Too grand, and overplaying the hand of optimus. The 13 were functionally gods: inbided with powers cybertronians haven't seen since. Optimus is just a file clerk with a nightlight of wisdom in his chest.
How about a post great war cybertron where prime is choosing planetary governors in a new age of colonization: with the series focusing on those planetary governors, how they deal with decepticons trying to either settle and integrate into a society that doesn't trust them, or outright running intelligence operations and attempting to steal the resources being generated to fund either a political or a new military coup of cybertron.
How about a post great war cybertron where prime is choosing planetary governors in a new age of colonization: with the series focusing on those planetary governors, how they deal with decepticons trying to either settle and integrate into a society that doesn't trust them, or outright running intelligence operations and attempting to steal the resources being generated to fund either a political or a new military coup of cybertron.
There's different interpretations of the 13. They're clearly just normal dudes who legends sprang up about in IDW (for reasons I won't get into due to spoilers), and Transformers One
I like the idea that, at the end of the time when the universe is dying, the last 13 cybertronians are forged, each based around an archetype and taking the form of the more popular and well known characters (So Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, Elita-1, etc.) mixed with a few wildcards for flavor (Windblade, Crasher).
Surviving the end of the universe and the birth of a new one, they proceed to create a new cybertron, just as the 13 before them had, repeating an endless cycle, rebirth after rebirth.
Literally has them as just the first generation of bots who get taken out by a non-thirteen member. Even the most powerful of them was no match for getting shot in the back. They're legends and leaders, but not gods.
I like the idea that, at the end of the time when the universe is dying, the last 13 cybertronians are forged, each based around an archetype and taking the form of the more popular and well known characters (So Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, Elita-1, etc.) mixed with a few wildcards for flavor (Windblade, Crasher).
Surviving the end of the universe and the birth of a new one, they proceed to create a new cybertron, just as the 13 before them had, repeating an endless cycle, rebirth after rebirth.
Here's another premise I think could be fun:
Each of the 13 was actually a Vector Sigma-like master computer for a Quintesson colony or world, like Quintus Prime was the primary computer for Quintessa. A Quintesson rebel named Primus then breaks into and rewrites the shell code for each computer to free them from Quintesson control, and they then free all the creations they had domain over. If you want them to have bodies, perhaps they then download themselves into the most recently produced bodies available to escape before they get caught and reprogrammed. Vector Sigma could have been made from a backup of Vector Prime, or was a secondary unit that didn't reach full sentience. And you could link their themes to quirks of their original primary purpose, like ALpha Trion may ahve been the computer for a library world, or Solus was a weapons factory world.
It'd never happen though, but wiht creativity I think we could get some other interesting takes on the 13 like that.
Each of the 13 was actually a Vector Sigma-like master computer for a Quintesson colony or world, like Quintus Prime was the primary computer for Quintessa. A Quintesson rebel named Primus then breaks into and rewrites the shell code for each computer to free them from Quintesson control, and they then free all the creations they had domain over. If you want them to have bodies, perhaps they then download themselves into the most recently produced bodies available to escape before they get caught and reprogrammed. Vector Sigma could have been made from a backup of Vector Prime, or was a secondary unit that didn't reach full sentience. And you could link their themes to quirks of their original primary purpose, like ALpha Trion may ahve been the computer for a library world, or Solus was a weapons factory world.
It'd never happen though, but wiht creativity I think we could get some other interesting takes on the 13 like that.
in Cyberverse, the personalities of the 13 are in the matrix, which implies each of them wielded it, which made me think what if the 13 weren't contemporary to each other?
Prima had the matrix, making him Prime and he ruled for awhile before dying and passing it on to Vector Prime, who did likewise, and so on and so forth until it fell into Megatronus' hands, and his betrayal was to not pass the matrix on, believing noone else was worthy, leading to the Matrix being lost for at time, Legends about it being found by the legendary thirteenth prime abound, until it is finally found by the future Nova Prime, starting a new dynasty of Primes eventually leading to Optimus and even Rodimus.
Prima had the matrix, making him Prime and he ruled for awhile before dying and passing it on to Vector Prime, who did likewise, and so on and so forth until it fell into Megatronus' hands, and his betrayal was to not pass the matrix on, believing noone else was worthy, leading to the Matrix being lost for at time, Legends about it being found by the legendary thirteenth prime abound, until it is finally found by the future Nova Prime, starting a new dynasty of Primes eventually leading to Optimus and even Rodimus.
Last edited:
Or, you know... puff puff pass.
What about a quest-style story? A Cybertronian (Optimus/Megatron/Bumblebee/Swerve) has to assemble a cross-factional team, each with unique abilities, to find/defeat a MacGuffin/EndBoss and Save The Prince(ss?)/Village/World/Universe/Christmas. Maybe a few more members join along the way, and by the end there are/were 13(ish) members, and either someone notices a parallel with the first 13 (though maybe not a direct 1:1 correlation), or the story flashes forward a few generations and tales are told of the Legendary 13 who Saved The ____.
No biggie, just convince Hasbro to bring back Ask Vector Prime and then they can hide a secret message inside a a book of character models that decrees Dinosaucers are just Cybertronians who have 100% organic compositions and that Reptulon is just Cybertron from a universe where the sparks bonded with carbon based lifeforms instead of metal and dear lord I want to cut off my fingers for typing up any of this.