Riptide (G1)

This article is about the Generation 1 Autobot. For the Armada Autobot, see Riptide (Armada).

Riptide is an Autobot Hydrobot from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Lady, running down to the riptide, taken away to the dark side, I wanna be your left hand man

Riptide has never really been particularly smart. Preferring to enjoy the simpler things in life, such as drinking at Swerve's and pulling pranks on his fellow 'bots, Riptide fits perfectly into the Lost Light's already dysfunctional crew. He's also a bit of a chatterbox, especially when worried or scared.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

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.

Riptide was constructed cold as a M.T.O. in response to the Simanzi Massacre, specifically to combat the Forced Flood. Twenty Plus One During the war, he became friends with Pipes (and may or may not have known that he was Pipes' "type"). No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

Riptide was present when Drift and Pipes purchased the Lost Light from a pair of NAILs in Iacon's religious quarter. Suspicious of the original owners, Riptide offered to go back to get a receipt of sale but found the NAILs laughing about how they had sold a ship that contained a Sparkeater. In response Riptide attacked them but was instead knocked out for two days, preventing him from joining the original Lost Light crew. Twenty Plus One Pipes would die thinking Riptide just hadn't been bothered to turn up after all. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

He finally got a second chance to join up a few years later when the Lost Light briefly returned to Cybertron. As the ship prepared to get back to its mission, a disinterested Riptide was roped into helping Swerve and Crosscut with his fake new crewmember interviews. He was also present for Megatron's trial at Raskol Arena. Towards Peace

Once on the ship, Crosscut gave him and fellow newbies Mirage and Nautica a tour that ended with Swerve's. Riptide took a bunch of photos of the place. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases

I love you when you're singing that song and I got a lump in my throat 'cause you're gonna sing the words wrong

Reading the Lost Light Insider at Swerve's, Riptide managed to convince Trailcutter to break into the Medbay and steal Megatron's "super fuel". When communications with the Forcefield Specialist broke down, Riptide brushed off Skids' concerns. Words Hang in the Air Not long afterwards when it became apparent that the Lost Light was disappearing around them, Riptide abandoned the ship along with twenty other 'bots aboard the Rodpod, though his fellow escapees continued to vanish. After Nightbeat worked out that those left behind were not part of the Lost Light's crew at launch, the Rodpod arrived at Ofsted XVII to find their ship, apparently broken in half. Twenty Plus One

Upon boarding the shattered remains, the Lost Lighters were stunned to recognise their landing zone as Swerve's bar. Megatron enlisted the aid of stowaway Ravage to help look for survivors, and in response Riptide took to mocking the Decepticon feline, getting a few digs in when Ravage claimed to smell Ultra Magnus but instead turned up Minimus Ambus instead. Megatron chastized him for being so flippant in front of a dead body and Riptide felt sufficiently ashamed enough to apologise. He was later teamed with Skids and Getaway as they searched for clues, and was the first to discover a room full of dead Lost Lighters, all in their altmodes and missing their transformation cogs. When both Skids and Megatron reached the conclusion the Lost Light they were aboard had been attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division, Riptide helped explain the group to Nautica, and hurriedly informed the team he'd repaired the Rodpod as the Lost Light shook. slaughterhouse

After Nautica mentioned the Lost Light's quantum drums floating in space, Riptide suggested that the profession just involved placing the word 'quantum' before other words. Nautica responded with a badly-executed joke, prompting him to remark on her failed effort. He later ends Rewind's tale about the DJD's attack by noticing that the quantum foam outside of the ship was beginning to spread. The Road Not Taken

Froid got Riptide to take him to Rung. Thanks, bro.Speak, Memory: Part 1

Sometime over the course of the journey, Riptide began to take Megatron's discussion classes; he was an enthusiastic if average student. He was also asked by Getaway if he'd join a hypothetical mutiny against Megatron and Rodimus, and answered yes. On the same day he was told Megatron was very impressed with the work he'd put into a history essay (he'd still failed but Megs would explain why later!), that mutiny kicked off. Megatron, Rodimus, and assumed sympathisers, including Riptide's friends like Nautica, were tricked off ship and when Getaway wanted to rub in how big the mutiny was in a broadcast, a somber Riptide stood with him. How Bright Their Frail Deeds

Notes

I love you when you're singing that song and I got a lump in my throat 'cause you gone and sank the world's wolf

• Riptide's robot and vehicle modes were revealed by Alex Milne on Twitter on March 29, 2014.
• Milne partially based Riptide's color scheme on the Water Tribe from television series Avatar: The Last Airbender.