Ruination Chapter, Part One
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| "Ruination Chapter, Part One" バルディガス編 前編
(Baldigus Hen Zenpen) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | TakaraTomy Mall | ||||||||||||
| First published | November 17, 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Story by | Hayato Sakamoto | ||||||||||||
| Art by | Hayato Sakamoto | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2021 | ||||||||||||
Ruination joins the war of combiners!
Synopsis
Following their capture by the Dimensional Patrol, the Commandos have been brought to Cybertron of the future, their home era, to stand trial before the Autobots, who identify them as a crew sent into Earth's past to find and reactivate Brave Maximus, only to crash, fall into stasis and be corrupted into evil beings by the Predacons. The sentence to cleanse the panicked Commandos of their corruption by reformatting them into blank protoforms is interrupted by Unicron, who offers the team freedom and power in exchange for serving him. Mega-Octane is uncertain, having been waiting on Scourge to save them, but accepts after Unicron adds coffee milk to the offer.
Unicron transports the Commandos to the Cybertron of 2021, reformats them into new bodies and orders them to conquer the planet for him, prompting Optimus Maximus and Megatronia to cease fighting and angering Galvatron who wants Cybertron for himself. As the Autobots race into battle, Prowl recognizes the Commandos as enemies that targeted Brave Maximus when the Earthbound Autobot and Decepticon forces were incapacitated following the star gate battle, while Mega-Octane looks forward to taking on the Car Robots of this era. The Commandos outclass the Autobots, who fail to fight their fliers, scratch Armorhide's cybertitanium armor, or sneak up the martial artist Rollbar, while Mega-Octane himself faces off against Optimus Prime. Prime calls him mad for siding with Unicron, but Mega-Octane simply tells him that the Commandos always complete the missions they've been given and that he's disappointed in Prime's strength compared to that of Fire Convoy. He decides to finish the Autobot leader off, only for none other than Roller to protect him from blast, having sided with the Autobots until he can talk out his differences with Prime.
Meanwhile, Trickdiamond and Thrust locate the Autobot factory for joint cube energon, which can turn Transformers into combiners, and feed piles of the stuff to Unicron. This allows Unicron to form his own combiner joint and Head On with Cybertron itself, turning the planet into his new body! Their mission completed, Mega-Octane demands that he and his men are released from Unicron's service when suddenly his body starts disappearing. Unicron explains that he has deceived them: now that he has a body again, he will go on to destroy all Transformers and the future events leading to the Commandos' creation will never take place, erasing them from history. Galvatron/Cyclonus attack Unicron only to be easily swept aside, the dark god having seen through their plan and no longer having any use for them, but their interruption allows Mega-Octane to fight back. Yelling that he promised Scourge they would conquer the universe together and that he refuses to disappear until he's completed that mission, he combines with his troops into Ruination and socks Unicron in the face.
As Cyclonus lies defeated, the immobile Galvatron curses that there's no point in having deceived him if he just gets stuck like this. When a curious Megaempress wonders what he means by deception, he reveals that he's not the Galvatron they all think he is, but Galvatron the City Commander... also known as Galvatron II! Meanwhile, Unicron calls upon a different servant to silence Ruination—Grand Scourge, who shocks the Commandos by claiming to be Scourge.
Featured characters
Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons/Destrongers | Others |
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Notes
Continuity notes
- Though never really touched on in the cartoon, the Dimensional Patrol being from the future was mentioned in an early Car Robots catalog.
- The Commandos were last seen being taken to prison/trial by Brave Maximus in the Car Robots finale "The Final Battle".
- Their evil reprogramming at the command of Gigatron from "The Decepticons" is recreated in the expository flashbacks.
- Scourge has already escaped custody, as previously revealed in his Legends pack-in manga, in which he was also reunited with Sky-Byte.
- Unicron's offer of coffee milk seems random, but Ruination's original Car Robots bio card mentions his fondness of the stuff.
- Prowl remembers the Transformers on Earth falling into the atmosphere at the end of the The Battle of the Star Gate manga. This event was retconned by the 2007 Japanese Generation 1 timeline to serve as an explanation for their absence during Car Robots.
- Unicron tried to have Starscream turn Cybertron into his new body in "Ghost in the Machine".
- The "erasing from history" effect seen in this chapter is identical to the swirly blue lines seen in "The Agenda (Part III)" and "Optimal Situation".
- Galvatron II hails from the story pages for the original cartoon, which depicted a toy-colored Galvatron as the Decepticon City Commander and not as a reborn Megatron. This Galvatron would later be retconned into a separate character by an e-HOBBY toy, and indeed, the Galvatron featured in Unite Warriors has also been toy-colored all along.
Transformers references
- Though possibly a coincidence, this is not the first time the Commandos have been affiliated with Unicron. The OTFCC 2004 voice play featured a version of the Commandos as Minions of Unicron in the Universe War.
- Grand Scourge appears wearing the Commandos' insignias when claiming to be Scourge. One of his toy's four optional decals bears this insignia.
