Nightshade (ES)

This article is about the Terran from EarthSpark. For the BotBot, see Nightshade (BotBots).

Nightshade is a Terran from the EarthSpark continuity family.

Give a hoot! Read a book!

A Terran with a flair for the dramatic and boundless confidence, Nightshade Malto can seem weirdly distant at times. It's not that they're unfriendly by any measure: while they can certainly be glib and quick with a quip, they approach nearly everything and everyone with bright eyes and a huge smile. They're fascinated and delighted with the world they've found themselves in, and long to experience as much of it as possible. It's just that they'll do so on their terms. Nightshade prefers a quiet time reading rather than the energetic physical play of their siblings (or the endless online media onslaught that Hashtag enjoys). They're often in their lab tinkering away on some new device to aid their family, though they have a tendency to spring these surprises without warning, which can be awkward, or worse, depending on how ambitious Nightshade was feeling at the time. But as much time as they spend alone, they always come back in time, ever happy to join in family game nights and group celebrations.

But their bright, easygoing, giving nature should not be mistaken as weakness. Though they're generally averse to conflict, they do not abide threats to family, friends or even strangers they've just met, and they will fight with everything they have to protect those in need. Their incredible aerial maneuverability and quick thinking make them a very unpredictable opponent who aims to stop the fight as quickly as possible... after all, there are so many, many much nicer things to be doing.

“	I always knew my pronouns felt right, but... what a wonderful word for a wonderful experience.	”
—Nightshade on "nonbinary", "Home, Part 1"

Fiction

EarthSpark cartoon

Voice actor: Z Infante (English), Benjamin Bollen (French), Mario Heras (Latin-American Spanish), Carole Fernandez (Brazilian Portuguese)

Nightshade was brought to life at the same time as their other siblings Jawbreaker and Hashtag by the Malto siblings Mo and Robby via the Emberstone in the same cave where their other siblings, Twitch and Thrash, were first created. The otherwise happy moment was interrupted by a cave-in caused by a battle outside the cave between Optimus Prime and Bumblebee against the Decepticon Seekers, Skywarp and Nova Storm. Age of Evolution, Part 1 Despite being only a few seconds old, Nightshade and the other new Terrans instinctually came to their new family's rescue by shielding them from the collapsing cave rubble.

Emerging from the collapsed cave, they were warmly greeted by Optimus, who inquired about Nightshade and their siblings' names. Unlike Hashtag and Jawbreaker, Nightshade instinctually knew their name right off the bat and said what a delight it was to meet them. Sensing the pain the other Maltos and Terrans felt about learning their mother was held captive by someone called Mandroid, Nightshade volunteered to help them. While planning "Operation: Terran Horse", Nightshade, via their connection to Mo through her cyber-sleeve, informed Optimus their pronouns were "they" and "them" and that male or female pronouns didn't fit them. While infiltrating Mandroid's base with Jawbreaker and Hashtag by posing as Decepticons who had captured Optimus, Nightshade was unable to hide their horror at Mandroid's experiments he was performing on the captured Megatron. Their ruse quickly exposed, a battle erupted that saw Mandroid's base turn into a walking mech that required the combined efforts of the Malto family and their allies to take down. Following the battle, Nightshade was formally introduced to Dot and welcomed into her family. Age of Evolution, Part 2

Now a formal member of the Malto household, Nightshade found the cramped living quarters of the family barn unsuitable as a living space for their Terran siblings and set out to construct a new one. They covertly ended up recruiting Thrash to aide them in this, who was looking to try and bond with his new younger sibling. When Hashtag and Twitch returned with Bumblebee from a mishap with G.H.OS.T., Nightshade used the family gathering to introduce everyone to the new base they had constructed beneath the farmstead. Hashtag: Oops Nightshade was present at the family movie night that showed off the movie Hashtag made while trying to find Jawbreaker an alt-mode. Outtakes

Worried that Nightshade was isolating themselves from their family because they didn't share many interests, Alex introduced Nightshade to the Winged Sentinel books by his favorite author, D.E. O'Neil. Taken by the stories of daring heroism, Nightshade resolved to meet O'Neil, who was a Witwicky local, feeling they had found someone they could bond with. They quickly worked out O'Neil's current address and took off to visit... only to discover their "current address" was a cemetery, as the author was in fact deceased. But an encounter with a "groundskeeper" soon led to Nightshade instead discovering the reclusive Decepticon scientist, Tarantulas. Bonding with the Decepticon spider over their shared interests in science and shared lack of interest in continuing the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, Nightshade aided Tarantulas in constructing a holographic projector that would allow him to completely avoid detection from G.H.O.S.T. During this partnership, Tarantulas expanded the young Terran's mindset on what alt-modes could be. Following a miscommunication, Tarantulas came to believe Nightshade was a prisoner of their human parents and kidnapped the two with the intent of wiping their memories so he could take Nightshade on the run with him. When Nightshade rescued their parents, they scanned a statue of the Winged Sentinel owl, granting them a new beast mode. Besting Tarantulas in combat just as the rest of Nightshade's family arrived on scene, Nightshade convinced Bumblebee to give the spider a second chance. When G.H.O.S.T. showed up, Tarantulas decided to make the best of this second chance and volunteered to lead G.H.O.S.T. away to let the Maltos escape. Missed Connection

