Published as the cipher text to “Derailment”, the Book of Logos has received its own page for annotations, due to its length. As detailed in the main annotations, the Book of Logos is a book of the Covenant of Primus, the Transformer equivalent to the Bible, introduced in the two-part finale of the Beast Wars cartoon, “Nemesis”. In turn, it comes from Primus, the creator god of the Transformers introduced in Marvel UK’s The Transformers comic, created by Simon Furman and Jeff Anderson, who has gone on to be the main origin for the Transformers in fiction. In particular to our annotations, the Book of Logos is based on the Book of Revelation, the apocalyptic final book of the New Testament, and paraphrases much of the book throughout (specifically, the standardized 1769 King James version of the text). Logos, meanwhile, is a version of Logos Prime, who has a complicated backstory. He began life as Galaxy Force Soundblaster, a redeco of Cybertron (known as Galaxy Force in Japan) Soundwave, based on the original Soundwave’s upgraded form from The Headmasters. Concurrently published with the release of his toy in 2006 were the Beast Wars Reborn prose stories published in Figure Ō magazine, promoting new releases of Beast Wars Optimus Primal and Megatron. These stories, written by Hirofumi Ichikawa, revealed that Soundblaster was merely an alias, and that his true identity was that of Logos Prime, an ancient Transformer and contemporary of Vector Prime who once protected spacetime like him, only to be driven insane by an encounter with an extradimensional entity. Fans in the United States speculated that he could be one of the Thirteen, whose roster were at the time were largely unknown, though Ichikawa would eventually clarify that wasn’t his intent. With the “Aligned” continuity roster ignoring him, it seemed to put that idea to bed, but Ask Vector Prime would establish that in some universes, he was indeed a member of the Thirteen. This version does not appear to be a member of the Thirteen, instead being a Transformer from the distant past, and does not have the Prime surname. The Book of Logos is split into ten chapters, so we’ll treat them as sections; see this link to read along: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/User:Escargon#Derailment
Chapter 1: I’m not going to go through every single line that is paraphrased from the Book of Revelation, mostly because that would take forever, but I will point out those which replace something specific. For instance, Logos replaces both Jesus Christ and John, the stated author of the original text – also known as John of Patmos traditionally. The Source (replacing God here, who is replaced by Primus in most other places) is an entity created by Simon Furman. Originally introduced in the Marvel US The Transformers comic (where it was simply known as the “sentient core” of the universe), it was stated to be an extradimensional being that pre-dated the universe, responsible for creating Primus to stop Unicron (originally the giant monster planet Transformer seen in 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie, who the Marvel comics remade as a Dark God the Transformers were created to stop). In the 2004 guidebook, Transformers: The Ultimate Guide, published by DK Publishing, it expanded on this, explaining that “the One,” representing both Order and Chaos. When the universe was born, the One created Unicron as an explorer god, sending him to survey this new realm. Eventually, he would split Unicron in two, creating Unicron and Primus, representing Chaos and Order, leading to the split between the two. Around a year later, the original Hasbro.com Ask Vector Prime feature identified the One by the alternative name, the Source. The “testimony of Jesus” line is replaced with the “testimony of Gaea”; Gaea originates from a t-shirt available at the unofficial BotCon 2004, a female Transformer depicted as Earth’s robot mode, created by Erik Sturdevant and Rob Meyer. In 2015, the Collectors’ Club storyline “Another Light” depicted her as Primus and Unicron’s forgotten sister, who had hid herself away to protect the source of Rarefied Energon, the most potent form of energon that is the literal basis of a Transformer’s body and spark, transforming into Earth’s core. Technically owned by BotCon rather than Hasbro themselves, she hasn’t appeared in any fiction since the Club went defunct; a similar concept of the Earth as a Transformer has both been seen in the “Aligned” continuity depiction of Unicron, where his body formed the core of Earth after being defeated and left adrift in space (which would influence the live-action movie The Last Knight in 2017, after the publication of this story), and Atlas, created by Tom Scioli and John Barber, the male Transformer who turns into Earth, as seen in IDW Publishing’s Transformers vs. G.I. Joe. “Seven colonies strewn throughout the stars” replaces the “seven churches which are in Asia;” in turn, the seven spirits are replaced by seven Primes. While most media has identified the original Primes as being thirteen in number, the 2009 film Revenge of the Fallen claimed that the Dynasty of Primes had seven. “Clouds” are replaced by “acid rain”; originally seen in the Sunbow The Transformers episode “Divide and Conquer” as being an artificial weapon used by the Decepticons, many stories since, including Beast Wars: Uprising, have depicted as being a normal weather system on Cybertron. Cybertron replaces “the earth.”
