Decipticons

The Decepticons are usually depicted as the antagonists in the fictional universes of the Transformers toyline and related comics and cartoons, and the enemies of the Autobots.^[2][3][4] The villains take many forms, and have many different origins and stories across the numerous different Transformers media, but in almost all incarnations, they are led by Megatron. They are typically represented by the purple facial insignia they all wear. Primarily, Decepticons have red eyes, while Autobots have blue eyes. They are usually known for their air power, especially since many of them turn into aircraft. They often turn into military vehicles, construction vehicles, and even smaller-than-human-sized objects.

Most Decepticons think very little of humans and consider them no better than pests or "insects". This is strongly emphasized in the 2007 film Transformers, when Megatron is seen flicking a human like a bug and saying "disgusting". Another example is when the Decepticon Frenzy complained about how the "stupid insects" tried to shoot him. In the animated series, Starscream works with the human, Doctor Arkeville and comments about how little he cares about destroying the entire planet Earth in order to achieve his goal.

In the Japanese version of the franchise, the Decepticons are called Destron or Deathtron (Japanese: デストロン Desutoron). The one exception to this naming convention is Car Robots, where the sub-group referred to as "Decepticons" in the Robots in Disguise adaptation, is known in Japan as the Combatrons (the Japanese name of the G1 subgroup known as the Combaticons). The overall name of the Robots in Disguise villain faction is Destronger. However, the Japanese Version of Transformers Animated uses Decepticon.

Megatron

Megatron is depicted as a cool-headed schemer - a Machiavellian plotter, and a master in psychological warfare, yet also a skilled battlefield commander. Honor is a disgusting concept to Megatron (ironic since he would later develop a form of it himself); he manipulates, lies and bribes to get his way, and is often given to fits of ego, patting himself on the back for accomplishments or making a smooth quote. He often uses his overconfidence and presence as a scare-tactic to intimidate foes and to get his subordinates in rank. Megatron always has a secret agenda which is usually convoluted and involves calculated risks, gambles, and manipulating other Transformers, and usually leads him to near, but rarely complete, victory. His ultimate goal is the conquest of Cybertron, where he was branded a criminal.^[2]

Megatron does, however, afford himself a selection of personal foibles, such as his trademark utterances of the word "ye-e-e-sss" or "No-o-o-o-ooo" in an exaggeratedly self-impressed way after certain statements, or as a stand-alone emphatic phrase, and his possession of a yellow rubber ducky, which he sometimes takes with him into the cryo-regeneration jacuzzi. He also has a rather dark sense of humor. Despite being brilliant and even charming at times, deep down Megatron is completely evil to the core. He is viewed as something of a fanatical terrorist even by his fellow Predacons and is willing to tamper with the fabric of existence just to settle his grudge with the Maximals. However, Megatron does not view himself as such: he believes he is fighting for the freedom of the Predacons, whom he views as being enslaved by the Maximals and the Pax Cybertronia.

Few pieces of information exist about Megatron before the Beast Wars. The Japanese Beast Wars II toy catalogue claims that he had battled and lost to Galvatron (the villain of that series) in the past, while the 2006 BotCon comics claimed he was previously a commander in the Predacon army who had developed many of the Predacons' tactics.

Starscream

Due to his treachery and personality, Starscream has had many future characters within the franchise to bear his name, most of which share his desire to become leader of the Decepticons. Starscream has, at some points, had control over the Decepticons, but his actions usually lead him to being defeated, or overruled by the more powerful Megatron. Starscream makes no secret of his ambition to overthrow Megatron as leader of the Decepticons. He is more intelligent than the average Decepticon, ruthless and cruel, but he is also unlikely to directly act on his ultimate ambition without assurance of conditions favorable to his ascension. He considers himself vastly superior to other Decepticons, and looks down on Megatron for being antiquated in his military strategies and tactics. Starscream believes that the Decepticons should rely more on guile and speed rather than brute destructive force to defeat the Autobots, although when he is given the chance to strike out on his own, he is often less successful than Megatron. Megatron frequently overlooks the potential threat that Starscream represents, though it is occasionally suggested that Megatron tolerates his presence for various reasons, such as a grudging respect for his scheming nature, or a mere safety precaution to keep an eye on him. However, Starscream often exhausts Megatron's patience quickly; violent-yet-brief verbal and/or physical conflicts are not uncommon between the two.

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Abilities

Starscream transforms into a McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and serves as the Decepticon Air Commander, leading the other DecepticonSeeker jets, many of whom share his physical design. According to his technical specifications, he can reach speeds up to Mach 2.8, and can climb up to sub-orbital altitudes of 52 miles (84 km) and nose-dive down to ground level in minutes (the real aircraft has a top speed of Mach 2.5 with an altitude ceiling of 65,000 feet (19,800 m), or 12.3 miles). His arm is mounted with launchers (mounted under his wings in jet mode), which can launch two types of weaponry—cluster bombs, each of which can level an area 10,000 square feet (900 m²), and his signature weapon, the null ray, which can disrupt the flow of electricity in any circuitry it hits for brief periods, effectively rendering any electronic device or machine (including Transformers) temporarily inoperable.

Shockwave

As the Decepticons' military operations commander, Shockwave's power is second only to Megatron, and even that is disputed. His actions are carried out with the cold, brutal clarity and perfection one would expect of a purely mechanical being—his way is not that of blood lust, like so many other Decepticons, but rather that of a scientist attempting to solve a problem. And that problem is: how can he use his abilities to most effectively eliminate the greatest number of enemies? Unfortunately for the Autobots, it is rare that Shockwave does not find an answer.

