#source: tf wiki

[quibbs126]

So I think I saw someone mention the name Kiloton somewhere again recently, so I decided to search him up on the Wiki

And so you’re telling me that he was Megatron’s genuine close friend, whose death at the hands of humans was enough for him to restart the Cybertronian War?

Not only that, but that top picture in general??

Like I don’t know what to tell you man, seems like homosexual behavior to me

Megop may have a contender in my eyes now

[sacchiri]

Hellsing 2002 calendar illustration.

Ein wunderliche und erschröckliche Hystori von einem großen Wüttrich genant Dracole wayda Der do so ganz unkristenliche marrter hat angelegt die mensche, als mit spissen als auch die leut zu Tod geslyffen

A wondrous and frightening story about a great berserk called Dracula the voivode who inflicted such unchristian tortures such as with stakes and also dragged people to death

[howlsofbloodhounds]

bro i haven’t watched undertale yellow yet but i was reading a wiki about clover because you know color absorbed the justice soul and if it it’s accurate bro was moving crazy time for the human souls during the vengeance route (?)

[benevadeca]

KNB SOLO SERIES Translations Compilation

Hello for purposes of my own design I've been trying to collect all the KNB music content. Have only gotten thru the solo series so far but I'll do the duet series next. But the current state of things is:

Source missing for/translated on the fandom wiki but no source provided: Monologues 1-4, 9, 12 (momoi)

Missing translation for: Monologue 8 (koganei), 12 (riko), & 17 (haizaki)

So if anyone's able to help with the missing translations pls HMU lol.

1. Tetsuya Kuroko / Kenshō Ono

Monologues

FUTURE LINE

Kimi ga Hikari de Aru Tame ni

2. Taiga Kagami / Yūki Ono

Monologues

Eikō Made no Run and Gun

Michi no Tochū translation

3. Ry��ta Kise / Ryōhei Kimura

Monologues

Perfect Copy?

Sharara☆Goes On

4. Shintarō Midorima / Daisuke Ono

Monologues

Nerai doori no Destiny

Iwaku Kani-za no Kichijitsu ni v1

Iwaku Kani-za no Kichijitsu ni v2

5. Kazunari Takao / Tatsuhisa Suzuki

Monologues & F.O.V.

Ace-sama ni Banzai

6. Junpei Hyūga / Yoshimasa Hosoya

Monologues & CLUTCH TIME

Hanashi wo Shiyou

7. Shun Izuki / Hirofumi Nojima

Monologues & Kitakore!

Tatta Hitotsu no Hibi

8. Shinji Koganei / Takuya Eguchi

Monologues

Heibon Elegy

APPARE Seirin DAYS

9. Daiki Aomine / Junichi Suwabe

Monologues

UNSTOPPABLE

Netsu no Kakera

10. Teppei Kiyoshi / Kenji Hamada

Monologues & Strong Heart

Mou Sugu Modoru, Sono Basho de v1

Mou Sugu Modoru, Sono Basho de v2

11. Yukio Kasamatsu / Sōichiro Hoshi

Monologues & Songs

12. Riko Aida / Chiwa Saitō & Satsuki Momoi / Fumiko Orikasa

Monologue (Riko, missing entirely)

Monologue (Momoi)

GROWING UP

Brand-new Season

13. Tatsuya Himuro / Kishō Taniyama

Monologues

Any time, Any place

Ready Fight!!

14. Makoto Hanamiya / Jun Fukuyama

Monologues

MAD BREAKER

STEAL YOUR BREATH

15. Ryō Sakurai / Nobunaga Shimazaki

Monologues

QUICK START

Ayamari Kinoko no Yuutsu

16. Atsushi Murasakibara / Kenichi Suzumura

Monologues

LAZY LAZY

Rifujin ni,

17. Shōgo Haizaki / Masakazu Morita

Monologues

BUCK WILD

TYRANT

18. Seijūrō Akashi / Hiroshi Kamiya

Monologue 1

Monologue 2

FINAL EMPEROR

DOUBLE CORE

[winntir]

Smolder, pointing his weapon at Botanica: Tell me the name of God you fungal piece of shit!

