Time travel

Time travel allows an individual or group of individuals to move either forward or backward in time, in such a way as to be able to interact with the surroundings and occupants of that time. Depending upon the nature of the universe occupied by the time traveller(s), it may be possible to alter the past in a way that the travellers’ personal timelines are rewritten.

Time travel can be facilitated by a number of devices, such as time-jump mechanisms and transwarp drives, or substances, such as Ore-1 and Chronogon.

Types of time travel

Across the Transformers continuities, time travel has been used on several occasions. Most of these have been the result of deliberate technological attempts, while others have been a side effect of an existing technology. More rarely, time travel has been the result of a natural phenomenon. The most common use of deliberate time travel is to return to the past to alter history to the advantage of the traveller.

Generation 1 continuity family

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

The first example of time travel was a natural phenomena caused by the Decepticons stealing energy from Dinobot Island. For unknown reasons this caused random time rifts to appear across the globe. Each time rift was connected to a different time period and soon closed naturally. Once the energy stolen from Dinobot Island was returned by destroying the Decepticons' energon cubes the time rifts ceased. Dinobot Island, Part 1 Dinobot Island, Part 2

During one of their many battles, the Autobots and Decepticons discovered a time machine called the Dragon Mound. This was a large domed structure inside a stone circle. Inside the dome, touching a strip of runes on the walls activated the device and sent anyone inside back to the Arthurian period of 6th Century England. The wizard Beorht professed to have created it to use as a "time transporter," but he had been unable to use it due to a dragon taking up residence within the mound (hence its name). A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court

Starscream shows off his modern art sculpture.

Megatron and Shockwave developed a time machine they called a Kronosphere. This was a large green platform, made of several levels of disc-like constructions. To use the device a traveller would stand on the topmost disc. The device operator would program a time zone into the control console to activate the device. The device seems to send its users gradually back through time rather than having them simply arrive at their chosen time zone. If this journey is interrupted, the travellers will be deposited in the time zone they are currently passing through. The Kronosphere was later destroyed in a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. War Dawn

The Quintessons later developed a time travel device called a Time Window. This was a large triangular device with a control console attached to the base. Once a destination was programmed into it, the center of the triangle became a portal through which travellers and objects could pass. A copy of the triangular portion of the window appears at the destination time zone. This allows travel back to the departure time zone. While the time window is active it leaks dangerous Chronal energy. This, if left unchecked, can cause time distortions such as time loops and turning back time. Eventually the chronal energy would cause irreparable damage to space-time. Forever Is a Long Time Coming

Wings Universe

The Star Seekers configured the transwarp-capable engines of the Tidal Wave to journey to the future, when Cybertron would theoretically be at peace and have high levels of energy to steal. Unfortunately, they ended up in 2984, much later than they expected and at a time when Cybertron was technorganic and no longer ran on energon. Whoops.

During the clash between the Star Seekers and the Cybertronian Knights aboard Unicron's head, Hunter was lured away by Unicron's voice into a transwarp portal leading to the past. There, he discovered and touched the Matrix of Conquest at Unicron's urging, becoming Shokaract. Hoist the Flag

Generations Selects Special Comic

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Marvel The Transformers comics

"I want to see if Den and Angie really get divorced."

Time travel technology was developed some time before the year 2006. It is not known if this was an Autobot or Decepticon invention, as both sides appear to have had access to the technology.

Early examples of the time-jump mechanism look like a modern art sculpture. Standing in front of the device allows one or more individuals to be transported to their selected time zone. Target: 2006 A later development, the trans-time dimensional portal, resembles a door-shaped hole in the wall. When activated, the ‘doorway’ is filled with a swirling red and black vortex, walking into which will transport an individual to the location selected. Time Wars

Unicron gives Galvatron a hand.

To enable a successful time jump, the balance of mass in the destination time zone must be maintained. To facilitate this, the time machine selects a being of equivalent mass to displace into a holding dimension called Limbo. Those who are displaced, vanish leaving only a pile of ash behind. Once the time traveller(s) return to their own time the displaced individuals reappear.