Alpha Trion and Omega Trion replace the famous “Alpha and Omega” passage (combining with it the phrase “companion in tribulation” from slightly earlier). Alpha Trion, of course, is the elderly Autobot introduced in the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon; initially depicted there as one of the earliest to rebel against the Quintessons and one of the oldest Transformers ever, he’s since been brough into the wider Transformers mythos by the “Aligned” continuity, which made him one of the original Thirteen Primes. Omega Trion, meanwhile, was a mysterious older Transformer who mentored the Decepticon Spacewarp, as seen in the Facebook Spacewarp’s Log page; he was created by Jim Sorenson. More about him next story.
The seven colonies (which replace the churches in Asia, specifically, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea) are all Titans from IDW Publishing’s Transformers comics, massive space-faring Transformers who turn into cities (the most famous being, of course, the classic city-bots Metroplex and Trypticon). In order, the Titans are as follows: Chela, the Titan of Onyx Prime who settled on Eukaris (IDW Publishing’s version of the Jungle Planet from Cybertron). Created by Mairghread Scott and Corin Howell, he was a bird-like Titan who first appeared in issue #6 of IDW Publishing’s second volume of Windblade; his name is Latin for claw. Navitas, another creation of Scott and Howell, was the Titan who settled on Velocitron (another colony world from Cyberetron), who first appeared in Windblade volume 2, issue #4; IDW Publishing’s later Unicron series in 2018 would identify him as Amalgamous Prime’s Titan; his name is Latin for “energy.” Prion, the Titan of Micronus Prime, was first mentioned in issue #39 of the More than Meets the Eye ongoing, having eventually settled on a planet that would be named for himself, before being killed by the anti-robot Black Block Consortia; his corpse later appeared in issue #57 of the second volume of The Transformers. He was created by James Roberts, John Barber, and Livio Ramondelli; his name comes from the real-world protein-based infectious agent that causes mad cow disease. Carcer and Vigilem are complicated. Carcer first appeared in Windblade volume 2, issue #3, a space-faring Titan that did not settle on a planet, who was created by Scott and Marcelo Ferreira (with a robot mode eventually designed by Sara Pitre-Durocher). Vigilem, meanwhile, was first mentioned as an evil Titan in the Revolution one-shot published for the Till All Are One ongoing (which replaced the Windblade series), published just under two months before this story. However, the Till All Are One ongoing would reveal that “Carcer” was the alias under which Vigilem was imprisoned, the Titan having served Liege Maximo. Evidently, like several in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe (such as Bumblebee and Goldbug), Carcer and Vigilem are separate individuals. Carcer is Latin for “prison,” while Vigilem is based on the Latin verb “vigilar,” which means “to watch over.” Tempo was first mentioned in Windblade volume 2 issue #4, before being seen in flashback in issue #7; another creation of Scott and Howell, the Unicron series would eventually reveal he was the Titan of Vector Prime, having settled on LV-117. Fittingly, his name is Italian for “time.” Finally, Caminus was introduced in the first Windblade mini-series, the Titan of Solus Prime, who settled on the moon of a gas giant and spread out his systems across it, converting it into a planet named for himself. Created by Scott and Saren Stone, his name is Latin for “forge.”
The seven golden candlesticks are replaced by seven golden disks; the main golden disk, the one launched by “organics who rose from soil, and inscribed with grooves and signals,” is the Golden Disk from the Beast Wars cartoon, of course. The Golden Disk, as seen in that series, was the real-life golden record, The Sounds of Earth, launched onboard the Voyager 2 space probe in 1977. In that series, the original Decepticon Megatron found Voyager 2, and used the disc to record a message to the descendants of the Decepticons, instructing them to, in the event that the Decepticons would lose the war, use advancements in transwarp technology to return to prehistoric Earth and kill Optimus Prime onboard the Ark. The “war of tooth and claw” that “echoed forwards and backwards” is of course the Beast Wars themselves. The idea that it spans multiple worlds and eras seems like a nod to Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo, which took place in the far future, and of course, the Beast Wars cartoon itself was a time-travel story. This also seems like one of the few nods to the controversial “A Change to the Agenda” photo-comic “origin” for Beast Wars: Uprising (see the annotations for “Micro-Aggressions” for more on it); Sorenson has indicated that if he were to acknowledge it, he would intend for it to not simply being a one time change, but that the final universe would be the result of massive temporal paradoxes from various time travel events that completely changed the universe. The encounter John had with Jesus is replaced by Logos encountering the original Beast Wars Megatron, identifiable by his right hand being a “mouth of teeth” that shoots “a violet beam” (this, of course, is his beast mode Tyrannosaurus head). It’s noted he takes his name from “a fallen devil of yore.” The two-part finale to the Beast Wars cartoon, “Nemesis”, revealed that Megatron had not taken his name from the original Decepticon, but instead a figure mentioned in the Covenant of Primus. In turn, this feels like a reference to “Aligned” Megatron, who was revealed to take his name