Botanica: Do you feel your heart burning? Can you feel the struggle within? The fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. You cannot kill me in a way that matters.

Smolder, with tears streaming down his face: I'M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU!

[hasbr0mniverse]

G.I. Joe vs Transformers Month! Unreleased G.I. Joe Omega Supreme Repaint revealed at JoeCon 2011, proposed for a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover at some point. Timeline unknown. (Picture credit by Jesse Wittenrich)

[numbuh424]

guys the episode this is from aired on my birthday in 2007....

the lighting of this is kicking my ass so hard rn 🚶

[scourgeofmyownbrain]

Edit: I MADE AN UPDATED ONE GO LOOK AT THAT ONE IT'S BETTER I CITED MY SOURCES AND SHOWED MY WORK AND EVERYTHING

Ladies and Gentlemen, Bitches and Bastards, Witches and Wizards, Mothers and Fuckers. Esteemed robot enjoyers, I present to you a semi-accurate height comparison of Bumblebee across the multiverse (as of July 2024). This really helps visualize the truly staggering differences between universes, at least height-wise. Also, three of these characters are Canonically the Same Guy; guess which ones.

I spent way too much time on the chart in the back it's not even funny. I will probably make more height charts for more TF characters and universes in the future. Don't expect it soon though, because when I make these, I am fueled by pure I-Got-Bored-At-Work-And-I-Have-Decided-To-Fool-Around-With-Robot-PNGs, and that fuel supply is inconsistent at best.

Hey Fun Fact, Did you know that Generation 1 Optimus Prime is around 19 Feet Tall? Bet some of you already knew that. I have no ulterior motives for bringing this fact up, what are you talking about.

My height explanations are below the cut, because you couldn't shut me up if you tried.

In an order:

Gen 1 - ~10 feet (the wiki says greater than 3 meters so I rounded up to the first whole number because round)

Netflix Cybertron Trilogy - ~10 feet (He looks identical to Gen 1 so... the reason his photo looks weird is because I couldn't find a good full body photo with him standing straight up facing the camera so I put two images together to make the worst looking photoshop job you have ever seen)

Earth Spark - 10 feet (There is no confirmed height yet but using a screen shot of him standing in front of a barn door I was able to make a reasonable guess.)

Animated - 12 feet (I have no genuine source for this, I think this info is just someone's guesstimate, but it seems reasonable. He's a tiny two door mini car, how big could he be)

New Live Action - 15 feet (The wiki hath declared. Also do we have a name for this universe because we need one I don't want to keep saying like 6 words to differentiate this one from bayverse)

Bayverse V1 - 16 feet (This is like the first 3 movies minimum, I don't remember when he hits his growth spurt. also wiki my love)

Cyberverse - 18 feet (I'm gonna be honest, the only info we have is from a really shitty screen shot of a magazine. SO if any one has a copy of this book from the video below, a high quality scan would be greatly appreciated and I will kiss the ground you walk upon. Yes I found the video where the screen shot comes from leave me alone)

Bayverse V2 - 18 feet (movie 4-5 I can't remember which one, I'm not re-looking this up. I fucking love the bayverse tho, this is the only universe with concrete and consistent this-character-is-this-height info)

Aligned Cont. WF/FOC - 20 feet (video game info screens you god send, kiss me sweetly)

Aligned Cont. TFP/RID15 - 21 feet (I do not know exactly where these numbers were found, but I fully fucking believe them. Just by looking at these characters on the show I can verify these numbers in my mind. They made specifically this universe to be full of freakishly tall robots for some fucking reason.)

And for any one who doesn't know, the three tallest are the same guy. Like the 20 feet tall one and the 21 feet tall ones, same guy. The ones in three wildly different art styles and designs. Let that sink in...

I fucking hate the aligned continuity why is that one my favorite.

[katy-133]

The Other Teams of Team Fortress 2: An Essay

(Spoilers for issue 7 of the TF2 comics)

I wanted to talk more about this statue.

This scene infers that Team Fortress (which consists of the 9 mercs) is not the only team orchestrated by the Administrator.