Bypassing this mass substitution process can have catastrophic consequences for the fabric of space-time. The dark god Unicron forced the Junkions to create a time portal that did just this. It was a giant circular device large enough to reach his arm through. He intended to use the portal to snatch Galvatron back from the past. He was destroyed before he could follow through on his plan, but the Decepticons, Cyclonus and Scourge along with the freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head were cast through the portal. Cyclonus and Scourge ended up in Earth's past but Death's Head was lost in time. The Legacy of Unicron! When Cyclonus ended up killed in the past, before his own creation, Dry Run! a dangerous timestorm broke out in two eras, destroying the planet of Quintessa and endangering others. Cyclonus' corpse had to be sent back through to solve the problem, and the presence of two Matrix-bearers (Rodimus and Optimus) caused the storm to get temporarily worse.

After putting up with the "Time Wars", Rodimus agreed to destroy all the Autobot's time machines when he returned to 2009. Time Wars

The planet of Theturis in the far future would develop a time machine that did not require mass substitution at all. The Quest!

Ladybird Books continuity

The Decepticon leader of the 21st Century, Galvatron, travelled back in time to the 1980s and took over from Megatron. 1986 Ladybird Books

Dinobot War

On a family holiday to Disneyland, you snuck past the security guards to get into The Wizard's Cave, an attraction closed to the public. Inside, you discovered that an alien spacecraft had been uncovered by construction work and, investigating further, you accidentally activated a time-sphere that transported you, Ravage and Laserbeak four million years into the past.

In order to prevent the Decepticons from destroying the Autobots still lying deactivated aboard the Ark, you joined up with the Dinobots and headed for the alien spacecraft, which had recently arrived on this world. Dinobot War

• You used the same time-sphere to displace yourself, Ravage and Laserbeak back to Disneyland.
• After the aliens used the time-sphere on themselves and the Decepticons, you used a Stasis Gun to freeze yourself until you returned to your own time.

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers

Teletran 3 wasn't too impressed with his tinsel decorations.

The sentient computer Teletran 3 accidentally transported a number of Transformers through time using wormhole technology. This threatened to cause an apocalypse if they were not returned to their own time.

2005 IDW continuity

A variety of time-travel methods have been employed by various groups of Transformers.

The first was the Warren, the four-dimensional remains of one of the Omega Guardians. It could be used to traverse time as well as space. The first being known to utilize it was Adaptus, who travelled millions of years into the future to escape the rest of the Guiding Hand. Once there, he saw a terrible danger to the universe, and returned to his own time to spend the next twelve million years preparing to stop it. The Warren’s timey-wimey properties would later be inadvertently be utilized by the crew of the Lost Light as they made their way to Cyberutopia.

Another form of time travel was developed by Shockwave as part of his Regenesis experiment, an artificial energon derivative known as Ore-1. When this ore was introduced to the planet LV-117 to catalyze, the spread of the time-bending ore caused the planet to randomly skip backwards and forwards in time; while the native lifeforms were able to evolve to cope, Transformers who visited the planet found themselves jumping randomly between time periods. Syndromica (2) The Decepticon Turmoil was able to harvest this ore on Shockwave's orders, and enslaved the natives to create a time machine for himself, this one capable of laterally moving his ship through time and space to a directed point in history. Interference Patterns

The Autobot weapons engineer Brainstorm spent years working to build a time machine with the specific purpose of preventing the Great War from ever coming to pass. Predestination: An Expert's Guide As a double agent, he used parts sourced from the Decepticons to build a complicated series of "time cases," and used a link to the Lost Light's quantum engines to move himself through space and time. Though he fled back through time to alter history, the crew of the Lost Light were able to pursue him using a quantum duplicate of the control case. The Custom-Made Now Following that adventure, the time case found its way into the possession of Censere, the mythical "Necrobot," who used it to travel backwards through time and inadvertently complete a paradox of his own making by rescuing a group of lost Cybertronians who had seemingly vanished from history and became known as the "Disappeared." Do Not Go Gentle

Circa 2010, the extra-dimensional invader Britt assimilate samples of Cybertronian techno-biology from Kup. Combining this technology with her knowledge of artillica, she was able to transform herself into a time portal, intending to send her army of zombies back in time to infect the living Cybertron of the distant past. Her plan was thwarted before she could do so. Infestation #2