from the real name of the Fallen, Megatronus. The Fallen, who is obliquely mentioned here, was one of the Thirteen original Primes, the Judas of the group who betrayed his brothers; created by Simon Furman and Pat Lee, he first appeared in the Dreamwave Productions mini-series The War Within: The Dark Ages, before appearing in the 2009 live-action movie Revenge of the Fallen. Megatron seemingly died in the Beast Machines episode “Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege”, only to return in the following episode, “Spark of Darkness”. In the 2004 anthology book Transformers Legends, the story “Singularity Ablyss” (written by Beast Machines showrunner Bob Skir) revealed that Megatron had gone to the Allspark, only to reject it, and returned to life as the ghost seen in “Spark of Darkness”. The “keys of hell and of death” are replaced with “keys of the Inferno and of the Allspark.” The Inferno was the Cybertronian equivalent to Hell, mentioned throughout the first season of the Beast Wars cartoon. When the character Inferno was introduced, it was quickly replaced with a new term: the Pit. The Allspark, meanwhile, was introduced in the Beast Machines cartoon; an extradimensional realm where all sparks come from and to where they return after they die, the Transformer afterlife. With the introduction of the physical AllSpark object in the 2007 live-action Transformers movie, it’s gone by other names and descriptors since, such as IDW Publishing’s term, the Afterspark. The Oracle steps in place to tell Logos to write about the seven golden disks, as Jesus told John to write about the seven churches: the Oracle also comes from Beast Machines, where it was the evolved form of the supercomputer Vector Sigma (the life-giving object from the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon), which reformatted Optimus Primal and his Maximals and charged them with bring Cybertron to a technorganic balance. The Oracle appeared directly in “Cultural Appropriation”. Note that, according to “Head Games”, the Beast Wars: Uprising version of Vector Sigma was destroyed…keep that in mind for later. Also something to note from here on out: while Logos does see events that correspond to the events of the previous stories, it’s not quite so linear, with events that he describes being multiple ones, and potentially things that didn’t happen at all, and are instead allegorical. As such, there’s a lot here that I’m not 100% sure I’m correct on, but I’ll do my best to try and annotate accurately.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2 skips ahead to Revelation 4, for those following along. The mention of the crypts opening up and unleashing the “life sparks of monsters” is a reference to the early draft of The Transformers: The Movie. In it, prior to Optimus Prime passing on the Matrix of Leadership and Megatron being directly reformatted into Galvatron, it was instead the spirits of them, entitled “Life Sparks” in the script, which were passed on. In that early draft, the statues in the Decepticon Hall of Heroes (seen during Starscream’s coronation) were actually holding the Life Sparks of ancient Decepticon leaders (named by creator Floro Dery as Floron, Gladiaron, Pinoy, Rapiron, Cannibaron, Dery, Ghoulon, Murdron, Bloodron, and Devron), and they would be unleashed during a fight, which were then used by Ingestor (the early name of Unicron) to create Galvatron’s minions; this was replaced in the final film by the Decepticon jets and the Insecticons being turned into Scourge, Cyclonus, and their various minions. The matrix of order obviously brings to mind the Matrix of Leadership, the talisman first seen in 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie (which the Marvel The Transformers comic would eventually retcon into being the same thing as the Creation Matrix, the source of Transformer life), along with the various Matrices seen since; we’ll come back to this. God/Jesus sitting on the throne and the rainbow surrounding him is replaced by Galva Convoy and Lio Convoy. “Broken Windshields” set up at the end that after Lio Convoy began the Uprising, Eject had used a copy of Lio Convoy’s CNA mixed with the G-Virus to create his clone “brother” Galva Convoy, as elaborated on in “Micro-Aggressions”, “Not All Megatrons”, and “Derailment” itself. The four and twenty elders are replaced by six and ten, the number of assemblybots on the Builder Assembly. It’s noted all but two are shackled to their chairs; those two are Ratbat (who, as a former mini-cassette, is the smallest size a full-size Transformer can be, and is thus still mobile) and Riker (the only Micromaster on the Builder Assembly). The four beasts mentioned in Revelation are replaced by two: a lupanoid and an insecatron, representing the Maximals and Predacons, based on their faction symbols. Lupanoids (or alternative, luponoids) were first mentioned in “Cultural Appropriation” as the Cybertronian species that the Maximal faction symbol was based on, the planet’s equivalent to wolves (with the name being derived from lupus, the Latin word for “wolf”). The cipher text for “Safe Spaces” established the Maxima, the “first Maximal,” had a loyal lupanoid steed who served as the inspiration for the symbol itself. Insecatrons, meanwhile, were first mentioned in “Not All Megatrons”, and are similarly given here as the inspiration for the symbol (obviously, the name is derived from “insect”). Recapped (or foretold?) towards the end here is the beginning of the Grand Uprising as seen in “Broken Windshields”; the jester is Supersonic, the Micromaster MC of the Games, who Lio Convoy assassinated on live feed in order to gain the world’s attention and inspire a revolution.