I would say that this statue is meant to show off 6 different teams. I've written already about how the letter F (for Team Fortress) has been ripped of the statue. The reblogs in the thread of that post also point out that the TF logo is meant to be straight, but TF2's logo is crooked, visually showing that they are the scrappy team (thank you to hatoholic for this additional observation!).

This makes be believe that there is a ranking system, where the A team (aha, we see what they did there!) is considered the best, and F would be considered the worst.

Additional evidence of this is Classic Heavy's dialogue here:

Classic Heavy: "We spent six months huntin' down her best. Echelon. Citadel. Team Ajax, for god's sake. We got 'em all. We beat her. All she had left was you rejects."

(Image from issue 6 of the TF2 comic, The Naked and the Dead.)

Classic Heavy's words imply that he thinks that 1) Ajax was the team most unlikely for him to beat (his emphasis of, "For god's sake"). And, 2) That Team Fortress were so low in the hierarchy, that beating them was meant to be a mere formality.

Also, Valve retcon edited Classic Heavy's dialogue here when they released issue 7 of the comic. Before December 2024, the word Ajax had previously been Vanguard.

Below are the before and after edits of the panels. Image sources are the History page of the TF2 Wiki.

So Valve thought this detail to be so important that they edited previously-established canon (which is what a retcon is).

I also think Classic Heavy's dialogue also means that the Administrator had 6 teams, and no more. Team Fortress was her worse one, which means there were no lower ranked teams (no Team G, H, I, etc).

So the teams are:

Ajax

B?

Citadel

D?

Echelon

Fortress

We see glimpses of how the other teams look. We don't know who is from which team, but each team appears to use the same class system as Team Fortress:

On the statue, we see a man as Heavy with a big gun, an armoured figure with grenades as Soldier, a woman with a scoped rifle as Sniper, a man with I think a megaphone which I think makes him Scout, and woman Spy with a silencer.

Below, Pyro spots a poster of another Pyro, surrounded by flames, and Demoman sees what I think is another Demoman with rockets and I think explosives.

These other mercs also seem to have more advanced weaponry that Team Fortress, adding to their "rejects" image. They don't have as high of a budget for items.

Also, the Administrator (I'm assuming) removed Team Fortress from documentation. Either because she was so ashamed of them, thought them useless, or wanted to keep them hidden for some other purpose.

Back to the team names. Looking up dictionary definitions of each of them (Ajax, Citadel, Echelon, Fortress, and even the edited out Vanguard), I would describe each of these names having links to Latin and invoking war imagery:

AJAX: In Greek mythology, Ajax was the name of a hero from the Trojan War, as told in Homer's Iliad, renowned for his large stature and bravery. (Ajax means "mourner," "earth," or "land").

CITADEL: Fortified structure that is often located within a city or town. The word is from the Latin civitas ("citizenship" or "city").

ECHELON: A level or category within an organisation or group of people. Echelon comes from scala, a Latin word meaning "ladder."

FORTRESS: A strong place, a fortification.

VANGUARD: The troops that marched at the head of the army (van = "before," guard = "protect").

So, if I were asked to come up with a good B and D team name for a TF2 fanfic, I would open up a Latin dictionary and choose something that invokes war in my mind when I read the word's definition.

[dezmolad]

Transformers One: Decepticons and Autobots

Yesterday I went to see TFOne and while it was overall a fun experience I think it would be also fun to decompose the way this movie portrays soon-to-be 'cons and 'bots.

Beware of the spoilers!

So the society and worldbuilding of Transformers One is clearly inspired by both Alligned continuity (Transformers Prime and such) and IDW2005 G1 continuity (MTMTE, RiD and such) tales about how the world looked like before the war. Of course it was only a inspiration, the liberties has been taken but some specific changes seem... well, as if they feared their source matherial to me.

Making the society divided to classes, the existence of miners is a clear inspiration from the continuities I mentioned. BUT. Making the miners exclusively (from what i observed and checked on tf wiki), besides D-16, future autobots, when in the inspirations the decepticons basically rised up from the mines is something else.

It might be G1 cartoon inspiration, where we learn in one episode that Quintessons constructed autobots as working class (TFOne: miners) and decepticons as warrior class (TFOne: High Guard). But here, melted with IDW and Alligned inspirations it feels as if the creators wanted to kinda make autobots less morally grey that their inspirations intended. The fact that the only "bully" from higher class than miners we ever see being actually piece of shit with a name is Darkwing, who we know as a decepticon also is pretty telling.

