It's not independent, because the events of Dark Cybertron hinge upon the Great War having happened, and without the briefcase time-travel, the war doesn't happen. That means that the Functionist universe must have had the real Onyx, instead of Shockwave.

Under the time-travel rules that IDW uses, you really do have to consider all of history at once, like tigatron mentioned. The future is caused by the past and the past is caused by the future. Neither one comes first, and there's no origin point for anything.

"A circle within a circle within the same circle," to quote Shockwave.

 

hm, i still dont think it makes perfect sense, but ill give it to you  

 

I don't think that can be right. What you have is a circle, with a line branching off it which is the Functionist universe. Shockwave still kills Onyx in the Functionist universe because both universes are one and the same up until the point where the Lost Light crew (or Perceptor) create a branch. As far as the modern-day Functionists are concerned, a Shockwave from a different universe created their past.

Amusingly, that means the Shockwave in the Functionist universe must be having a right old meltdown, because he likely won't be able to figure out why he hasn't closed the loop. Whatever strings he pulled in the main universe to make sure Megatron formed the Decepticons didn't work. He'll have been leaving Decepticon symbols and extracts from Towards Peace lying around all over Megatron's route to work in order to inspire him, and Megs will have just gone: "Oh! I wonder who left this here."

 

How Brainstorm & Perceptor Managed To Troll The Timeline.

 

If you assume that the Functionist Universe works on the same rules as the normal IDW universe, then the "refugee from a different timeline" scenario with Shockwave doesn't work.

Although I guess it's entirely possible that the FU's weird method of creation via the briefcase could have resulted in a different set of time-travel rules! Supposedly Roberts' intent was that the briefcase was in fact the origin point for the entire Transformers multiverse, and time-travel has been portrayed in all sorts of ways across different Transformers continuities!

 

I chalk it up Roberts not giving a damn what happens in other comics and doing his own thing.

 

It's never established, to my knowledge, whether the branch point of the Functionist Universe was "the Rod Squad never went back in time at all" or "Brainstorm killed Megatron and the .1% spark wasn't inserted". And, you know, given that "paradox locks" aren't exactly a real thing I don't think we can safely assume it to be one or the other.

Now, given that the prehistory would be very different if it was a "no time travel took place at all" timeline, I'm assuming it's the latter, and that Onyx-Shockwave is paradoxically present.

 

Out of all the Transformers comics I have found this 'Optimus Prime' one to be a pretty hard slog at times. I just haven't really been able to get into it much. I am usually a little less excited when a new issue is released compared to 'Lost Light' so I guess I am pre-disposed to having negative thoughts about an issue when I read it. Despite me already not expecting it to be great I think for issues #17 and #18 this is pretty dumb annoying shit. I am genuinely surprised at how positive so many forum members are being about this, based on how I generally see this forum. I admit I do not spend much time in the comics section though.

1) Hey remember how we had that big event and killed off that important main character? SURPRISE HE'S BACK! He wasn't really dead at all!

2) And with this important main character that we pretended to kill off... SURPRISE! Turns out he is actually THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING ABOUT EVERYTHING BECAUSE TIME TRAVEL!! WHOOO!

Ugh! To me this is not brilliant or amazing at all but lazy and stupid. Pretending to kill characters cheapens the whole situation I think. Time travel in general is super annoying when it is used this way. I just don't see as an awesome twist but as something just stupid.

But that is the amazing thing about people being different and having different tastes and opinions  

 

Personally I felt it was pretty obvious back in dark cybertron both him and bumblebee weren’t actually dead, just taken off the board for awhile. After all they did get sucked into a temporal anomaly which just reeks of leaving a back door to bring them back, just like how tigatron and airazor were written out of beast wars

 

I just read issue 18 now that the physical copies came out and I gotta say... what the heck? The reveal is so crazy but I love it to bits!

 

Time travel always makes my head hurt.

But one thing that's been consistent from nearly the very beginning of the IDW continuity is that the history everyone believes is not necessarily the history that is true. That just all feeds into that further.

 

The Functionist universe isn't the unaltered timeline, it's the timeline created after Rewind killed the original Megatron spark and before replacing it with Brainstorm's forged one and creating the the "normal" IDW one. We do not know what the timeline with the original mass produced sparked Megatron would have been if at all different from the "normal" one.

 

It was Rewind who shot Megatron's initial spark, not Tailgate.

 

As much fun as it was to stroll down memory lane with Shockwave and ponder the reality of actions and consequences, I would have greatly preferred Onyx to have been a real and different kind of change-agent bringing upon the endgame in a way nobody was expecting; to shake things up in a way we haven't seen before.

Plus, it would have been cooler to have Shockwave re-emerge during the Unicron battle, exclaiming, "I've been preparing for this for millions of years!" as all reality gets sucked back into the singularity.

 

I simply want an origin story of the Transformers, but I suppose we can't expect them to lock in something for fear of losing the mystique. For years, the 13 have been the closest thing and then expanded upon with the KoC and the Guiding Hand. I supposed it's still out there pre-OnyxWave, but Barber's interference with Shockwave messes up a lot of stuff for the sake of his big reveal. I don't hate it, but I've struggled through a lot of Barber's books for the sake of supporting Transformers comics and kinda resent his messing with the fabric of everything. Of course I want to read the rest to see where it goes from here, but this twist has not made me as happy as our hardcore Shockwave fans.

 

There's a reason Barber's pre-history stops short of the actual origin of the species. Because that's a reveal that Lost Light has been building to for years and will definitely be part of the finale.

Also, it'll probably be the Quintessons.

 

Actually now that we know the continuity is resetting, it actually *does* give them the freedom to confirm their origins if they so wanted. I'm fascinated to see what they do.

 

Onyx meticulously planning for his grand entrance on Cybertron the entire time only made him out to be a mad doomsday prophet with no clear goal. Even with the Shockwave reveal, there's still no telling what he's up to.

As for Shockwave popping up for Unicron... he would REALLY have to have known what happened in the future instead of relying on what he knew/didn't knew. In other words, just made him another crazy doomsday prophet.

 

I think this reveal could make anything better:

 

I love you.