An accidental form of time travel would be discovered by Shockwave in 2013 when the scientist attempted to bring about the "Dark Cybertron" prophecy. Combining the power of Ore-1 with Ore-13, he reasoned, would collapse time and space into a singularity for him to control; The Becoming while he was stopped before his singularity could destroy the universe, its properties meant that his broken body was inadvertently dragged backwards in time, depositing him twelve million years in the past at the dawn of Cybertronian civilization. Unable to return to his own time, he became "Onyx Prime" and used his foreknowledge of Cybertronian mythology to seed history with many ontological paradoxes of his own devising. The First Who Was Named

The last known form of time travel was created by Tarantulas, a device he dubbed the "Timemaze." Unlike other instances of time travel, the Timemaze was devised as a directed weapon against history itself - by repeatedly sending Overlord back in time like a virus, Tarantulas aimed to repeatedly shatter history over and over again, creating an infinity of new timelines that he could meddle with as he pleased. Ultimately, Springer became the only being to use the Timemaze, intending to travel back in time and prevent the war from occurring. Requiem of the Wreckers

Beast Era

Time travel technology appears to be commonplace in this era. Cybertronian ships are equipped with Transwarp Drives. This opens wormholes to different time zones. The ship must then fly through the wormhole to arrive at its destination. This process leaves a detectable signature that can be traced and followed by others. The detectable nature of this form of time travel is likely one of the major reasons why fewer unscrupulous individuals attempt to change the past; even Megatron was initially hesitant to pursue this course of action, though he later decided "to hell with it" and shot the comatose Optimus Prime in the face.

Beast Wars cartoon

Time travel had been in development since the era of the Great War. Fearing that he could lose the conflict, Megatron burned instructions into the Golden Disk to have any Decepticon descendants use the technology to ensure a Decepticon victory. The Agenda (Part 2) An upstart fulfilled Megatron's orders, stealing the Darksyde and travelling back to prehistoric Earth. Unfortunately for him, the Axalon had locked onto his warp signature and followed. Beast Wars (Part 1)

In an attempt to locate the Axalon, Cybertron sent numerous temporal probes through space and time. The Probe

Sent on orders by the Tripredacus Council to exterminate the crews of said ships, Ravage traveled back in time to prehistoric Earth. The Agenda (Part 1)

Seeking out Protoform X, who was stowed away on the Axalon, Depth Charge accidentally traveled back in time to prehistoric Earth. Deep Metal

At some point during the Beast Wars, Tarantulas found the crashed Nemesis and restored it to operational status, adding a transwarp cell to give the warship time travel capabilities. Though intending to use the warship to conquer the Cybertron of his time, Nemesis Part 1 Megatron first launched a random attack on everything in sight, ultimately ending in his defeat. The remaining Maximals, upgrading an Autobot shuttle to be capable of time travel, with Megatron cuffed to the outside, traveled forward in time to their Cybertron. Nemesis Part 2

Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (N64)

During the trip back to Cybertron after his capture, Megatron managed to send a message back in time through transwarp, attempting to change the outcome of the war by warning his past self of his own defeat. This resulted in an altered timeline where several Maximals and Predacons gained new Transmetal bodies. This also resulted in the universe entering a quantum state where multiple outcomes resulted, including one where Megatron was still defeated but sent a message back in time again, creating a time loop. Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals (N64)

3H comics

Just after Megatron had conquered Cybertron with transformation virus, Apelinq headed out to investigate a strange reading. Finding it to be Primal Prime and his newly returned team from post-Beast Wars prehistoric Earth, Apelinq gave them the antidote to Megatron's virus before being ambushed by Mirage, who got them into the portal which Primal Prime's team had just arrived through. Apelinq managed to dispatch Mirage but found himself trapped during the second year of the Beast Wars. Apelinq was forced wait a long time for time for a "temporal polestar" to reopen the transwarp portal to his native era. Apelinq's War Journals

In an alternate timeline upon his defeat in 2005, Unicron's essence was flung back in time to prehistoric Earth. By the 32nd century, a Predacon Hunter discovered it, shaping it into the Matrix of Conquest and conquering most of known space with its power. The anti-Shokaract resistance sent Windrazor back in time via a transwarp portal to destroy Unicron's essence before Shokaract could come to power, but Shokaract himself followed. In the ensuing clash, Maximals and Predacons from many realities and timeframes arrived to join the fray only to be effortlessly killed by Shokaract. Finally, the Covenant turned themselves into pure energy and were able to sever the link between Earth's ancient past and Unicron's future disposition, nullifying Shokaract's origin and defeating him.