Chapter 3: Revelation 5. The book mentioned as being in God’s right hand in Revelation is replaced by two things: a staff and a matrix, Galva Convoy’s copies of Lio Convoy’s possessions. The first is the Solipsistic Staff, Lio Convoy’s axe weapon sold with his 2015 Timelines toy sold by thee Collectors’ Club (redecoed and retooled from the Generations Thrilling 30 Orion Pax figure) and seen in “Broken Windshields”. The second is Lio Convoy’s Energon Matrix; based on the power enhancing Energon Matrix wielded by Lio Convoy in Beast Wars II, this one is more like the original Creation Matrix, able to create life. First seen in “Broken Windshields”, “Head Games” revealed that it was created by humanity as a boon to Cerebros, allowing the Transformer race to survive with the creation of the Maximals and Predacons. The angel is replaced by a Prime, and this will happen several more times; some are identifiable, and not all are actual Primes, just important figures that Logos sees, and they do not follow the exact same order as seen in Revelation (for instance, the fifth angel mentioned later is replaced by the first Prime). In The Transformers: The Movie, only the destined Autobot leader (Hot Rod) could open the Matrix. The lion of Juda is replaced by Lio Convoy. Cybercats were first mentioned in the Cybertron episode “Challenge”. The AllSpark Almanac II established that fellow lion Animated Steeljaw was a cybercat, and “Derailment” revealed that Lio Convoy had taken on a cybercat form during the Beast Upgrade; specifically, his Legends toy, a redeco of the Titans Return Alpha Trion toy, which turned into a lion and a spaceship. “Head Games” established that the Maximals were the descendants of Fortress Maximus, an idea that Sorenson had briefly implied in his The Transformers Menagerie series of backups in the Collectors’ Club magazine, drawing on the shared root words between Maximus and Maximal. The arachnotron Galva Convoy finds is Lord Imperious Delirious, the Destructon artificial intelligence (or “Second-Born Intellect”) that was first introduced as a villain in Beast Wars: Uprising in “Alone Together” (his point of origin was the third and final issue of Blackthorne Publishing’s The Transformers in 3-D comic, where he was created by Alfred Williams and Dante Fuget). “Intersectionality” saw his body destroyed, only to hitch a ride back to Cybertron with his consciousness placed aboard a shuttle used by Magmatron and his crew; “Not All Megatrons”, “Cultural Appropriation”, and “Derailment” showed how he manipulated Galva Convoy into creating the Vehicons. Arachnotrons are the Cybertronian equivalent to arachnids like spiders and scorpions; they were first mentioned in “Not All Megatrons” and are named for an enemy type in the video game series Doom. Delirious took over the Grand Mal (the fortress/body for Megatron seen in the second season of the Beast Machines cartoon, which was created in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe by Decepticon leader Thunderwing as his body used in the final days of the war, before the Autobots and Decepticons teamed up to stop him) back in “Not All Megatrons”. The description here of those touch by the cry of the matrix and singing a “new song” obviously refers to the Vehicon virus, which Galva Convoy unleashed as manipulated by Delirious. Almost all of the Builder Assembly (save Riker) were turned into Vehicons mid-way through “Derailment”, after which the Resistance, the Maximal and Predacon armies, and the remaining Builders gathered in Nova Cronum to attack the Grand Mal.
Chapter 4: Skipping to Revelation 9. As revealed in “Derailment”, Lio Convoy’s Solipsistic Staff was reforged into a sword as part of his Beast Upgrade. The first Prime is (perhaps surprisingly) Eject, the former Autobot mini-cassette and Lio Convoy’s former mentor who was put in charge of coming up with a way to defeat him using his CNA at the end of “Broken Windshields”. The falling star mentioned here is Blackarachnia, who returned to her home dimension’s Cybertron in “Broken Windshields”. Eject visited the Forever Vaults (the “bottomless pit”) to take samples of the G-Virus, eventually using them to create Galva Convoy, as seen in “Not All Megatrons”. The smoke and plague (replacing locusts) mentioned here are again, the Vehicon virus. Hadean is Cybertron’s star; first mentioned in the pseudocanonical novel Alignment written by Simon Furman, it was fully canonized in The AllSpark Almanac II; it’s been showing up in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe since “Broken Windshields”. Logos verse 6 actually shows up in “Derailment”, recited by Sunstorm during the Vehicon’s attempt to get into his church; obviously, Vehicons are less humanoid than other Cybertronians.
