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Cyclonus's Armada (G1)

2007-09-11T22:09:16Z

24.208.232.69: /* Five Faces of Darkness */

{{Template:Disambig2|the nameless Transformer in TF:TM|the franchise '''Armada'''|Armada}}

[[Image:Cyclonus armada tftf.jpg|thumb|250px|Who cares if the President doesn't exist? He's a great American!]]

'''Cyclonus's Armada''' refers to the one (or more) seemingly identical robots created by Unicron at the same time as [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] in [[The Transformers: The Movie (1986)| the 1986 movie]]. The Armada is something of a continuity headache, partly because of the question of [[Cyclonus (G1)#Who is Cyclonus?|who Cyclonus is]], and partly because the single robot shown being created immediately disappears from the film, to be replaced (generally speaking) with an additional [[Sweep]].

As Cyclonus's personal forces, the Armada is/are the logical counterpart to [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]]'s [[Sweep]]s. The script for the movie refers to them thusly:

:<tt>CYCLONUS is CREATED and then his "armada" of similar, but smaller and similarly colored and clad creatures are formed.</tt>

The actual ''number'' of robots in the 'Armada' are unknown. While Unicron had only six Decepticons to transform<ref>Six Decepticons; [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]], [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]], [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]], [[Kickback (G1)|Kickback]], [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]], and [[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]] were ejected from [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]]</ref> at least ''five'' Sweeps are seen at one point in this scene, and the inclusion of the [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]], with the ability to clone themselves, makes the actually numbering ambiguous.<ref>Either more than the 6 Transformers seen were present (likely in the form of more Insecticon clones) or the Sweeps (and the Armada?) retained the Insecticons' cloning abilities. Or a wizard did it.</ref>.

Opinions differ on the armada's actual "existence". Since Cyclonus's personal army was dropped in production, and the figure disappears from the film after the re-creation scene, some argue its inclusion is little more than an error, and should be ignored. The term 'Armada' or 'Cyclonus's armada' is used to refer to the continuity-headache it represents (almost like a label) without implying anything about a fan's [[personal canon|individual belief]] in its/their existence/nonexistence.

==The armada's fate==
===The Movie===
[[Image:Armada idw20th boom.jpg|thumb|left|]]
[[IDW]]'s 2006 [[Transformers: The Animated Movie]] comic, a faithful retelling of the 1986 movie, shows a jet identical to Cyclonus being destroyed by [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]]'s fire-breath. This is generally interpreted as the comic's "explanation" for the Armada's subsequent disappearance in the movie- it was destroyed in its first combat encounter.

''Grimlock does indeed use his firebreath like this in the movie itself, but the target of his wrath was unambiguously Cyclonus himself with [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] inside. However while Cyclonus survived that encounter with little damage- his lookalike in the comic goes kersplodey with equal unambiguity.''

===Five Faces of Darkness===
[[Image:Cycloni ffod5.jpg|thumb|Four jets of this type are seen at once in Five Faces of Darkness.]]
At least four jets of Cyclonus' design<ref>Four jets of Cyclonus's design are seen in a single shot on two separate occasions.</ref> take place in the final assault on Cybertron in "[[Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5]]".

One possibility is that the animators accidentially grabbed Cyclonus' model sheet instead of Scourge's when trying to draw the Sweeps. This is not a large leap to make when one considers how many other blatant animation errors the FFOD miniseries contains.

It has also been ''suggested'' that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]]'s battle with [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]] and [[Dirge (G1)|Dirge]] (where the latter two are apparently destroyed) is 'actually' supposed to be a battle with the armada. And indeed, after this battle only two jets of Cyclonus's type are seen together. However, Dirge and Ramjet had speaking roles, and were in-character at the time. And were later seen to be alive.<ref>Dirge played a prominent role in "[[Ghost in the Machine]]".</ref> ''And'' Dirge was implied to be dead.<ref>[[Octane (G1)|Octane]] bumps into what he seems to believe is Dirge's [[Transformer funerary practices#Decepticons|funerary marker]] in the [[Decepticon Crypt]] in "[[Starscream's Ghost]]". (He does not mention Dirge by name.)</ref> And Dirge died in the movie too.<ref>[[Unicron|*burp*]]</ref>''<nowiki>*sigh*</nowiki> It's something of a mess.''