As the timeline collapsed due to the alteration of history, Apelinq was finally able to escape back to his home era. Terminus

Cryotek wants to MUFFGLRL MUUGGREAGG MURRRAGGHH conquer time. Betrayal

During the Universe War, Child of Primus Rhinox built a device to deflect Unicron's attempts to abduct Transformers from across space-time. The first two attempts only partially succeeded, stranding the would-be abductees on an icy planetoid. As a side effect, the Autobot stellar freighter OTFCC was pulled in from the past. The Autobot crew joined up with the Children of Primus and Unicron's victims to defeat Unicron's Minions, and the ship was sent back to its own time. Voice Actor Drama

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Seeking the protoforms of the Axalon and under the pretense of apprehending Megatron, Magmatron and his Predacons traveled back in time to prehistoric Earth. They were invisible to the Beast Wars by virtue of being out of phase in time. The Gathering #1 Maximal sabotage of his return device trapped Magmatron in an existence that could observe all time, but not interact with anything physical. The Gathering #4 The Ascending #1

Transformers vs. The Terminator

After the Decepticons had conquered Earth, the artificial intelligence known as Skynet used its experimental time displacement device to send a single T-800 unit back to 1984 so as to prevent the Cybertronians from awakening. Enemy of My Enemy Part One

War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon

In the dark timeline where Optimus Prime and Megatron had, respectively, been reformatted by Unicron into Nemesis Prime and Galvatron, they sought to escape their hellish fate by finding a past version of the Allspark and using it to kill Unicron. Kingdom episode 6 Galvatron travelled back in time to try and guide Megatron through the Dead Universe before Unicron found his servant and dragged him back to the future. Earthrise episode 5

Instead Galvatron and Nemesis manipulated a new Megatron to steal the Golden Disk. Kingdom episode 6 Once the Predacon Megatron had stolen the Disk, Kingdom episode 2 he travelled back in time to deliver it to the original Megatron, being chased by the Maximals aboard the Axalon. Kingdom episode 1

When the Autobots and Maximals defeated the Decepticons and Predacons and managed to bring the Allspark to Cybertron, Galvatron and Nemesis Prime time travelled back to try and claim the artifact only for all to unite against them. At the moment of their defeat, Unicron dragged them back to the future. Kingdom episode 6

Transformers/Back to the Future

In the year 1985, the human Doc Brown had discovered time travel, creating the DeLorean time machine which his young friend Marty McFly using the machine to travel back in time only to return a few moments after he left. Having witnessed this, the Decepticons Rumble and Ravage were ordered by Megatron to steal the time machine only for Bumblebee to prevent this, all combatants reverting to alternate mode when the humans approached. Unaware of the danger, Doc Brown used the time machine to travel to the year 2015. Transformers/Back to the Future #1 When Brown arrived, he found that Rumble had stowed away in the machine. After gaining the human's trust, Rumble contacted the Decepticons of 2015 to seize the time machine only to find them defeated. Taking the machine for himself, Rumble travelled back to 1974 and built up his strength before he revived his comrades in 1984.

Armed with Rumble's foreknowledge, the Decepticons conquered Earth. Ordered to study the DeLorean, the Decepticon Gigawatt found he could no longer tolerate Megatron's cruelty and scanned the vehicle only for Megatron to shoot him in the flux capacitor, hindering his ability to travel in time. Managing to join up with Rodimus Prime's Autobots, Gigawatt defected and attempted to travel back to 1974 to undo Rumble's meddling only for his damaged time circuits to take him to 1985, Transformers/Back to the Future #2 where he met Marty McFly. Transformers/Back to the Future #1