Overall I feel like the creators of this movie really wanted to take inspirations from IDW and Alligned continuity but also felt stangely uncomfortable with the implications of those continuities. Of decepticons having a point, of autobots being morally complicated, to put it lightly. It's understandable as it's a mainstream, singular movie that can't be too complicated, but still it feels kinda disappointing to me.

Giving Orion Pax the role we saw Megatron in in inspirations (a poet and an activist in IDW, a politican and a gladiator in Alligned), in the scene where he gives the speech to the miners really hammers it down. We can literally imagine Megatron doing that in universes that gave inspirations to this movie!

If someone knows more about how the creative process around this part of the movie worked I'd be glad to know!

[ck-17088]

Transformers One Theories Part 1: Sentinel Prime and how he gained power on Cybertron (Special Guests: Quintessons) 

Hello, Transformers One has taken over my mind so I’ve been rewatching the trailers and reading some interviews/articles. One thing I’ve noticed is that the marketing for this movie is mainly focused on Orion Pax and D-16’s friendship and the tragedy of their eventual fallout. However, there is little information on Sentinel Prime and the role he plays in the movie. Since I’m delusional, I came up with these crazy theories about Sentinel Prime, specifically on how he’s the villain in this story. 

Before we get into my theories, here is some extra information that I’ll be referring to when explaining:

What We Know (trailers, interviews/articles, TV spots already released)- be warned, potential spoilers from articles/interviews released in Summer 2024

FYI- I will include screenshots from both trailers, so they should be images you've already seen- so no unexpected images.

In an IndieWire interview, the film was described as an “epic story about the rise of two leaders… including the start of a revolution, a years-long conspiracy and war with other aliens…”  

In an interview with Josh Cooley ( aka the director), he says that he “embraced the chance to explore.. political corruption, revolution, and war”

Cybertron is currently undergoing an Energon crisis/drought (from other interviews)

There was another conflict, which involved the Primes, that occurred before the events of the movie- at the SDCC panel, they showed a clip of Sentinel Prime giving a speech about a past battle that killed all of the Primes and some veterans.

Source Material (?)

Cooley also mentioned in an interview (and at the SDCC panel) that Hasbro gave him a “bible” of Transformers lore

In a different interview, he also said that in the original story for the movie, Megatron was a gladiator. In fact, there were gladiatorial fight scenes planned, but were eventually cut out. 

In addition, he and Orion Pax originally came from very different social backgrounds.

Does that sound familiar? (It should)

The “bible” of Transformers lore with D-16 as a gladiator and Orion Pax from a different social background would be the “Binder of Revelation”- which is what the Aligned Continuity (WOC games, TFP, Rescue Bots) is based on. 

I’ll be referring to the Aligned Continuity as “AC” from now on. Yes, I know it sounds like air-conditioning, deal with it.  

Therefore, I’ll also be talking about AC Sentinel Prime, as I believe that TFO Sentinel is heavily based on that version. 

In the AC, Cybertronians initially did not know how to transform, but everyone was born with a dormant T-cog. 

The Quintessons showed up later, pretending to be emissaries who wanted Cybertron to join the galactic community. They pretended to magically give the Cybertronians T-cogs and the ability to transform (they were activating the dormant T-cog). As a result, they were welcomed on Cybertron and gained public support from its inhabitants. 

Afterward, they set up a global puppet government ruled by Sentinel Zeta Prime and a small council of Cybertronians. They also established the social caste system where one’s alt mode determined their role in society. 

However, their facade was uncovered when a few individuals found out about their plan to sell Cybertronians. 

Sentinel Prime led a rebellion that kicked the Quintessons out of Cybertron.  

Afterward, Sentinel stayed as the leader of Cybertron and continued to enforce the caste system- making it the absolute way of life on Cybertron- which would later become one of the reasons for the start of the Great War. 

(Taken from TF Wiki) 

Now.. finally- my theories

THEORIES

Sentinel Prime is business partners with the Quintessons (sort of?) 