When Agent Schloder arrived at the Malto family farm hot on Bumblebee's trail, Nightshade and Hashtag used the opportunity to show off the new "Emergency Lockdown" protocol they had installed in the Terran base. Sealing up the base whenever a G.H.O.S.T. vehicle (Hashtag excluded) approached the area, it made entry or exit of the dugout virtually impossible. Unfortunately the two hadn't worked out all the kinks yet and discovered that instead of keeping the lockdown going for 10 minutes after Schloder departed, it was instead set for 10 hours. Stuck in the base, Nightshade and the others were unable to help Bumblebee and Dot in their attempts to evade G.H.OS.T. When Dot and Alex returned later that night and informed them Bee had to go back on the run, Nightshade confronted the devastated Twitch. Security Protocols

Still new to the concept of gift-giving, for their present to Dot on Mother's Day, Nightshade made several secret modification to their mother's prosthetic leg in hopes of making her life easier. While it proved critical in aiding Dot and the others in taking care of a mutated mother bear that was terrorizing them, Nightshade was confronted by Dot that they needed to ask for permission when tampering with something as personal as Dot's leg. Nightshade apologized and in the future promised to work with Dot if they wanted to modify her leg. Bear Necessities When Nightshade, and their other siblings, were taken to Spacebridge Memorial Park by Megatron to learn of the history of the Cybertronian War, they found their meeting interrupted by the return of the dormant Decepticon Shockwave. When Shockwave initiated an overload of the power chamber of the derelict Space Bridge, Nightshade worked with Robby and Thrash to disconnect them while Megatron battled it out with Shockwave. Warzone

When the Terrans were taken on a nightly visit to Philadelphia by Robby and Mo, Nightshade went by themselves when the group split up and got a chance to act out their heroic fantasies when they saved a young non-binary female from an attempted mugging. Taking note of their pronoun pins on their purse, Nightshade introduced themselves to Sam, who warmed up to the Terran when they told of them of their own pronouns. It was talking with Sam where Nightshade learned of the concept of being "non-binary", which they felt was a wonderful word to describe themselves. Upon reuniting with their family, Nightshade was surprised to see Bumblebee along with them. Needing help in tracking down the lost Autobot, Grimlock, Nightshade eagerly joined him. Home, Part 1 However, the search for Grimlock soon turned into a battle with the returning Mandroid. After taking down one of Mandroid's newest Arachnamech creations, Nightshade and the rest of their family found themselves having to fight the mind-controlled Hashtag. Taking the fight to the city above, Nightshade discovered attempts to forcibly remove her control chip were blocked by a forcefield. Eventually, they were all able free their sister when they were empowered by a mysterious energy that originated from the cave where the Terrans had been born. With their sister freed, Nightshade and the others raced back to Witwicky in hopes of getting home before their parents woke up. Home, Part 2

This section covers fiction that is ongoing. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by updating it.

Toys

EarthSpark

File:TF-Earthspark-Deluxe-Nightshade.jpg

That's the kind of thousand-yard stare that only comes from a veteran of the Culture Wars.

• Nightshade (Deluxe, 2023)
  • Accessories: Owl wings, 2 knives, Mandroid torso

Released as part of the third wave of EarthSpark Deluxe Class toys, Nightshade transforms into a robotic/statuesque hawk owl in thirteen steps. Notably, their robot mode has the full-size wings of the owl mode as a removable back accessory, as Hasbro/Takara have not yet figured out how to break physics. Speaking of the wings, each one contains a shiv knife that Nightshade can use as a hand-held weapon in robot mode.

This toy also comes packed with the torso to the Mandroid build-a-figure.

Nightshade was first listed on Portuguese toy website fnac.pt, prior to any official announcement by Hasbro. They were then spotted alongside their wavemate Grimlock about a month later in Taiwan.

Notes

• While other nonbinary characters like Screwball had previously been introduced in other extended Transformers media, Nightshade is the first character to be openly identified as such in a Transformers cartoon. Cyberverse previously featured a sort of edge case in the form of Acid Storm, but the character was not intentionally written that way, instead falling into the realm of pseudocanon via authorial intent in response to a recurring animation error.
• Nightshade's alternate mode is scanned from a decorative statue of an owl. Thus, it is not clear whether this mode is supposed to look like a real (albeit huge) owl or a moving statue.

Foreign names

• Hungarian: Gyorsacél ("High-Speed Steel")