Hoping Marty could fix the flux capacitor, Gigawatt took him, along with the Autobot Skilz back to 2015 only for Marty to inform the Autobots that he didn't know how the capacitor worked. Transformers/Back to the Future #2

The Autobots eventually managed to unite with Doc Brown who readily repaired Gigawatt's flux capacitor. Despite the best efforts of Watchtower, Marty and a damaged Gigawatt managed to time travel back to 1984 and reactivate the Autobots ahead of schedule, stopping Rumble and undoing the Decepticons' rule of Earth. When Marty used the reclaimed DeLorean to return to 2015, he returned it to Doc Brown who set about converting his machine to run on energon. Gigawatt, repaired by the Autobots, returned Marty back to 1985. Transformers/Back to the Future #4

2021 IDW Beast Wars comic

Though the Transwarp Drive could propel vessels through time as well as space, usage of their temporal properties was tightly regulated so as to prevent any pollution of the time stream. When Megatron's cell of Predacon separatists stole the Golden Disk, they also stole the transwarp-capable Darksyde as an escape ship, intending to travel back in time and decode its contents. When the Darksyde was intercepted by the Axalon, the Maximal craft locked onto the Darksyde's signature, following it as it travelled through time. Savage Landing Part 1

The transit left the Cybertronians with cellular friction, a trio of Vok noting this among the many intriguing aspects of the Cybertronian race. Savage Landing Part 2

When the Maximals and Predacons joined forces against the Vok, Rhinox and Scorponok hit on the idea to use the Darksyde's ruined Transwarp Drive to send a message to Cybertron for reinforcements. When this led to them discovering Tarantulas' duplicity, Scorponok used the drive to warn the Axalon, the drive's temporal properties allowing message to arrive before it was sent. The Beginning of the End

2019 IDW continuity

After Jumpstream had lost control of an experimental harness designed to enhance her teleportation abilities, a trip through unspace Test Flight I sent her to in a dystopian future where Exarchon ruled Cybertron. Though she managed to return to her time, the transit left her in stasis lock. Test Flight II

Cybertron cartoon

Vector Prime was capable of altering the flow of time, though his powers had begun to diminish in his age and would place a significant strain on him. In one instance, when the Recon Mini-Con Team were inadvertently destroyed by Megatron, Vector Prime reversed time to alter their fate, though doing so left him severely weakened. Time He would later use his powers to reverse time long enough for a portal from Gigantion to Earth to be re-opened at the cost of his own life. Guardian

Animated continuity family

A time machine hidden somewhere in Detroit caused Bulkhead and a human to be sent back in time to briefly visit several points in American history. The duo managed to avoid changing history, and even managed to help Abraham Lincoln with a speech he was about to give. Time-Quake

Live-action film series

During the war for Cybertron, Sentinel Prime rediscovered the lost space bridge technology of the Dynasty of Primes, recreating it in the form of space bridge pillars. Alleging that the pillars would help the Autobots win the war, Sentinel Prime had them loaded aboard the Ark and tried to get safety offworld, but a Decepticon attack seemingly destroyed the ship. Dark of the Moon Unbeknownst to anyone, the Decepticon attack had accidentally triggered the pillars' spatial and temporal capabilities, and the Ark began randomly jumping through space and time even without a live crew at the helm. Eventually, the Ark ended up at a much later point in linear history, and its computer locked onto the energy signature of the AllSpark, which the Autobots had ejected from Cybertron in the interim. Unfortunately, the Ark then materialized in the same space as the Decepticon starship Nemesis, which had been launched from Cybertron before the Ark and had also discovered the AllSpark's signature; the Nemesis was searching for the last Star Harvester at the behest of the Decepticons' relic. The Ark made one final jump, leaving a lingering space bridge portal in its wake. The relic recognized the portal as the technology of his kind and ordered the Nemesis's captain, Soundwave, to pursue. Soundwave proceeded to set the damaged Nemesis down on a moon of a nearby gas giant and take his crew on the smaller ship Longshot through the portal. While investigating the Ark after it subsequently crashed on the moon of a nearby blue-green planet, Soundwave scanned the stars, and startlingly came the realization that the portal had transported them through time! (1961 C.E. on the human calendar). Convergence chapter 1