The first trailer shows some Quintessons arriving on the surface of Cybertron. Later shots show Sentinel Prime landing in front of one of the ships. In the background, there are also two trains,Airachnid, and some Vehicon-looking soldiers. It seems that they were expecting the Quintessons. They would have brought more soldiers and weapons if they were unexpected guests. Also, when one of the Quintessons grabs Sentinel, he seems distressed but makes no effort to escape. If it was an unexpected action, he may have reacted more violently. None of the soldiers in the background react to this too- meaning that this interaction isn't new. My main takeaway here is that Sentinel has interacted with the Quintessons before. 

In AC, the Quintessons secretly took over Cybertron and exploited its people and resources. What if they are doing something similar here? Some interviews said that an energon crisis/drought is happening on Cybertron, and Orion Pax and D-16 are energon miners working to help in this crisis. But what if there isn't a crisis going on? What if this is a cover-up for the truth that all of the energon is going to the Quintessons instead of the people?  The trains in the background came from below the planet where the mines are- so they may be carrying energon to give to the Quintessons. But is Sentinel willingly giving the energon to the Quintessons or is forced to? If he's doing this out of his own free will, then why?

Which brings me to the next theory…. 

Sentinel Prime was somehow involved with the demise of the original Primes 

At the beginning of the second trailer, there appears to be a monument under attack (explosions and Cybertronians running away from it). Other shots of the trailer show that this monument has the Matrix of Leadership and figures (at least 7) engraved in it. This is most likely a monument for the original Primes (and current) because other shots show statues of Sentinel Prime-they are blue and gold and have wings - surrounding it. 

As mentioned previously- before the Iacon 5000- Sentinel gives a speech about the Primes and how they perished in battle. Based on the giant monument and Sentinel’s speech, it’s safe that the Primes are well known and are considered important figures- perhaps heroes- on Cybertron. 

BUT- the first trailer shows the bodies of the Primes in a cave, where they are covered in vegetation- as if they were abandoned. If the Primes are considered important, heroic beings, why were their bodies left on the surface of Cybertron? Why were they not taken back to Iacon to be given a proper funeral? 

….. Something is fishy here.   

Like I said- this is a crazy theory, but I think Sentinel was responsible for the demise of the original Primes. Sentinel giving a speech about the Primes and the event/battle of their deaths suggests that he knows HOW they died.  The fact that a battle is mentioned indicates a war or conflict before the events of TFO. This lines up with what another interview said- that the movie would include wars with other aliens. 

These two pieces of information make me believe that before the movie's events, there was a war between Cybertronians (specifically the Primes) and Quintessons, who were invading the planet. To support that- in a shot with Orion Pax, D-16, and Bumblebee looking at Alpha Trion's recording, Alpha Trion is holding a blaster- he's directly involved in combat.

As said before, in AC, Sentinel was installed as the leader of a puppet government controlled by the Quintessons. But instead of being installed as leader directly by the Quintessons, he probably became leader in a different way in TFO.  

Sentinel may have been under the direct command of the Primes or was one himself. Tying back to the first theory-  I think he made a deal with the Quintessons. He betrayed the Primes- by leading them into a trap/battle where the Quintessons killed them (only Alpha Trion survived- somehow). In exchange for the Quintessons killing the Primes, which would allow him to become Cybertron's leader, he would give them the planet's energon. As a result, the Quintessons would have someone who would give them the resources (energon) they want.  

Also- in the same clip with Orion Pax, D-16, etc.- Orion says that the recording is an SOS call- I betting this was sent when the Primes were overwhelmed by the Quintessons.  Since the call never made it through, someone-maybe Sentinel- blocked it or hid it until the main cast found it. 

Overall, this would be a beneficial situation for both parties- Sentinel gets control/power over the planet, and the Quintessons get Energon without spending time and resources trying to conquer Cybertron. This may also explain why no one is allowed to go to the surface- they might see the Quintessons and discover the Primes’ bodies- and put into question Sentinel’s true loyalties.  There is supposedly a  “years-long conspiracy” involved in this movie, which may be referring to this- the Primes were murdered, and the Quintessons have control of the planet’s resources through Sentinel, who has been lying all these years about the fates of the Primes and where the Energon actually goes. 

