF1-DOTM. The battle against Unicron and the Chaos Matrix instead drew in the signature plot points to Earth through time-space ripples.

- Quintessa got turducken'd into Nemesis after defeating and being infused with Unicron's abilities. Hound and Simmons also do.

- DOTM novelverse is pretty much the only one not effected and defeat their own Unicron with the help of their Quintessa, but the resulting Matrix containing Unicron's essence is lost to the multiverse. Their Unicron infused residents (or "Wanderers") are Cade and Megatron.

Thus, with the remains of both Unicron battles:

- Hound is currently traveling the multiverse as Bulkhead with occasional buddy Simmons.

- "Wandering" Nemesis is exploring the multiverse antagonizing notable Transformers such as Megatron/Galvatron, Optimus Prime, Motormaster, Thunderclash and Star Saber while searching for the duplicate Chaos Matrix, collecting tacky trophies along the way.

- DOTM novel Megatron occasionally visits other universes, as well as his Cade in order to warn others.

- A corruptive counterpart to the Matrix of Leadership is lingering around, ready to corrupt hapless Optimii, Hot Rods and the like.

What this means for universal streams
- Technically, AOE/TLK are interquels to the Bumblebee movie and trilogy.

- Any inconsistencies can be explained by Unicron's damage to the universal cluster/it taking place in a different one.

- BB Movie is Tyran 707.04 Delta, but the timeline is BB → Unicron → TF1—DOTM. This Optimus was driven partially mad by a temporary Quintessa takeover.

- AOE/TLKverse is an unofficial universe I designate as Tyran 014.27 Delta. It goes WWII BB → pseudo-TF1—DOTM → AOE → TLK. It was destroyed.

- DOTM novelization universe is another universe unofficial called Tyran 011.24 Zeta-Delta and its timeline is BB → TF1 & ROTF → DOTM novelization → post-TLK. It produced the Chaos Matrix found in Rodimus Unicronus.

And tidbits:
- The merged Quintessa-Nemesis entity has run afoul of Grand Scourge. They slaughtered the Machinima Prime Wars cast.

_________

And now to stop DOFPing you, here is something simple and closer to whatever head canon I generally maintain:

Firestar is part of a clan of Transformers that color themselves warm colors and assign themselves names associated with warmth, heat and fire. Their goal is to help maintain a safe, non-oppressive feudalistic society on Cybertron.

Inferno took on his name and color to try to join the clan, but between the second season and movie he and Firestar had a falling out. However, Hot Rod was birthed during this time from Vector Sigma as the new inheritor. He is certainly Firestar's, but it's unclear if he has any relation to Inferno. He is also generally frowned upon by his clan mates, leading to even more self confidence issues as Rodimus and eventually conceding his title back to his "mother."

Before relinquishing his role as clan inheritor, he was known as "Hot Rodimus" over "Rodimus Prime" as it was considered a disgrace to remove the heat related part of his name. It should be noted that Firestar never hated him.

 

The goddess or whatever from that one late-G1 cartoon episode was actually Windblade. I think it was called "The face of Ninjakka" or something.

 

Future people developed Sparks to live forever and escape oblivion, it worked.

Same people created Primus to house and protect their Collective Sparks and one day rebirth themselves when they're safe.

Unicron finds Primus and their interdimensional war lands them in our dimension in the distant past. Unicron is defeated and after millions of years Cybertron rebirths it's designers, the guiding hand. Their memory long gone.

 

Another bit of TFA headcanon I developed with a few friends who are helping me with writing a TFA story.

Autobot Boot Camp functions like secondary education. It's a catch-all basic training for bots who want to enter a sort of military or para-military role, such as the police force, emergency response, and the Autobot Academy (which is more official military). Even incomplete Boot Camp still means you're eligible for more jobs, such as roles aboard a starship captained by a former Acadamy student.

 

Straxus was a smelter by trade before the war. It wasn't very fulfilling work for one of his ambitions, but he couldn't deny the simple pleasure of watching metal melt, a joy he relished even in his days as an overlord.

 

The Oracle in Beast Machines was created by Shockwave:


By the time the Ark left Cybertron, most Cybertronians had left the planet. So when The (now insane and power hungry) Predacon Megatron set his virus upon the world, the majority of those affected were Shockwave’s men stationed there waiting for the Decepticon Megatron’s return. Knowing full well what was happening and how the virus worked: Shockwave went underground to safety and watched as Cybertron fell into Chaos, and a new hostile order.


The new Vehicons were so busy hunting the Maximals that Shockwave went unnoticed and was able to research a plan to take back Cybertron alone. Shockwave remained undisturbed but also unsuccessful, until a pest problem befell him: a bat named Nightscream burst in and was sedated by the Scientist. Nightscream, in the face of the great virus had seemingly evolved into a techno-organic creature in order to become immune. But Shockwave knew better, he saw the evolution as a devolution: Cybertron had no star, any organic life there would die in days. At this point, a terrible plan came together: Shockwave would turn ALL life on the planet (perhaps the planet itself too) organic. All life would die and Shockwave could reset the planet to how it was before.