Shattered Glass

After being transported to prehistoric Earth of Primax -408.24 Epsilon by the destruction of their home reality, several Autobots/Maximals and Decepticons/Predacons battled for control of the legendary artifact known as the Origin Matrix. At the end of the line against Megatron's Gigastorm Armor, Ultra Mammoth inserted the Matrix into his gun and opened fire, creating an interdimensional portal leading the present day Cybertron. Shattered Destiny Falling into Place

The portal also sucked in two ships from an even more distant future into the past. Shattered Destiny

Aligned continuity family

In 1939, Griffin Rock scientists constructed a time machine dubbed the Temporal Station, but were unable to get it to work and abandoned it in a secret room. In the present day, the room was discovered by Cody Burns underneath Doc Greene's laboratory. Doc Greene was able to make it functional again through nuclear power. He arranged for the Rescue Bots and their human companions to be present to witness the initial testing of the time machine. Dither was chosen to be the time-traveling test subject. Frankie Greene and Cody Burns got inside Heatwave for safety. When the machine was activated, the Rescue Bots' energon caused the machine to malfunction, sending the Rescue Bots and the two kids back in time along with Dither. The time-travelers encountered the scientists of that time period, including Doctor Morocco. Morocco tried to abduct the Rescue Bots, but with the help of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee (who came back in time to help them), everyone was able to make it back to the present, except Dither. When they arrived in the present they found everything had changed for the worse. It's a Bot Time

With the help of the alternate-timeline Burns family and their Mobile Headquarters, the team was able to go back through the time machine back to the past to retrieve Dither. They then returned to the proper present with Dither and the Mobile Headquarters. Heatwave said they were going to smash the time machine. Bot to the Future

A prototype time machine was left on board on the S.S. Phantom Voyager by Morocco in 1915. While being transported, the machine was damaged by lightning, causing the ship to leap forward in time ten years every hour. After a brief trip to their own future, the machine was found and stabilized by the Rescue Bots, who instructed the ship's captain Ansel Ambrose on its usage so he could return to his own time. Phantom of the Sea

At some point the author Jules Verne found a piece of energon that enabled him to travel in time on his airship. In one instance, Verne had visited Cybertron and met Heatwave. In another, he went to the Griffin Rock of the present day after receiving a message in 1869 from his longtime friend, Morocco. Morocco then convinced Verne to let him use his Chamber of Youth, as he had to give his away to Priscilla Pynch. Distraught that Morocco had become a criminal since they last met, Verne convinced Chief Burns to wipe Morocco's criminal career from his mind and to let him live out the rest of his days in the Paris of some future period, where Verne could visit periodically. The Last of Morocco

Ask Vector Prime

Vector Prime, as the Guardian of Time and Space, often employed time travel. He and the Time Warriors fought threats to the time/space continuum. His unique understanding of time made it difficult for him to understand beings in linear time, and would occasionally make reference to events yet to occur. He also noted that the television show Doctor Who, while fun, depicted time travel in a wholly inaccurate way. Ask Vector Prime

BotBots cartoon

Following a temperature-related disaster that left the mall in a state of flaming ruin, Burgertron used a trans-timestream communicator to contact his past self and warn him to get the Science Alliance's help in preventing the catastrophe. Unfortunately, their first attempt only made things worse, and an even more grizzled Burgertron contacted them from an even worse future to chastise them for screwing things up. Fortunately, the Science Alliance eventually got their act together, saving the mall, and the now-President Burgertron sent one last message back in time to congratulate them on a job well done. The Science Alliance

Games

Transformers Roleplaying Game

Shockwave studied time travel on LV-117. Decepticon Directive

Can history be changed?

Types of Universe

Time travel theory allows for three basic types of universe in which time travel can occur.

• Type 1 — History is immutable. The timeline cannot be changed. Any time traveller attempting to alter history is either doomed to failure for reasons beyond the time traveller's control or else was part of the old timeline. (You can't stop Kennedy being shot)
• Type 2 – The timeline is flexible and can be changed by the actions of a time traveller. (You can stop Kennedy being shot)
• Type 3 – The timeline you travel back to is either not your timeline but an alternate one, or you create an alternate timeline with your actions instead of affecting your own. (You can stop Kennedy being shot but your present day is unaffected)^[1]

The different Transformer continuities appear to exist in different universe types and so each will be discussed separately.