Summary of my theories: 

Before the events of TFO, there was a war between Cybertronians and Quintessons, with the Primes defending Cybertron. Sentinel made a deal with the Quintessons. He betrayed the original Primes, allowing the Quintessons to kill them, thus giving him leadership over the planet. This benefits the Quintessons because they get a leader who willingly gives them the planet’s energon. To prevent the Cybertronian population from discovering Sentinel’s role in the Primes’ demise AND the Quintessons, they are not allowed to go to the surface under the assumption/lie that the surface is dangerous. 

This would be a new twist on the events in the Aligned Continuity while also combining a few elements of other versions of Sentinel into one: the jerk from TFA, the betrayer from Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and the leader who only gained power through association with the Quintessons from AC.  

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my rambling. I have no clue if both of my theories are straight up wrong or somewhat correct... but regardless there will be a part 2 of Sentinel Prime Theories coming later....

[robot-reference]

hey guys can i ask for help to crowd source this? this is reference technically

i am looking for any and all minor (and minor-ish) transformer characters who are/were medics, firefighters, engineers, police officers and first responder types or could be implied to be so, any series is fine but you can specify! (they don't need to be autobots only)

i need this for reasons 👀 feel free to add your unsung blorbos to the list (bonus points for tf wiki links)

this is mostly off of the LL crew list as a starting point (i may have missed some)

medic

Hoist , Lancet (presumably), Medix

firefighter

Fervor , Kindle , Inferno , Hosehead , Hot Spot

police

Ore , Shock , Streetwise

engineer

Huffer

msc.

Grapple (engineer arguably) Rook (unspecified rescue) Heatrock (probably rescue) Skyfeather (probably rescue) Groove (probably rescue, maybe police?)

[catcake24]

Learned some trivia from a meme recently

I checked, and this Tf Wiki Source backs it up

Wonder if this means that C-01 could be Orion’s original numerical designation (if he had one)?

[artsy-hobbitses]

If I may ask, what's it like creating an au? Are there any rules or guidelines you set up for yourself or is it all just a creative flow? Also, have any tips for motivation in the process?

Fun! And I feel like that's the most important part of it, because it's yours to do with what you will at the end of the day!

The rules and guidelines? Completely up to you! Some people want hard magic (ie. defined rules and limitations to tech or magic in the world), some people want soft magic (think high fantasy and rule of cool tech), some people want a coffee shop AU, and that is valid! In my case I wanted a mostly hard magic setting as a platform for me to tell more grounded, dramatic, semi-realistic stories that echoed how the comics made me feel when I read them, so that called for certain narrative limitations, more work on my end to create the setting, society, timeline, etc. Engage with different media, find inspiration from many sources (if you want to make a TF AU, don't just lift from TF media!) and let the process happen!

As for motivation, you have to be your biggest hype man. You have to love what you do. You have to love these characters and want to tell these stories, never be insincere about what you're doing and half-heart it because the audience will know. That's one thing I picked up from my design class in college where I was just drawing pages and pages and pages of stuff for our project, lost in my own sauce of characters and stories, and I wasn't very technically sound yet, but the lecturer told everyone to "love the process" as much as I did. The drawing, the writing, the researching. Kick your feet and giggle at the epic quote or wordplay you came up at 2am, go on ALL the wiki walks, it's not a waste of time if you enjoyed it and it added something to your creative process!

You have to, for the days that your AU is still young and the notes and few and the inbox is empty, as not many have had a chance to revel in it with you. That's what keeps it alive!

And remember, even if it's not wrong to want engagement for that AU and ofc we thrive on it here, this is first and foremost for YOU!

[pearbosc]

I'm really annoying about FE3H lore misinformation bc the wikis for this fandom are shit, and I stayed up too late last night because I noticed Lambert's fandom wiki article said he went to Garreg Mach with Rodrigue (obviously), Sylvain's dad (canon), and Ingrid's dad (????), who was supposedly named Gunnar, and I'm like literally when tf did they ever say this? When did anyone say his name was fucking Gunnar? And after like 2 hours my wonderful gf tracked down the source from this 3 hopes support between Rodrigue and Shez. And no I do not think a 30+ year old man attended Garreg Mach with those three so I made an account on that stupid website to fix it

[darkstarofchaos]

hello, I’m sorry to bother you but I need some help. I’m trying to work out a time line of when tarantulas and prowl were together (IDW). Mainly I’m trying to double check who was prime by the time prowl had impactor get rid of him. I’m trying to get events to line up for a project I’m working on but have not been able to find reliable sources. I knew your page already and thought you may have an idea. If not, what would be your headcanon?