Shockwave saw no reason not to, all his men were now Vehicons, but he knew he couldn’t do it alone. He experimented on Nightscream, created a weapon that could turn any Cybertronian into what he was and combined it with brainwashing technology. He would take the Maximals and indoctrinate them on a nigh religious mission to reformat the planet into the “perfect” blend of organic and technological, he would model this creation after the legendary oracle. With the “oracle” created shockwave fled the planet and built an artificial sun that would keep the Maximals alive long enough to complete his vision as a result of this sun, small flowers would grow at Cybertron’s crust.


Shockwave then sent his own fake Vehicon to stalk out the Maximal leader Optimus Primal, who was recently downgraded into his most primitive form, and brainwash him into finding his troops and guiding them to the site of the fake oracle. Once they had their new bodies Shockwave watched from the “sun” as the Maximal/Vehicon war raged on, leaving it for a far away land as the spark war reached its conclusion, knowing that he may be reformatted if he stays too close to the planet.


With Cybertron and all its people all reformatted, Shockwave returned and watched closely again to ensure that the Vehicon threat was well and truly neutralised. Once he realised it had been, he destroyed the sun, and all life on the planet quickly decayed, leaving all of Cybertron’s denizens a grizzly fate. Cybertron was returned to the planet of pure metal that it always was and Shockwave retuned to the surface with a new army, awaiting the real Megatron to return.

 

My head canon is "Anything Goes."

Beasts and vehicles and technorganics and Transtectors/mechs all intermingle freely. All canons are true and happened - in some capacity. Somewhere. Not necessarily "here."

Skywarp is an unmitigated badass who just can't be bothered with the histrionic queens Megatron and Starscream, so he stays on the downlow.

Shockwave is in unmitigated badass who could pretty much end everyone, but actually enjoys the show. He can't admit that, though, 'cause it flies in the face of the archetype he has chosen to present as.

Blackarachnia was supposed to be the next Matrix Bearer, but the machinations of BW-Era Megatron and Primal, who were both egomaniacs in different ways and saw themselves as the de facto leaders both of their factions and of their personal visions of a united Cybertron, totally screwed that timeline beyond repair.

Hot Rod is a dipshit with a heart of gold. So Lost Light Hot Rod is my Hot Rod, I guess.

Weirdwolf is actually quite intelligent, but on the spectrum. He has come to the conclusion that neither side is quite right, and has abandoned the Decepticons to pursue a "third way."

Similarly, RID 2001 Scourge, once separated from his versions of Megs and OP, realized he had built his personality on little more than rejecting them, and mellowed substantially. He is not necessarily "good" (yet), but has been jumping worlds and timestreams like a particularly intimidiating Dr. Who, doing what he perceives as what is best (YMMV), and slowly realizing there is much more out there in the multiverse than the noise in his head.

Slash, under the influence of Solus Prime, modified a version of the Dinobots against their will into Volcanicus permanently. Like the Frankensteinian creature he is, Volcanicus is hyper intelligent, hyper powerful, and not necessarily happy with his two "mothers."

Essentially immortal and with abilities rivaled only by the Christian Christ, Wreck-Gar is one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse. He enjoys Golden Girls reruns.

 

Before leaving Cybertron four million years ago, Megatron's alt mode was a flying cannon somewhat similar to Shockwave's alt mode. When Teletraan-1 rebuilt everyone on Earth and gave them Earth alt modes, it tried to give everyone a form that was closest to their original forms: cars became cars, jets became jets, transports became transports... and guns became guns. But because guns don't fly around under their own power on Earth, Megatron lost this ability and was forced to be wielded by one of his men whenever he transformed.

This theory is also what I use to prove that Soundwave was not a "lamp post" on Cybertron, he was some type of recording/surveillance equipment.

 

The Allspark was discovered by the Creators, not made by them. Their attempt to harness its power proved disastrous, vaporizing most of them and transmuting the survivors into the vile Quintessa. Imbued with the Cube's energy, she created the first Cybertronians. Pleased with her abilities and filled with hubris, the mad goddess then put forth her power and crafted a titan, a destroyer of worlds, her masterpiece, Unicron. But in her eagerness, Quintessa failed to realize the danger of self aware creations. Unicron was the first to rebel. Using all her strength (and with the help of the Guardian Knights), she managed to repel the monster from Cybertron and force it into hibernation. A temporary respite. Always paranoid about Unicron's return Quintessa devised a plan to kill him, crafting a special staff for that very purpose. But before she could bring it to fruition, the Knights supplanted her and drove her from their world. These things only the Knights knew, though whispers of an ancient enemy and a looming apocalypse would spread. Most viewed such talk as mere superstition.

 

About Shockwave I consider him a very effective strategist that could even lead Decepticons at Megatron's place that in my G1 toon canon he considers too emotional to always choose the right decision, but secretly he admits charisma that he inspire to Decepticon troops and makes its overthrowing plan more difficult.At same time he could be very interested in science in a pratical way,more applicated to military. in fact his SIEGE extra arms cannons perfectly shows this side,he's ready to upgrade himself by science to increase military strenght and victory chances. In my personal canon however he already leads Decepticons alone with cold and evil Spock approach.