Unlike most early Transformers Shockwave was not modified into an Earthly form, and retains his Cybertron alternate mode—a 35-foot-long ray gun. He possesses the power of flight in both modes, and commands the totality of the electromagnetic spectrum allowing him to emit beams of energy in a wide variety of forms. His high energy output makes him particularly fuel inefficient, but radioactive fuel sources stored in the reactor in his chest can help Shockwave to overcome this problem. Although his logical brain center is usually an advantage, human adversaries often pose more of a difficulty to Shockwave, as more intuitive and emotional thought processes often confound him.

While the animated series established Shockwave as fanatically loyal to Megatron, Shockwave's original bio and most fiction since have described him as coldly and patiently looking for ways to overthrow Megatron, not for personal power (as Starscream would) but simply because it was logical for him to do so. Shockwave concluded that he should rule so that no emotion should prevent the Decepticons from conquering the universe. This was retained in most comic books, where Shockwave became leader of the Decepticons.

Unusually for a 1985 (second year) toy, Shockwave was part of Transformers fiction from the first year, appearing in both the original cartoon pilot and 4-issue comic book miniseries.

Devastator

Devastator is the combined form of the Constructicons.^[1]

The team's combined form is brutality in its purest form—his sole purpose is to destroy anything and everything that gets in his way. It is ironic that the suitably intelligent Constructicons should sacrifice their thinking ability in their combined form, but simple-mindedness is a common limitation of the assorted other first-generation combining Transformers, because Devastator's thoughts and actions are limited to what his six components can agree upon at any given time.^[2] Consequently, Devastator seems like a being of instinct, lashing out at everything around him before contemplating the consequences, but he is also slow and lumbering and very easy to trip up.^[3]

According to information printed in the Marvel U.K. Transformers comic book Devastator is about 100 feet tall. The notes for the 1984 animated series place him as a bit shorter though, being only 48 feet tall.

Ravage

Ravage is one of a very small number of Transformers to have featured in both the original Transformers series and its 1990s CGIsuccessor, Beast Wars: Transformers. His history within both series is intertwined back and forth in a unique fashion.

The original Ravage toy was packaged along with the Decepticon Rumble. When Soundblaster was reissued in Japan, and his repaint as the original Soundwave in the U.S., Ravage was included.

In the audio books Autobots' Lightning Strike and Autobots Fight Back, Ravage is referred to as a hound.

The stealthy, shadowy Ravage operates best alone. A creature of the night, Ravage performs most of his actions in the darkness, both literally and figuratively—there are times when he will cloak himself in such shadow and subterfuge that not even his fellow Decepticons know where he is or what he's doing ... but since whatever he's up to is sure to be bad news for the Autobots, they do not really mind. Ravage is aloof, but his craftiness and deadliness mean that his actions command respect from his comrades.

Not in possession of a conventional humanoid form, Ravage's robot mode resembles an Earth Panther. He is capable of masking himself from many forms of detection: he walks without a sound, becomes virtually invisible in subdued light or shadow, and he can shield his internal electromagnetic radiation from monitoring devices. Superior sensors in his nose module give him highly advanced senses of smell, hearing and electromagnetic wave detection, and he is armed with two low-radiation one-megaton proton bombs mounted on his rear hips. Ravage's greatest weakness is the light - in addition to robbing him of his invisibility powers, he is simply particularly sensitive to it, and can be blinded by especially bright bursts.

Like the other Decepticon cassettes ("Cassettrons" in Japan), Ravage is connected to Soundwave, although the strength of this link varies from continuity to continuity, appearing at its strongest in the original animated series. Although presented by the toy line to be amicrocassette, the fiction presented Ravage's alternate mode as a standard-sized cassette.

Although never fully explored, it is safe to assume that Ravage, along with his other fellow cassette tapes share some sort of close bond to Soundwave, whether this be as a leader or as a parental-type figure. Whatever the relationship is, the cassettes must coexist with Soundwave for both protection and possibly regeneration, after all they stand more chance of survival housed in his compartment than on their own due to sheer size and power output. As Soundwave's loyalties ultimately rest with Megatron, the cassettes follow suit, obeying their leader's orders without question. Ravage would most likely come to Soundwave's defense or protection in battle, much like a dog and its owner, and portrayals in various continuities would show him to be almost fanatically loyal to Megatron.

Sideways

Sideways operated as a high-speed reconnaissance operative with the ability to snipe at Autobot opponents from afar with his plasma sniper rifle, engage them up-close with his rapid-firing slag repeater, and slow enemies to a crawl with his graviton mine when he needed to get away. He uses a pair of saws in melee combat.

Sideways was deployed to Shanghai after the Autobots and their NEST allies were detected interfering with an important operation in the area. Upon arrival, various Protectobot drones were sent to stop him, but failed. Later, Sideways was sent to the Shanghai waterfront to retrieve Grindor, who had been damaged and captured by the Autobots. The nimble Decepticon sports car used a combination of speed and guile to fight his way through the numerically superior Autobot forces, freed Grindor and escorted his bigger buddy back to the extraction point. He was sent back to the waterfront again find a cloaked Autobot probe that threatened the Decepticon operations in China. Following the probe's wake, Sideways raced through the waterfront past startled human dockworkers and theProtectobot units assigned to the area, destroying the probe as it revealed itself.