Thank you!

The short answer: Zeta was Prime. Springer appeared before Zeta's death, so we know Ostaros had already been integrated into the Autobots. We also know from Prowl and Mesothulas' conversation in one of the flashbacks that the Autobots had established a high command, and that Prowl's commanders were "dazzled by [his] accomplishments" - both details implying that Prowl wasn't a part of that high command, and neither compatible with his time serving under Sentinel (who seemed to be Prowl's only commander, and who found him frustrating at best).

The longer answer is that it's complicated because of assorted retcons, inconsistencies in Prowl's characterization between writers, and just standard continuity errors, but Zeta was probably Prime. If I had to make some sense of a frankly dubious timeline, though, I'd lay things out something like this:

Prowl works under Sentinel and spends at least part of his time trying to keep Sentinel in check while societal unrest grows. Then Sentinel and the Senate are wiped out.

Zeta takes over as Prime and establishes a new Senate - Prowl is not included in this reorganization and is instead returned to police work, possibly because he's known to have conflicted with Sentinel on matters of appropriate use of power (or, as Orion put it, he was put behind a desk because he believes the system is corrupt. I can only assume this role was more clerical than supervisory, given the reasoning behind it).

Prowl works with Orion on a few investigations, and frequently finds himself reprising his old role of reining in the abuse of power thanks to Orion being something of a corrupt cop himself.

The Exodus happens and Prowl, having never wanted to live in the chaos of war, is among the neutrals who try to leave. This does not go to plan and Prowl comes to resent himself for trying to "run away" instead of helping with the war effort. He enlists with the Autobots soon after.

Determined to end the war, Prowl eventually turns to questionable methods and begins his partnership with Mesothulas, providing him with resources and a lab in exchange for weapons.

Things go to plan until Carpessa, where Prowl's resolve crumbles at the realization of his own growing corruption. Then Mesothlas reveals that he's even worse and not interested in being better, because he built the torture prison Prowl had thought they agreed not to build. He gets Impactor to take care of the problem for him, but neither can off Ostaros, who gets handed over to Kup.

Centuries later, Mesothulas gets out of the Noisemaze and deals with his trauma in a very healthy manner: using Roadbuster to get corpses to experiment with, and also presumably spying on Prowl. At some point his scientific pursuits take him off-world, and Impactor cashes in his favor with Prowl to get Roadbuster released with minimum rehab.

And then the war goes on, then it ends, yadda yadda. But that last bullet is my biggest point of frustration with the timeline we're given, because it barely makes sense. Also, several pages on TF Wiki insist that Mesothulas manipulating Roadbuster happened before Prowl started working with him, and that Impactor agreed to get rid of him in exchange for Roadbuster's release. Even though this is explicitly not what happened.

Tarantulas tells Prowl that he perfected biological altmodes on Earth, which led to his own reformatting. He then later tells Roadbuster that it was "this body, reduced to its tiniest size" that allowed him to talk to him unnoticed. The wording implies that Tarantulas already had his spider form then, even though he couldn't have had it for more than a few hundred thousand years, and there's no indication that he ever returned to Cybertron (though he also says Roadbuster played a part in Tarantulas' restoration, so one could also read it as his original altmode also being very small, or that he figured out size changing before leaving Cybertron, which is what makes the most sense to me).

Regardless of how you interpret it, the intent seems very clearly to be that the "Roadbuster affair" happened after Prowl stopped working with Mesothulas, not before. And I have no idea how it could have been misinterpreted to such an extent that almost every relevant Wiki page lists it as happening before (though if it did happen before, I guess that's checkmate to the "Prowl corrupted Mesothulas by abusing him" crowd).

Anyway, hopefully some of this is helpful!