Edmund Burton
- Edmund Burton is an Autobot-allied human from The Last Knight portion of the movie continuity family.
Last of the Order of the Witwiccans and twelfth Earl of Folgan, Sir Edmund Burton knows all about the Transformers and the history of their kind on Earth. Using his considerable political and financial influence, he's dedicated to keeping this history a secret and is aided in doing so by a myriad of hidden Cybertronians across the planet.
He is everything you hope to be when you grow old and everything you probably won't be.
Fiction
[edit]The Last Knight film
[edit]- Actor: Anthony Hopkins
- Voice actor: Michihiro Ikemizu (Japanese dub){{#if: Jean-Pierre Moulin (European French dub), Jean-Marie Moncelet (Canadian French dub), Joachim Kerzel (German dub), Dario Penne (Italian dub), Li Lihong (Mandarin dub), Reinaldo Pimenta (Portuguese dub), Isaac Bardavid (Portuguese dub, trailers only), Camilo García (Castilian Spanish dub), Gabriel Pingarrón (Latin-American Spanish dub), José Lavat (Latin-American Spanish dub, trailers only), Mazlum Kiper (Turkish dub), Seol Yeong-beom (Korean dub)|, Jean-Pierre Moulin (European French dub), Jean-Marie Moncelet (Canadian French dub), Joachim Kerzel (German dub), Dario Penne (Italian dub), Li Lihong (Mandarin dub), Reinaldo Pimenta (Portuguese dub), Isaac Bardavid (Portuguese dub, trailers only), Camilo García (Castilian Spanish dub), Gabriel Pingarrón (Latin-American Spanish dub), José Lavat (Latin-American Spanish dub, trailers only), Mazlum Kiper (Turkish dub), Seol Yeong-beom (Korean dub)}}
Descended from a long line of complete and utter lunatics who committed suicide in a variety of inventive ways, Edmund Burton was a boy when World War II broke out where he met Hot Rod and Bumblebee. Though Hot Rod would remain in Europe and become close friends with Burton, Bumblebee left after the War and would not remember the conflict as a particularly noteworthy event decades later. He was partly raised by Cogman, a sociopathic Headmaster who was in service to the Burton family.
Over the years, Edmund Burton would be inducted into the Order of the Witwiccans, meet (and become greatly annoyed by) Seymour Simmons and receive a knighthood. He was friends with the father of Viviane Wembly and watched over her from afar sending Hot Rod to masquerade as her car. He also acquired a Cybertronian firearm which he concealed as a cane.
When six mysterious horns burst out of the crust of the Earth, Sir Edmund realized the apocalypse was coming and visited one of the horns in Namibia. Realizing what he had to do, Sir Edmund sent Cogman to collect Cade Yeager and had Hot Rod bring him Viviane.
To Sir Edmund's great joy, Cade had been accompanied by Bumblebee. Just as Cade was about to take his leave, Hot Rod bringing a panicking Viviane convinced Yeager to stay and hear out Sir Edmund. After introducing himself and the watch that killed Hitler, he showed the two to the Round Table (itself a Cybertronian artifact) and explained that the exoplanet approaching Earth was in fact Cybertron itself, that Cade was the foretold "Last Knight" and Viviane the last descendant of Merlin himself. As such, only together could the two save Earth from destruction at Cybertron's hand.
The discussion was halted when the TRF and MI6 arrived on the grounds to arrest them. Sending Cade and Viviane to find a clue to the location of the Staff of Merlin, Sir Edmund and Cogman lead the authorities on a supercar chase throughout London. While the two were busy searching for a clue that pointed them to the HMS Alliance, Burton was contacted by Simmons, who directed him towards the Book of Cyber-Kells in the Trinity Library that told the truth of Earth. After inducting Simmons into the Order of the Witwiccans, Sir Edmund learned from the book that Earth had formed around Unicron and the horns were the Chaos Bringer's reaction to Cybertron's approach. Arriving at the [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}Royal Navy Submarine Museum|{{#if:naval museum|naval museum|Royal Navy Submarine Museum}}]], Sir Edmund slipped a paper to the ticket booth and declared the museum closed "for an eternity". Forcing everyone off, Sir Edmund left the two in Cogman's company and saw them and Bumblebee off while he went to rally a defence.
Arriving at 10 Downing Street, Burton asked to see the Prime Minister but was turned down by a "dickhead". Undeterred, he used the secret entrance to emerge directly into the Prime Minister's office. When several guards tried to arrest him, Sir Edmund flashed the watch that killed Hitler, threatening to unleash the psychotic Cybertronian who would have little issue killing everyone in the room. After flashing his credentials (and repeatedly telling the Prime Minister to shut up), Sir Edmund ordered him to mobilize all the British military forces to Stonehenge.
Being deposited at Stonehenge by the British military, Sir Edmund witnessed Megatron, Barricade, and Nitro Zeus gloat about killing Unicron and opened fire on the Decepticon leader with his firearm, the signal for the military to open fire. While the three Decepticons were unable to take cover, they still proved able to best the military with Megatron being able to activate Stonehenge to prepare for the energy transference. Megatron then glimpsed Sir Edmund and cursed him before firing a blast from his fusion cannon that sent the human flying.
Cogman then ran to Sir Edmund, who claimed he'd had his moment by fighting Megatron before dying contentedly. Cogman mourned his master, declaring him the coolest Burton he'd served. The Last Knight
Notes
[edit]- The film's 2019 prop auction reveals that a headstone was made for Burton's grave, which is never seen in the movie. It also states that the events of The Last Knight take place in the year 2017, seemingly at odds with the movie timeline.<ref>https://profilesinhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/101TransformersSs.pdf</ref>
- The filmmakers appear to have confused/conflated British hereditary peerages with knighthoods. In the credits and all the marketing—not to mention in-film—Sir Edmund Burton is referred to by this given name, despite the fact that he notes (on his first appearance) he is the twelfth Earl of Folgan. An [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}earl|{{#if:||earl}}]] is the third highest rank of the peerage in the United Kingdom, behind only [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}duke|{{#if:||duke}}]] and [[wikipedia:{{#if:|:}}marquess|{{#if:||marquess}}]], yet bar the initial mention there is no indication that his lordship holds such a lofty noble title. Since his peerage is by far the higher title, though, he should be universally referred to in-universe as either "the Earl of Folgan", "Lord Folgan" for short, or "Folgan" for shortest, and never by his familial name. While it is theoretically possible for an earl to also be knighted—an aristocratic title is inherited, whereas a knighthood is earned for service to the nation, and can be conferred by the monarch upon someone who is already a peer—he would not be known as "Sir Edmund" since this is a lower class of honour.
Foreign names
[edit]- Japanese: Edmund Burton (エドモンド・バートン Edomondo Bāton)
- Mandarin: Edmund Burton (Taiwan, 艾德蒙·柏頓 Àidéméng Bǎidùn; China, 艾德蒙·伯顿 Àidéméng Bódùn)
- Korean: Edmund Burton (에드먼드 버턴 Edeumeondeu Beoteon)