The sonic canyons of Cybertron were first mentioned in the tech specs for 1988 Autobot Headmaster Siren; the 2004 guidebook Transformers: The Ultimate Guide established that they were actually massive sensory organs for Primus, collecting data across the galaxy for Vector Sigma. Beast Wars: Uprising has had the sonic canyons appear several times, with massive bridges spanning them and hidden remains of Old Cybertron down in the deep, suggesting they had some supernatural connection. Eject died in “Derailment” when his helicopter, the Decepticon Black-Out, crashed through the Grand Mal’s left eye, impaling him in glass and forcing Lio Convoy to leave him before the craft exploded. The second Prime is the only one who I don’t have a guess for an identity. The events being referred to here(the persecution of the “smallest among us” who turn into alt modes that “fired slugs and shells and blasts and energy”) are the Targetmaster Extirpation; “Trigger Warnings” established that Targetmaster technology drew on the energies of the spark, in a way that could be weaponized, and Cybertron’s military leaders decided to prevent this by leading the Targetmasters into an ambush and massacring them all. The third Prime is hard to narrow down, but the mention that “by these three” narrows it down to either Fortress Maximus/Cerebros/Spike Witwicky or MegaZarak/Zarak/Borx, the two city-sized Headmasters as established in “Head Games” and “Not All Megatrons”. Whoever it is, he replaces the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Equinoids are Cybertronians horses, introduced in issue #45 of IDW Publishing’s More than Meets the Eye, although there they were lobotomized Transformers stuck in horse mode. Obviously, the mention of heads (which is there in the original Revelation text) also sticks to the Headmaster theme. The madman who stands against either Fortress Maximus or MegaZarak is Galvatron, who should be well known to anyone reading by now – if it is Zarak, this is the first indication that he and Zarak fought with one another, something not mentioned in previous stories, but the two did struggle against one another in The Headmasters cartoon, with Scorponok vying to take leadership when Galvatron was incapacitated. It also was hinted at in the final appearance of Galvatron and Lord Zarak in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, where Lord Zarak hinted that he had plans to usurp Galvatron’s rule.
Chapter 5: Revelation 10 now. “Head Games” and the cipher text for “Not All Megatrons” indicated that the humans intervened in the war after the scouring of Nebulos, imposing an armistice on Cybertron and limiting them to their colony worlds. Galvatron and Galva Convoy both replace the angel with feet that are like pillars of fire; for Transformers fans, this verse was also paraphrased in the Beast Wars finale, seemingly describing Tigerhawk. The host is the Headmaster, Targemaster, and Powermaster allies Galvatron gathered. The phrase “nebulae of the stars” refers to Nebulos (the planet where “Master” technology partners come from in Western media), while the place “where dwelled the smallest of us” is the Cyberdroid colony world Rebirth, also known as Master (the home of the Headmasters in Japanese media), where Galvatron bonded with his partners: the Powermaster Nucleon, the Headmaster Doomshot, and the Targtmaster Clench. The mention here of Galvatron and his army wrapping themselves in “carbon and cloth” to pretend to be humans is a further explanation of the Grendel Gambit, Galvatron’s plan mentioned in the cipher text for “Not All Megatrons”, which Sorenson and Bishop explained elsewhere involved using Pretender technology to disguise themselves as humans. The mention of those who are “chastened” after Galvatron’s army was sundered refer to are Cybertron’s colony worlds; the cipher text for “Micro-Aggressions” indicated that after Galvatron’s failed attack, Cybertron’s “Allowed Zone” of planets was shrunk, with five worlds being forced to evacuate before sterilization. The energon condensation indicates that the world mentioned here is Omnitron, the home of the Omnicons from Energon, mentioned as one of Cybertron’s colonies in the cipher text for “Not All Megatrons”. Argon, a real world element, replaces the honey taste of the book that the matrix replaces.