Regardless, the general consensus is that Cyclonus's armada, whatever their numbers, no longer exist by the time "Five Faces of Darkness" ends and the 3rd season of the cartoon proper begins.

==Proper name?==
Reasoning that '''Armada''' might as well be a proper name since there's only one of him, many fans refer to Cyclonus's doppelgänger in the recreation scene by that name.

In the original movie script Unicron uses the same rote format to introduce both Scourge and Cyclonus, and the word 'armada' is used in the same place the descriptive 'huntsmen' is for the Sweeps;

{|
|+ '''1986 Movie'''
|-
|" ||Scourge, ||the tracker.... ||and his huntsmen... ||the Sweeps... ||"
|-
|" ||Cyclonus, ||the warrior... ||and his armada.... || ||"
|}

As envisioned in the original script, 'armada' is not a proper noun. However, the 2006 comic adaption (which added the destruction of a single Cyclonus-type Jet during Galvatron's raid on [[Autobot City]]) parsed things differently;

{|
|+ '''2006 comic adaption'''
|-
|" ||'''SCOURGE''', ||THE TRACKER.... ||...AND HIS HUNTSMEN— ||'''THE SWEEPS'''! ||"
|-
|" ||'''CYCLONUS'''— ||THE WARRIOR... ||...AND HIS '''ARMADA'''! || ||"
|}
So while Armada was ''intended'' to be an improper noun, at least one source has treated it as a ''proper'' noun. Since ''that'' source (the 2006 comic) is the only one to explicitly address the 'problem' of the Armada... one could argue that it should have the final word. ...or not.

==Who is the armada?==
[[Image:Armadadecepticon.jpg|thumb|Sticker from the 2007 'Masterpiece' Skywarp]]
[[Image:Wreckersskywarpcyclonus.jpg|thumb|left|Oy.]]
The Armada's identity prior to re-creation somewhat fraught; there may be more than one of him/them, but it's also tied up in the question of [[Cyclonus (G1)#Who_is_Cyclonus.3F|who is Cyclonus?]].

Traditional [[fan-reasoning]] is that [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]] and [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] were more prominent characters, and should have becomes [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] and [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]]. ''Unfortunately'' every visual representation ever, spanning 20+ years, has shown Cyclonus to be created from [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]].<ref>Of course, the 2003 Australian movie DVD claims Bombshell became a [[Sweep]], but we don't think those character profiles were approved by Hasbro, fans tend to ignore them.</ref><ref>Bombshell was also at Starscream's subsequent coronation. Or maybe it was [[Salvo]]. Or maybe Cyclonus was Salvo. Skywarp was at the coronation too. ''*sigh* It's something of a mess.''</ref>

The 2007 'Masterpriece' Skywarp toy includes a 'Armada Decepticon' sticker which seems to indicate Skywarp did indeed become the Armada. Of course, a 2003 DVD profile states unequivocally that Skywarp became Cyclonus.<ref>It also states Cyclonus and Scourge are 'Unicrons.' Just ignore it, we all do!</ref> In the [[Beast Era]], Cyclonus and Skywarp were running around at the same time, so either Skywarp became an/the Armada, or there's some really nasty [[budding]] involved.

This may all be moot; everyone but Megatron involved in Unicrons' re-creation appears to have been ''dead'', so neither Cyclonus nor his Armada should remember their previous existence any more than [[Hook, Line, and Sinker]] do. Several sources<ref>That same unreliable DVD release, Cyclonus [[Heroes of Cybertron]] PVC, much more reliably.</ref> actually state that Cyclonus was forged from the remains of ''several'' Decepticons.

