Ravenus

Ravenus is an Autobot from the Legends of the Microns portion of the Unicron Trilogy.

BLARRRRRRGH!

Ravenus (ラヴィナス Ravinasu) is an Autobot who succumbed to addiction to Mini-Con Powerlinx energy. Captured by agents of Unicron, he was further warped and mutated, his mind decaying until he became little more than a slavering beast that Unicron's minions used as a tool.

Even before he was corrupted, it seems Ravenus had little in the way of brainpower.

Fiction

Linkage

Ravenus was brought to Earth by Sideways in a metal "egg" and put in the care of the Speed Chaser Team for their use in disrupting the plans of a batch of free Mini-Cons who were trying to unlock the Master Key, which would break the bonds that tied them to their creator Unicron. Linkage Part 8 With their location in the Hawaiian Islands found out by the Aqua Raider Team, the Speed Chasers arrived and unleashed the beast. Linkage Part 9

Me look familiar. Where me seen me before?

Ravenus's Powerlinx command was greatly enhanced, so that it triggered the Servility Programs within any Mini-Con within earshot, forcing them against their will to Powerlinx with him. Servo and Twirl were force-linked to him, but Stella Holley managed to get to Flat-Out and Falcia first, allowing them to Powerlinx with her car and convert it to a fighting mech. Using Falcia's claw-weapon mode, they were able to rend one of Ravenus's arm-mounted Powerlinx plugs, freeing Servo, but Ravenus needed only one Mini-Con, and he retreated with Twirl. Linkage Part 10

He carried the Doomstone inside him, and the powerful, dark energies of that gem would be channeled through the Powerlinx into Twirl, who was connected to the Mini-Cons' Linkage soul-dimension. This would utterly destroy the Linkage, and with it gone, the Mini-Cons' minds and free wills would similarly cease to exist. The newly upgraded Redline gave chase, but Ravenus began to release the Doomstone's energies... until Kingbolt arrived and tore Twirl free, interrupting the process. He and Redline prepared to destroy Ravenus, but Twirl begged them not to, having found out through the Powerlinx that he was an Autobot under that warped exterior, and she pleaded with her friends to help him. Linkage Part 11 The upgraded Mini-Cons, now growing in number as the Master Key spread to all "free" Mini-Cons through the Linkage, used their new powers to reverse the mutations and return Ravenus to his original form, as well as safely remove the Doomstone from his body. Linkage Part 12

When the Mini-Cons of Earth rejoined the Autobot forces on their way to Cybertron, Ravenus went with them and fought against the hordes of Dead End drones in order to atone for his time as one of the Chaos-Bringer's minions. Even though Twirl underwent the upgrade that broke the Servility Program bonds, she seemed to remain close to Ravenus, and the two fought side by side. Linkage Part 13

Notes

• No toy of Ravenus was ever produced, though both of his forms were based on existing toys. His "mutant" form uses the Armada Terrorsaur toy as a model, in varying shades of black, deep green, and tan. His model also makes use of the retooled thruster-portion found on Beast Machines Terranotron (but not Armada Terrorsaur) that puts a spark crystal in that area; this crystal being the location of the Doomstone in his body. His pre-mutation Autobot form is based on the Diaclone coloration of the toy that would become Generation 1 Swoop, following the Armada cartoon's tradition of using character models from previous series as extras.
• Linkage author/illustrator Hirofumi Ichikawa had proposed that Takara make a Ravenus toy as a special mail-away premium, perhaps with proof-of-purchase of the entire Legends of the Microns DVD series, but the proposal never went beyond that stage.
• According to Mr. Ichikawa, Ravenus is not intended to be an "alternate" Unicron Trilogy incarnation of Generation 1 Swoop. He is also unrelated to the Energon character Swoop, as even before he was mutated, his name was "Ravenus" and continues to be so even after he is restored to his original form.