Chapter 6: Revelation 11. The scepter replaces the “reed like unto a rod.” The fourth Prime here is Cerebros, as indicated by him saying “my two beasts,” the lupanoid and insecatron; as mentioned, “Head Games” revealed that Cerebros was given a gift by humanity to create the proto-races. Replacing the temple of God here is the pavilion of Primus; this is the High Pavilion of Iacon, originally seen in Dreamwave Productions The War Within mini-series, and where the Builder Assembly was located in “Derailment”. The galleries and libraries mentioned here are the Stellar Galleries and the Vaults, also seen in The War Within. The Empties replaces the Gentiles; introduced in Marvel’s The Transformers comic, they were Cybertron’s equivalent to the homeless, Transformers who were so low on power they could no longer transform, and mostly just shuffled about, looking for energy. The beasts replace the two witnesses. “Kalis” replaces the city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. Introduced in #164 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, it was where the rogue Autobot scientist, Flame, had resurrected dead Autobots to serve as guards for him while he worked his machinations. Clearly, the army of the dead here refers to the Vehicons. The fifth Prime, while not quite clear until later, is Optimus Prime. The third planet is Earth. The cube and the harvester are from the live-action movie series – the AllSpark, from the 2007 Transformers movie, and the Star Harvester from Revenge of the Fallen. Next story will mention the star harvester, so it indicates that something similar happened with Optimus Prime sometime in the past. We get an inversion of what Revelations, with the cursing of Primus replacing the giving of glory to God. Cyberquakes are the Cybertronian version of earthquakes; they were first mentioned in the Facebook Ask Vector Prime feature. Another Revelation inversion with the assemblybots turning their back on teachings, the opposite of the elders revering God; it also refers to when the Assembly emerges from the High Pavilion as seen in “Derailment”.
Chapter 7: Revelation 12. The dragon here (replacing the seven-headed dragon a.k.a. Satan a.k.a. the old serpent from Revelation) is an amalgamation of three different individuals, all treated as echoes of Megatron. The first is obviously Beast Wars: Uprising Megatron, in his quad-changer Beast Upgrade/BotCon 2016 form, which turned from robot to two-headed dragon to Cybertronian jet and Cybertronian car. Second, he also represents Delirious, as made clear by the mention of the cyber cat (Lio Convoy) and his hosts fighting him (replacing Michael and the angels), and him stranding before the tyrant on his thrown (Galva Convoy replacing the woman clothed with the sun); the armies of Cybertron converged on Nova Cronum to fight Galva Convoy in “Derailment”, only for Galva Convoy’s death to reveal that Imperious was the true power behind him. The third and final individual is the dark god Unicron himself, who fits the whole theme of Satan, along with other details that I will explain. Again, an indirect mention of the Fallen, and messing with the timeline and connecting characters otherwise unrelated to a single concept. The dark minions mentioned here are presumably Galvatron, Cyclonus, and Scourge; the Decepticons as a whole were banished from Cybertron after Unicron’s destruction in The Transformers: The Movie.
The sixth Prime, then, is Rodimus Prime (who also replaces the woman); “Micro-Aggressions” and other stories hinted at Hot Rod’s time as leader of the Autobots, noting that he had been the Chosen One, but had disgraced himself in some way, with a massive crater known as Rodimus’ Folly being a massive black mark on his leadership – this section hints at some of the reasons why. Rodimus defeated Unicron in The Transformers: The Movie by unleashing the power of the Matrix of Leadership, but interestingly, this section indicates that for whatever reason, Hot Rod ascended to Primehood without the Matrix in the Beast Wars: Uprising, perhaps because of events similar to those in the aforementioned “A Change to the Agenda” with Optimus’ seeming death. A mention of Rodimus combining with his fellows – we’ll get back to that in a second. More interesting, there is the mention of the “spawns of Chaos,” freed by the “daughters of carbon.” This is the first indication that Mini-Cons exist in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe. As seen in the final stages of the Armada cartoon, the Mini-Cons were actually created by Unicron, who intended for them to work as mindless drones that would use their power-up capabilities further agitate the war on Cybertron, allowing him to absorb the negative psychic energies until he fully powered himself up, upon which the Transformers would be incapacitated by the Mini-Cons and allow for him to consume Cybertron. However, when the humans Rad, Carlos, and Alexis were sent back in time to the creation of the first Mini-Cons by High Wire in the episode “Drift”, their contact with High Wire’s past self caused the Mini-Cons to develop free will, turning on their master. DeathEagles were first seen in “Cultural Appropriation”. Their mention, along with the term “megaweapon,” seems to indicate that Rodimus combined with versions of Armada Jetfire and Overload, who Armada Optimus could combine with. Jetfire, the space shuttle, could combine with Prime to form Jet Optimus Prime, allowing the Autobot leader to fly, while Overload, the weapons trailer, could turn into a pair of shoulder mounted cannons for Optimus, a mode entitled “Optimus Prime” megaweapon. Additionally, it’s not exactly stipulated in the story, but the mention that he joined with the Mini-Cons as well, and did not have a Matrix, makes me wonder if the Mini-Cons formed the Matrix Cannon, the powerful energy weapon used in the final level against Unicron in the PS2 Armada video game. The mention of Unicron being betrayed by an ally, hinted to be Starscream, calls back to both the Sunbow The Transformers episode “Ghost in the Machine”, where Starscream’s ghost agreed to help Unicron come back online in return for a physical body, only to betray him, and the Armada episode “Cramp”, in which Starscream fired on Unicron, sacrificing himself to convince the Autobots and Decepticons to align with one another to fight Unicron.