Headaches and confusion aside, the vast preponderance of sources agree that Skywarp became the Armada (or at least one of them.)

==Fan wub==
[[Image:Cyclonus oddity armadaesque.jpg|thumb|100px|Nobody tell [[e-Hobby]]. I will ''murder'' you.]]
Um... kay... see, there's this one ''guy'', who's like- totally just like Cyclonus, only he has different colors...

And I know we don't, you know, ''count'' that kind of thing, because it's always just an animation error and stuff? Like it was supposed to be Dirge, or a Cyclonus-lookalike and some colorist screwed up, and he's only in 1 frame of animation an' everything...?

...except, you know, he like, shows up again later, in the same color scheme, this time in jet mode, fully animated doing a bombing run. (This is after Dirge dies too, so it's not him.)

Soo... I know the ''usual'' standard for distinguishing a [[generic]] from a boo-boo is that it either has to make no sense for it to be a mistake, or it has to be repeated. And this one's ''totally'' repeated...

pleasedonthateme

'''Note:''' ''We will also murder you for telling e-Hobby about the [[Cybertronian Empire]] guy who looks just like Cyclonus.'' <tt>Cyclonus + e-Hobby = your murder</tt> ''can probably be thought of as a general rule.

==Footnotes==
<references/>
==External links==
* [http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb/tf/tidbits/tftm_script.txt Original script for TF:TM]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9xbI5a1ilk Galvatron's re-creation scene] — on YouTube

[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category: Generation 1 characters]]
[[Category: Unicron-related characters]]<div id="wikia-credits"> From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</div>

Cyclonus's Armada (G1)

2007-09-11T22:08:52Z

24.208.232.69: /* Five Faces of Darkness */

{{Template:Disambig2|the nameless Transformer in TF:TM|the franchise '''Armada'''|Armada}}

[[Image:Cyclonus armada tftf.jpg|thumb|250px|Who cares if the President doesn't exist? He's a great American!]]

'''Cyclonus's Armada''' refers to the one (or more) seemingly identical robots created by Unicron at the same time as [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]] in [[The Transformers: The Movie (1986)| the 1986 movie]]. The Armada is something of a continuity headache, partly because of the question of [[Cyclonus (G1)#Who is Cyclonus?|who Cyclonus is]], and partly because the single robot shown being created immediately disappears from the film, to be replaced (generally speaking) with an additional [[Sweep]].

As Cyclonus's personal forces, the Armada is/are the logical counterpart to [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]]'s [[Sweep]]s. The script for the movie refers to them thusly:

:<tt>CYCLONUS is CREATED and then his "armada" of similar, but smaller and similarly colored and clad creatures are formed.</tt>

The actual ''number'' of robots in the 'Armada' are unknown. While Unicron had only six Decepticons to transform<ref>Six Decepticons; [[Megatron (G1)|Megatron]], [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]], [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]], [[Kickback (G1)|Kickback]], [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]], and [[Shrapnel (G1)|Shrapnel]] were ejected from [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]]</ref> at least ''five'' Sweeps are seen at one point in this scene, and the inclusion of the [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticons]], with the ability to clone themselves, makes the actually numbering ambiguous.<ref>Either more than the 6 Transformers seen were present (likely in the form of more Insecticon clones) or the Sweeps (and the Armada?) retained the Insecticons' cloning abilities. Or a wizard did it.</ref>.

Opinions differ on the armada's actual "existence". Since Cyclonus's personal army was dropped in production, and the figure disappears from the film after the re-creation scene, some argue its inclusion is little more than an error, and should be ignored. The term 'Armada' or 'Cyclonus's armada' is used to refer to the continuity-headache it represents (almost like a label) without implying anything about a fan's [[personal canon|individual belief]] in its/their existence/nonexistence.