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

This continuity would appear to exist in a Type 1 universe. Both "War Dawn" and "Forever is a Long Time Coming" show the time travellers becoming a part of the history they are visiting. In both cases the past remains unaltered. This is consistent with a Type 1 universe in which the timeline cannot be changed (and does not feature divergent timelines).

"A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" doesn't really offer much evidence to support this, the time machine being little more than a plot device to place the characters in a non-technological society. However, the introduction of a number of anachronisms, such as Starscream’s dynamo and the gunpowder, do not appear to have any impact on the future and thus implies Type 1.

Beast Era

Beast Wars cartoon

Where's DS9?

The Beast Wars would appear to take place in a Type 2 universe. Evidence that the timeline can be altered was presented by Megatron who projected an image of a mountain recorded on the golden disc in the future. After locating the mountain in the past he destroyed part of it and then checked the golden disc again to find that the image had changed to reflect the damage he had caused. The future had therefore been altered. Code of Hero

Indeed, Megatron's entire plan in "The Agenda", "Code of Hero" and all of Season 3 revolve around the idea that the timeline can be changed. When he does blow Optimus Prime's head off, time begins to unravel and the Maximals are visibly affected by the change in their timeline. The Agenda (Part III) (Megatron, on the other hand, isn't affected at all.) Optimal Situation The Maximals are also concerned that destroying Megatron while he has the other Megatron's Spark will alter time; and Tigerhawk (while still Vok-linked) explicitly states time will be altered if the Ark is destroyed, which is what Tarantulas is trying to bring about. Other Victories

At the same time, however, some comments were made to suggest a Type 1 universe. When Blackarachnia remarked that the history tracks on the Ark had failed to mentioned the presence of an additional Autobot shuttle, Rhinox remarked that "history's still being made," indicating that the Maximals' very use of the shuttle in taking down the Nemesis was the reason that the history tracks did not mention it. Nemesis Part 2 Similarly, if the Vok's experiments hadn't been wrecked by the time travellers, Earth would have looked quite different... or does this mean they're in a Type 3 universe?

Beast Machines cartoon

As this is a set in the same universe as Beast Wars, this must also be a Type 2 universe.

Marvel Comics continuity

Decepticons in psychedelic disco shock!

There are a number of ‘futures’ shown throughout the series. Some examples are: the original Transformers: The Movie timeline, the alternate future that Rodimus and company return to after Time Wars, the future where Unicron attacks Cybertron in US#75 and is destroyed, and the alternate future in which Cybertron is destroyed that Galvatron II comes from. There's frequent time travel but for the most part the future characters seem to have no memory of events in the past to which they are travelling. In the very first storyline, Target 2006, Galvatron explicitly calls this a Type 3 timeline. He wants to avoid killing anyone 'early' because he thinks that will turn his trip into an alternate timeline, making his actions useless. He's conned into giving up this way: Hot Rod makes him think he killed Starscream twenty years too soon. In later stories, future Autobots worry about Galvatron running around in the 1980s again but have no memory he ever did, while he's not trying to alter time.

Time Wars then confuses us all as Galvatron remembers the battle through Megatron's eyes. However, his memories of the battle are different to what's actually going on. It's been theorised that if your memories change when the timeline does, it would be difficult for an observer to know if they were in a Type 1 or Type 2 universe^[1] but this is the first time this ever comes up in Transformers! Soon after, Rodimus and company returning to a different future because of the Time Wars, which have made it so Galvatron never travelled; either this means it was Type 2 after all or they're in a Type 3 universe and somehow ended up in the wrong future. Back in the 80s, Megatron now believes he'll definitely become Galvatron but doesn't plan to be that Galvatron, so he thinks it's Type 1 that he will somehow turn into Type 2 (Megs has an ego).

We then learn that's a clone of Megatron and then he dies, so if Galvatron was him then it's Type 2 again as he's unaware of another (real) Megatron.

Then we see Unicron being drawn to Cybertron years before 2006 and two timelines dealing with that, the US one and the Earthforce one... the latter of which happens due to a Galvatron time-travelling!