Chapter 8: Revelation 13. Replacing the beast that crawls out of the sea are two beasts, and the seventh Prime (who is also the fifth): Optimus Prime. As mentioned, his head wound roughly aligns with “A Change to the Agenda” (supposedly the result of Beast Wars Megatron firing on his head). The smaller robot crawling out of the wound is Apex, his Headmaster partner; Optimus’ other partners, Powermaster Hi-Q and Targetmaster Surge/Overrun, are referred to later this chapter; he was established to be a Triple-Threat Master in “Trigger Warnings” and “Not All Megatrons” after his return from the dead. While being a paraphrase directly from Revelation, the mention that he had the power to continue for “forty and two orbital cycles” also is in line with the idea that a Triple-Threat Master has a shortened life span, again from “Not All Megatrons”, which also revealed that Optimus and Galvatron fought towards the end of the war. Another inversion with Revelation here; while the beast’s mouth opens to shout blasphemies, Prime’s mouth opens to bring peace to the dead of Cybertron. Aside from the obvious (Optimus would have commanded Fortress Maximus after he returned) in IDW Publishing’s comics, Optimus Prime was shown to have the ability to awaken Titans, such as Metroplex in Autocracy, the Necrotitan in Robots in Disguise, and Metrotitan in The Transformers volume 2. More connections to the dragon archetype with Galvatron here; obvious, Galvatron was reformatted from Megatron by Unicron. It also seems to be hinting that somehow, Galvatron was reverted back to Megatron; “Micro-Aggressions” and “Not All Megatrons” simply noted Galvatron had been “dissected;” somehow, Megatron survived that process. Notably, in “Derailment”, Galvatron wondered if the Predacon Megatron was the original Decepticon Megatron returned, indicating that he thinks of his former self as a separate individual.
Chapter 9: Revelation 14, now. The events of this chapter are a mash between the Marvel Generation 2 comic and Furman’s pseudocanonical novel that completes its story, Alignment. Replacing the lamb on mount Sion is the Ark inside the volcano Mount St. Hilary, where the Autobots and Decepticons slept undisturbed for four million years after crashing into Earth, before an eruption brought them back online. The “second generation” mentioned here is the Cybertronian Empire, the main antagonists of the Marvel Generation 2 comic. As its would reveal, the second generation Decepticons were the result of “budding,” a long-forgotten form of Transformer reproduction that did not rely on the Creation Matrix, which involved a Transformer splitting itself via mitosis, creating a liquid metal being that quickly takes shape and forms a new Transformer. As a result of this non-Matrix based creation, the Cybertronian Empire Transformers were less connected to Primus, becoming amoral and emotionless. Eventually, this created a byproduct known as the Swarm (created by Simon Furman and Derek Yaniger), a mass of black cloudlike metal, incomplete and non-sentient, which attempted to eat all mechanical being it came across in order to try and complete itself.
The black cloud Logos sees (replacing the white cloud with the son of god) is the Hub, a network of interconnected terraformed planets seen briefly at the end of the Generation 2 comic. It was created by the Cybertronian Empire’s leader, the Liege Maximo (created by Furman and Geoff Senior), an ancient and massive Transformer who was the ancestor of the Decepticons, and who has since gone on to be revealed as one of the Thirteen original Primes. Alignment revealed the Hub was created as part of an operation to allow the Liege Maximo to ascend to the realm of the Dark Gods and join their ranks. The Liege Maximo is connected to Delirious and the Megatron-complex here. The bot of teeth and claws mentioned here is Grimlock, who lead a team of Autobots into the Hub in Alignment, hoping to disrupt the Hub before the Liege Maximo could ascend to godhood – Grimlock was demolecularized by the Liege Maximo in that version of events, but obviously, he survived in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe. Notably, the “namesake” of the dragon fights alongside Grimlock – again, another hint that somehow, Megatron returned. In Alignment, shortly after the events of the Generation 2 comic, the alternate universe Galvatron from the later half of the Marvel The Transformers comic heavily damaged Megatron after freeing himself from the ice that Fortress Maximus had trapped him in, leading the Decepticon into battle with the Autobots once more, until eventually both Optimus and Galvatron were taken offline fighting each other. In the present day of Alignment, the Decepticons were lead by a council, but Soundwave conspired to bring back Megatron using mystical means, and after he was revived, Megatron confronting the Liege Maximo and hurting him before he too was taken offline.
