Transformers Onefeatures Sentinel Prime as its main villain, raising questions about why he betrayed the former leaders of Cybertron, the Primes. The newest film in the franchise takes a somewhat different route for theorigin story of Optimus Prime. InTransformers One, Optimus is known as Orion Pax, a low-class Cybertronian who works his life away as a miner of Energon. This links to the story ofTransformers One’s Sentinel Prime, who claims there is an important reason as to why the miners must work as hard as they do.
However, by the time ofTransformers One’s climactic ending, Sentinel Prime is discovered as a traitor. It is revealed that Sentinel betrayed the old Primes, leading Orion Pax and his friend D-16 on a journey that sees them become the iconic figures of Optimus Prime and Megatron fromTransformerslore. A potentialsequel toTransformers Onewould build on this rivalry in typicalTransformersfashion, yet none of it would have been possible in this universe had Sentinel Prime not betrayed the Primes to kickstart the journeys of Optimus and Megatron.
Sentinel Simply Wanted Power
InTransformers One, Sentinel Prime’s reasoning for betraying the other Primes is relatively straightforward. It is explained the Sentinel was once a servant of the Primes, helping them keep order on Cybertron. Sentinel was not a Prime, however, and desired the power that those above him possessed. As such, he orchestrated a story that led to the Primes' destruction, claiming the title for himself and ruling over Cybertron as its new leader. Voiced by Jon Hamm inTransformers One’s voice cast, Sentinel unveils this to Orion Pax in the movie.
Transformers One Cast & Character Guide: What The Actors Look Like In Real Life
The animated Transformers movie Transformers One offers a promising cast voicing iconic Autobots, Decepticons and mythical figures of Cybertron.
In a speech in the film’s third act, Sentinel explains that he betrayed the Primes out of greed. After overseeing the Primes' demise, he began selling Energon to the Quintessons, a major enemy of the Cybertronians. In doing so, Sentinel secured his position as the leader of Iacon City and falsely constructed a reason for most of his subjects into servitude. This allowed Sentinel Prime to live like a king with unlimited resources, power, and sway over the peopleof Iacon. Eventually, though, this backfired against him when D-16 became Megatron, subsequently killing Sentinel out of revenge.
Sentinel Prime’s Betrayal In Transformers One Is Pulled From The Franchise Lore
Sentinel Tends To Be An Antagonist In Transformers
Transformers One’s decision to portray Sentinel Prime as a villain is one that is somewhat consistent with the franchise’s lore. Although Sentinel was a hero in the original animated seriesThe Transformers,he was shown to be an antagonist in other iterations. For example, Sentinel Prime was the main villain of 2011’sTransformers: Dark of the Moon, the third installment in thelive-actionTransformersmovie timeline. Sentinel Prime was initially depicted as the leader of the Primes as he was in the original show, though one who harbored a dark secret.
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Scourge, Unicron
It is revealed that Sentinel made a deal with Megatron to ensure the survival of the Cybertronians. With their planet now destroyed, Sentinel and Megatron form a plan to bring Cybertron to Earth, taking it from the humans as their new home. This started a wave of Sentinel being a villain in different iterations of the series, from the IDW comicsTransformers: More Than Meets The Eyeto Cartoon Network’sTransformers: Animated.Transformers Onesimply follows this trend, having Sentinel be a formerly benevolent character who betrayed his people in a grasp for power.
How Sentinel Prime Kept His Betrayal A Secret For So Long In Transformers One
Sentinel Prime Constructed A False Story To Keep His Cover
One of the main questions afterTransformers One’s Sentinel Prime reveal is how he kept his betrayal a secret for so long. The reason for this stems from the deal Sentinel strikes with the Quintessons, the primary enemies of the Cybertronians inTransformers One’s timeline. Sentinel’s treaty with the Quintessons states that they will allow Iacon City to stand with Sentinel as its leader if he regularly provides them with Energon. Sentinel provides this by taking the transformer cogs of Iacon City’s miners and forcing them into a life of servitude.
This keeps the workers of Iacon City below ground and mining for Energon, as they believe it is keeping them, and all the other Cybertronians, alive…
Removing the cogs keeps the workers subservient, and the regular flow of Energon that is supplied to the Quintessons keeps Sentinel in power. Sentinel keeps this secret by not allowing anyone onto Cybertron’s surface; he states that only he is allowed above ground to look forTransformers One’s Matrix of Leadership. The Matrix of Leadership is what used to keep Energon flowing throughout Iacon City, with Sentinel stating it was lost when the Elder Primes were killed.
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Transformers One features the Elder Primes as key elements of the narrative, tweaking the lore surrounding the earliest heroes of Cybertron.
This keeps the workers of Iacon City below ground and mining for Energon, as they believe it is keeping them, and all the other Cybertronians, alive. However, Sentinel is simply taking the Energon mined by them and giving it to the Quintessons, all in exchange for his unwavering power over Iacon City. After finding out about this, Orion Pax and D-16 expose Sentinel Prime’s lies and his betrayal, leading to the resistance that sees Optimus Prime rise as the new Cybertronian leader inTransformers One’s ending.
Transformers One
Cast
Transformers One is an animated action-adventure movie that marks the first animated feature-length film for the series in decades. The film will be a prequel to the franchise, and will tell the story of Optimus Prime and Megatron in their early years, how they met, and a closer look at the war on their home planet, Cybertron.