All of this points to a Type 2 or Type 3. This continuity also shows that if a time-traveller dies before their creation, a giant and destructive time rift is created in two time zones, which doesn't fit either model.

In the letters page, "Hi-Test" would imply it was a Type 2 but that Aspects-Galvatron not travelling doesn't undo all the changes he did in the 80s as "the space-time framework repaired itself. That doesn't mean it went backwards. Nice try, though."^[2]

Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

In Rad White's time, the Mini-Cons are friendly entities the Autobots and Decepticons fight over. However, they were made by Unicron with the idea they would eventually incapacitate the larger Transformers for him... except they didn't because Rad was sent back in time and made contact with High Wire, which caused sentience and free will to spread through the Mini-Con race. This would appear to be a Type 1 universe, as Rad's time travel brings about his own future.

However, the same episode showing that showed a Cybertron where the Mini-Cons were incapacitating everyone for Unicron. Drift While the dubbed characters said this was the past, this does not make sense. What makes more sense is that this is an alternate present where Rad never went back in time. Which would imply you can change the timeline, but then begs the question of how it got changed so that Rad could ensure it was changed and arrrrrrg.

Later actions by Vector Prime exhibit a more traditional type 2 behavior, with the deaths of the Recon Mini-Con Team being reversed thanks to his rewinding time. Notably, all characters present are aware of Vector Prime's usage of his powers and retain their memories of what took place before the timeline was changed. Time

Aligned continuity family

This appears to be a Type 2 universe, as the history of Griffin Rock was effectively altered and then repaired by the time-traveling Rescue Bots.

2005 IDW continuity

By all accounts, the 2005 IDW continuity is, by default, a Type 1 universe; in most cases, the universe's chronology is a fixed series of events that can't be changed. When the crew of the Lost Light travelled back in time, The Custom-Made Now various accidents meant that their actions in the past led to significant events in the future; an incident involving a curly straw, for instance, inadvertently led the beginning of the Great War. Stet Shockwave and the Necrobot both realized the nature of Type 1 time travel and used it to their advantage: the Necrobot used time travel to rescue a group of Cybertronians known as the "Disappeared" from various points in history, thus simultaneously causing and solving the mystery of their disappearance, Do Not Go Gentle while Shockwave, in the guise of "Onyx Prime", utilized his historical knowledge to set in motion a series of events, including the cryptic "Dark Cybertron" prophecy. The First Who Was Named

Perceptor believed that the nature of time travel meant that it was possible for the universe to become a Type 2 if one could get around the "paradox trap:" if the timestream was changed, your future self would never have made a time machine and thus never went back in time. The Custom-Made Now Britt's villainous scheme, which involved invading the Cybertron of the past, may have failed due to this self-defeating paradox. Infestation issue 2 Brainstorm's mad science seemingly found a way around this paradox by preserving the original timeline "just long enough for the new one to 'bed in'" so that it couldn't be undone. The Custom-Made Now It turned out, however, that both scientists were wrong: the time travel was always meant to happen, confirming the universe as a Type 1. Predestination: An Expert's Guide

James Roberts Perceptor claimed that Type 3 universes don't exist, that they're simply a way that "second rate writers scientists" get out of dealing with the full implications of Type 2. When he fiddled with the paradox locks on Brainstorm's time case, however, he inadvertently created a new parallel universe, turning the "original universe" from Type 1 into Type 3. Which, uh, apparently was always meant to happen. Predestination: An Expert's Guide

BotBots continuity

This universe seems to be a Type 2 universe. Using a trans-timestream communicator, Future-Burgertron was able to project himself into the past to warn his past-self about the dangers of climate change dumping sand into the mall's air vents. The actions of the Lost Bots and the Science Alliance then directly changed the future, as observed by Future-Burgertron first returning from an even worse version of the future and then later from a corrected, better version where he even gets to become president. For reasons that are unclear, Future-Burgertron was aware of the timeline actively changing around him, but did not seem to retain any memory of his past self's specific actions in response to his own temporal communication, demonstrated by asking the past BotBots what happened after the worse future set in. The Science Alliance

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