Like at the end of the Generation 2 comic, the Swarm was defeated when Optimus attracted it to him, allowing himself to be consumed so that he could unleash the energies of the Matrix, granting the Swarm the sentience it sought and causing it to leave Earth unscathed. In Generation 2, the Swarm gifted Optimus a new body; no such luck for Optimus here, it seems.
Chapter 10: The final chapter appears to be largely original, with some snippets paraphrased from various places in Revelation. It also hints at events that “The Inexorable March” will describe in more detail, happening far in the future past the end of the Grand Uprising. “Intersectionality” and other stories explored how the Confederated Terran Colonial Fleet was exploring space – evidently, it eventually didn’t end well for humanity. The line about the leviathan here was thought of in “Derailment” by Scylla during the Resistance fleet’s naval invasion of the Great Rust Sea. Leviathan was a sea serpent monster reference throughout the Hebrew Bible, most notably in the Psalms, the Book of Job, and the Book of Isaiah. Verse three refers to a clash between inhabitants of the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxy. The leviathan the Maximals and Predacons fight against isn’t made explicit, but it’s mentioned that it is comprised of billions of individuals. “The Inexorable March” would confirm they are the Ammonites. To explain, in the Generations Thrilling 30 line, a new team of Mini-Cons were introduced: the Mini-Con Assault Team. Made up of Heavytread the tank, Runway the jet, and Windshear the helicopter, who could combine into Centuriton. The Thrilling 30 line was promoted by a crossover between IDW Publishing’s Robots in Disguise and More than Meets the Eye ongoings, entitled “Dark Cybertron”. To promote the toys, writers James Roberts and John Barber came up with a new origin for them. Rather than Mini-Con Transformers, they were part of the Ammonites, an evil faction of the Stentarian species who fought their enemies, the heroic Terradores. The Stentarians resembled Transformers and could transform into their own alternate modes; however, they had been fighting for 16 million years, far longer than the Cybertronians, were smaller in size, and were “omnicombinational,” able to combine with any other member of their species in any number of ways, with the largest combiners being made of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Stentarians. The Ammonites were contacted by Shockwave, promising to end their war for their assistance in his plan to turn Cybertron into a singularity that compressed all time and space, fueling his home planet forever.
It's revealed here that the “databases of databases” powered the Maximals and Predacons. There are several parts to explain here. That turn of phrase refers to the Underbase, the massive database from the Marvel The Transformers comic, composed of solid light, able to grant enlightenment but also highly destructive, able to detonate stars on impact and scorching life from planets. “Not All Megatrons” detailed how the final Decepticon leader, the Mega Pretender Thunderwing (referred to here as the “wings of thunder”) merged the Underbase with his spark, combining his underlings with him, and eventually transferring his spark into the Grand Mal (the “head of evil”), before the Autobots and Decepticons united to stop him. He was defeated when his spark was separated from the Grand Mal and blasted deep within Cybertron. “Derailment” revealed that this had been, on some level, allowed to happen by the forces behind the Oracle (more on this in a second), as it brought back the mechanimal races to Cybertron, eventually allowing the proto-races to evolve with the Beast Upgrade. The Oracle itself, then, was a supercomputer seen in the Beast Machines cartoon, the evolved form of Vector Sigma, the supercomputer responsible for bringing Transformers to life from the original Sunbow The Transformers cartoon. In Beast Machines, it charged Optimus Primal and his Maximals with bringing a balance back to Cybertron between the technological and organic. In “Cultural Approrpiation”, the Oracle charged Overshoot and his crew with stopping the Antares Eight, and eventually leading them to help stop Delirious and the Vehicons. However, “Head Games” mentioned that Vector Sigma had been destroyed during the war. So, it’s revealed here that the Underbase became the Oracle in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe. In the two-parter that introduced Vector Sigma, “The Key to Vector Sigma”, the supercomputer stated upon its reawakening: “I am Vector Sigma. Before Cybertron was, I was.” Maxima, originally an unaligned Transformer from Caminus from the Combiner Wars cartoon, was reimagined in “Safe Spaces” as one of Fortress Maximus’ first new race of Transformers and became known as the first Maximal after her death. Emirates in the real world refer to a territory ruled by an emir, a monarch or similar level ruler in Muslim countries. In the Transformers franchise, it is a title held by several Transformers, most famously Emirate Xaaron, the old Autobot commander from Marvel UK’s The Transformers comic, created by Simon Furman and John Stokes.