==The armada's fate==
===The Movie===
[[Image:Armada idw20th boom.jpg|thumb|left|]]
[[IDW]]'s 2006 [[Transformers: The Animated Movie]] comic, a faithful retelling of the 1986 movie, shows a jet identical to Cyclonus being destroyed by [[Grimlock (G1)|Grimlock]]'s fire-breath. This is generally interpreted as the comic's "explanation" for the Armada's subsequent disappearance in the movie- it was destroyed in its first combat encounter.

''Grimlock does indeed use his firebreath like this in the movie itself, but the target of his wrath was unambiguously Cyclonus himself with [[Galvatron (G1)|Galvatron]] inside. However while Cyclonus survived that encounter with little damage- his lookalike in the comic goes kersplodey with equal unambiguity.''

===Five Faces of Darkness===
[[Image:Cycloni ffod5.jpg|thumb|Four jets of this type are seen at once in Five Faces of Darkness.]]
At least four jets of Cyclonus' design<ref>Four jets of Cyclonus's design are seen in a single shot on two separate occasions.</ref> take place in the final assault on Cybertron in "[[Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5]]".

One possibility is that that the animators accidentially grabbed Cyclonus' model sheet instead of Scourge's when trying to draw the Sweeps. This is not a large leap to make when one considers how many other blatant animation errors the FFOD miniseries contains.

It has also been ''suggested'' that [[Ultra Magnus (G1)|Ultra Magnus]]'s battle with [[Ramjet (G1)|Ramjet]] and [[Dirge (G1)|Dirge]] (where the latter two are apparently destroyed) is 'actually' supposed to be a battle with the armada. And indeed, after this battle only two jets of Cyclonus's type are seen together. However, Dirge and Ramjet had speaking roles, and were in-character at the time. And were later seen to be alive.<ref>Dirge played a prominent role in "[[Ghost in the Machine]]".</ref> ''And'' Dirge was implied to be dead.<ref>[[Octane (G1)|Octane]] bumps into what he seems to believe is Dirge's [[Transformer funerary practices#Decepticons|funerary marker]] in the [[Decepticon Crypt]] in "[[Starscream's Ghost]]". (He does not mention Dirge by name.)</ref> And Dirge died in the movie too.<ref>[[Unicron|*burp*]]</ref>''<nowiki>*sigh*</nowiki> It's something of a mess.''

Regardless, the general consensus is that Cyclonus's armada, whatever their numbers, no longer exist by the time "Five Faces of Darkness" ends and the 3rd season of the cartoon proper begins.

==Proper name?==
Reasoning that '''Armada''' might as well be a proper name since there's only one of him, many fans refer to Cyclonus's doppelgänger in the recreation scene by that name.

In the original movie script Unicron uses the same rote format to introduce both Scourge and Cyclonus, and the word 'armada' is used in the same place the descriptive 'huntsmen' is for the Sweeps;

{|
|+ '''1986 Movie'''
|-
|" ||Scourge, ||the tracker.... ||and his huntsmen... ||the Sweeps... ||"
|-
|" ||Cyclonus, ||the warrior... ||and his armada.... || ||"
|}

As envisioned in the original script, 'armada' is not a proper noun. However, the 2006 comic adaption (which added the destruction of a single Cyclonus-type Jet during Galvatron's raid on [[Autobot City]]) parsed things differently;

{|
|+ '''2006 comic adaption'''
|-
|" ||'''SCOURGE''', ||THE TRACKER.... ||...AND HIS HUNTSMEN— ||'''THE SWEEPS'''! ||"
|-
|" ||'''CYCLONUS'''— ||THE WARRIOR... ||...AND HIS '''ARMADA'''! || ||"
|}
So while Armada was ''intended'' to be an improper noun, at least one source has treated it as a ''proper'' noun. Since ''that'' source (the 2006 comic) is the only one to explicitly address the 'problem' of the Armada... one could argue that it should have the final word. ...or not.

