Lightpole: Difference between revisions
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[[File: | [[File:Lightpole close up.jpg|right|upright=1.5|thumb|And I go, "Yeah, baby, 'cause I'm the evil Io bomb-bat what bombs on Io!"]] | ||
'''Lightpoles''' are flying, bat-like creatures, though they can furl their wings and walk. They live in smoldering craters on [[Jupiter]]'s moon of [[Io]]. Their saliva is acidic and they eat metal. When threatened, they can [[Transformation|transform]] into explosive missiles and fling themselves at predators. | '''Lightpoles''' are flying, bat-like creatures, though they can furl their wings and walk. They live in smoldering craters on [[Jupiter]]'s moon of [[Io]]. Their saliva is acidic and they eat metal. When threatened, they can [[Transformation|transform]] into explosive missiles and fling themselves at predators. | ||
Revision as of 23:44, 19 January 2016
Lightpoles are flying, bat-like creatures, though they can furl their wings and walk. They live in smoldering craters on Jupiter's moon of Io. Their saliva is acidic and they eat metal. When threatened, they can transform into explosive missiles and fling themselves at predators.
Fiction
The Transformers cartoon
Blurr and Wheelie crashed on Io while bringing Metroplex's transformation cog to Earth. As they awaited rescue, two glowing, acid-dripping lightpoles emerged from a crater with wings furled. One picked up a piece of metal and devoured it for a light snack. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3
Shortly thereafter, a swarm of lightpoles attacked them. Without weapons, Blurr and Wheelie attempted to flee, though Wheelie wasn't fast enough to keep out of their talons. Marissa Faireborn arrived to rescue the pair. She landed and began to attack the swarm with a handgun. Once faced with energy weapons, some of the swarm transformed into suicidal missile mode and destroyed her ship, leaving the Autobots and human stranded. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4
After a brief respite, additional lightpoles continued to assault Blurr, Wheelie, and Marissa. Finally, Sky Lynx effortlessly rescued the trio from the creatures' ravenous clutches. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Animated cartoon
Starscream noted that Megatron was "a few lipoles short of a nest". The AllSpark Almanac
Notes
- These creatures are only named on-screen once, by narrator Victor Caroli during the recap that plays at the start of "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5". Fans interpreted Caroli's reading of the name as the nonsense word "lipole", and that is how they were known for most of fandom history until the original script for "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" surfaced, and revealed that the beasts are actually called "lightpoles". That name doesn't make any more sense than "lipole" does, but see the next note.
- Given that their name has nothing to do with what they are, it seems like there may have been some misunderstanding between writer and animator about what the lightpoles were supposed to be. In fact, the script for "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5" contains absolutely no information about the creatures' appearance or physicality; perhaps the scripts for part 3 or part 4 would be more enlightening, but until those surface, we're stuck guessing. But even just looking at the finished episodes alone, the lightpoles are depicted as huge, glowing land-based menaces that eat scrap metal which they dissolve with acid saliva when they make their first brief appearance in part 3, but are then rendered as tiny, swarming creatures with none of those attributes in the following episodes.
- Similarly, although the lightpoles appear mechanical—their transition to missile mode is even accompanied by the "Transformation" sound—Marissa Faireborn refers to them as "bags of protoplasm."