==Who is the armada?==
[[Image:Armadadecepticon.jpg|thumb|Sticker from the 2007 'Masterpiece' Skywarp]]
[[Image:Wreckersskywarpcyclonus.jpg|thumb|left|Oy.]]
The Armada's identity prior to re-creation somewhat fraught; there may be more than one of him/them, but it's also tied up in the question of [[Cyclonus (G1)#Who_is_Cyclonus.3F|who is Cyclonus?]].

Traditional [[fan-reasoning]] is that [[Thundercracker (G1)|Thundercracker]] and [[Skywarp (G1)|Skywarp]] were more prominent characters, and should have becomes [[Scourge (G1)|Scourge]] and [[Cyclonus (G1)|Cyclonus]]. ''Unfortunately'' every visual representation ever, spanning 20+ years, has shown Cyclonus to be created from [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]].<ref>Of course, the 2003 Australian movie DVD claims Bombshell became a [[Sweep]], but we don't think those character profiles were approved by Hasbro, fans tend to ignore them.</ref><ref>Bombshell was also at Starscream's subsequent coronation. Or maybe it was [[Salvo]]. Or maybe Cyclonus was Salvo. Skywarp was at the coronation too. ''*sigh* It's something of a mess.''</ref>

The 2007 'Masterpriece' Skywarp toy includes a 'Armada Decepticon' sticker which seems to indicate Skywarp did indeed become the Armada. Of course, a 2003 DVD profile states unequivocally that Skywarp became Cyclonus.<ref>It also states Cyclonus and Scourge are 'Unicrons.' Just ignore it, we all do!</ref> In the [[Beast Era]], Cyclonus and Skywarp were running around at the same time, so either Skywarp became an/the Armada, or there's some really nasty [[budding]] involved.

This may all be moot; everyone but Megatron involved in Unicrons' re-creation appears to have been ''dead'', so neither Cyclonus nor his Armada should remember their previous existence any more than [[Hook, Line, and Sinker]] do. Several sources<ref>That same unreliable DVD release, Cyclonus [[Heroes of Cybertron]] PVC, much more reliably.</ref> actually state that Cyclonus was forged from the remains of ''several'' Decepticons.

Headaches and confusion aside, the vast preponderance of sources agree that Skywarp became the Armada (or at least one of them.)

==Fan wub==
[[Image:Cyclonus oddity armadaesque.jpg|thumb|100px|Nobody tell [[e-Hobby]]. I will ''murder'' you.]]
Um... kay... see, there's this one ''guy'', who's like- totally just like Cyclonus, only he has different colors...

And I know we don't, you know, ''count'' that kind of thing, because it's always just an animation error and stuff? Like it was supposed to be Dirge, or a Cyclonus-lookalike and some colorist screwed up, and he's only in 1 frame of animation an' everything...?

...except, you know, he like, shows up again later, in the same color scheme, this time in jet mode, fully animated doing a bombing run. (This is after Dirge dies too, so it's not him.)

Soo... I know the ''usual'' standard for distinguishing a [[generic]] from a boo-boo is that it either has to make no sense for it to be a mistake, or it has to be repeated. And this one's ''totally'' repeated...

pleasedonthateme

'''Note:''' ''We will also murder you for telling e-Hobby about the [[Cybertronian Empire]] guy who looks just like Cyclonus.'' <tt>Cyclonus + e-Hobby = your murder</tt> ''can probably be thought of as a general rule.

==Footnotes==
<references/>
==External links==
* [http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~sstoneb/tf/tidbits/tftm_script.txt Original script for TF:TM]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9xbI5a1ilk Galvatron's re-creation scene] — on YouTube

[[Category:Decepticons]]
[[Category:Fandom]]
[[Category: Generation 1 characters]]
[[Category: Unicron-related characters]]<div id="wikia-credits"> From [http://transformers.wikia.com Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki], a [http://www.wikia.com Wikia] wiki.</div>