Sentinel Prime (Animated)
| The name or term "Sentinel Prime" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Sentinel Prime (disambiguation). |
- Sentinel Prime is an Autobot in the Transformers Animated continuity family.
"I am that jerk!"
Sentinel Prime is a member of the Cybertron Elite Guard under the command of Ultra Magnus. Sentinel has a history of rivalry with Optimus Prime, who attended the Autobot Academy with him. In his academy days, he was somewhat of a maverick, leading the more responsible Optimus to refer to him as a "walking malfunction." Of course, he's the one that ended up on the Elite Guard while Optimus was sent off to repair space bridges, of which fact he's all too fond of reminding his former classmate. He also has a bit of a superiority complex toward non-guardsmen Autobots, not to mention that he's intensely organic-phobic.
All things considered, he's kind of a jerk.
His alt-mode is a snow plow truck. He possesses an energy lance and an arm-mounted shield which can be expanded into a force-field, as well as tossed about as a weapon. Basically, he's a knight in shinning armor...if he wasn't such a jerk.
Fiction
Animated
- Voice actor: Townsend Coleman (English), Peter Reinhardt (German)
Sentinel took Optimus and Elita-1 on a mission looking for an old Decepticon warship, hoping to get all the energon stored within. However, they ran into a pack of massive arachnids. Sentinel tried to hold them off long enough for Optimus and Elita to escape. When he came across a ship that Optimus and Elita had found, Optimus had to drag him away from the exploding energon, forcing them to leave Elita-1 behind. Optimus's radar couldn't find Elita's energy signature, and he assumed that she was dead. A furious Sentinel blamed Optimus for what happened, even though this whole disaster had been his idea. Jerk. Along Came a Spider
Years later, he was still a jerk. When Optimus Prime rang up the Cybertron Elite Guard to tell them of the Decepticons in pursuit, he sneered that a screw-up like Optimus wasn't worth the attention of Ultra Magnus. Piping through a visual of the AllSpark from the cargo hold of the Ark shut him up quickly enough. Transform and Roll Out!
Later, the Elite Guard visited Earth to reclaim the AllSpark. When Jazz decided to take a closer look at the humans, Sentinel warned that organics could spew out slime that melts through armor plating, deliberately goading Optimus Prime with memories of Elita One's fate. He decontaminated Optimus Prime's crew after setting a force field around the ship. When he heard that they'd defeated the Decepticons, he didn't believe Optimus, almost causing a fight between him and Bulkhead. Sentinel boasted to Ultra Magnus that he had taken the initiative and scanned some "typical" Earth vehicles so they would not draw undue attention. He had, in fact, scanned massive, destructive vehicles for them both.
En route to Dinobot Island, Sentinel further evidenced how subtlety obviously isn't his strong point by driving through a blockade and off an overpass still under construction. When he, Optimus and Magnus arrived, they encountered the Dinobots, and Sentinel began to attack, believing their technology was primitive. Grimlock's subsequent transformation caught him off guard. They then went back to the city to take care of malfunctioning police drones. Sentinel started to act like a jerk again, more worried about organic contamination, and vowed to see Optimus arraigned on charges of high treason, but Optimus finally told Sentinel off, saying to his former friend that Sentinel was on his turf now. Even when shown proof of the AllSpark not being destroyed, Sentinel's attitude did not change. He was thus rather surprised when Ultra Magnus said that Optimus had characteristics that Sentinel himself could stand to learn.
Ha ha. The Elite Guard
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for The Return of the Headmaster follow. of the next episode/issue in the series or 30 days after release, whichever is sooner |
Not taking the criticism to heart at all, he continued to be a general jerk to Optimus, the local police, humans, and pretty much everyone. His comeuppance would soon come in the form of a humiliating body-jacking by the Headmaster. Putting his reputation (and his noggin) in Optimus Prime's hands, he trusted his comrade to help him get his body back without letting anybody else find out. In this state he was slightly less condescending to Optimus, but it was hard to talk down to someone when reduced to 1/10th his size. He still had choice words about Optimus' practices in the process of saving his body however, such as ripping its arm off and using his head as a soccer ball. Deep down, Optimus was enjoying himself.
After recovering his body, Sentinel had to face the embarrassing prospect of reporting to Ultra Magnus, but surprisingly enough, Optimus covered for him. It took every ounce of effort for the big guy to utter a "thank you" to his comrade later.
While in the Headmaster's possession, Sentinel's body's weapons were upgraded into more powerful forms. At the moment it's not clear whether Sentinel got to keep the upgrades when the Headmaster Unit was separated or not. The Return of the Headmaster
Trivia
- Sentinel Prime's blue coloration and especially pronounced chin (even by normal Animated standards!) really make him look like The Tick. He's even voiced by Townsend Coleman, who provided the voice of the Tick in his 1990s animated series. At present, we don't know if the character was designed to look like the Tick and the casting was done based on that, or if the casting of Coleman prompted the Tick-style design, or some other combination of factors, but it's pretty evident that the writers are working with it, having him utter silly, Tick-esque lines like "Energon-y goodness!"
- Sentinel Prime's shield-tossing fighting style is a fairly direct reference to Captain America. Far more coincidentally, one of Captain America's many sobriquets is the "Sentinel of Liberty".
- In "The Elite Guard", it is revealed that the "Prime" in his and Optimus's name is a designation of rank, so despite Optimus being an academy washout, he's still Sentinel's equal. This no doubt irritates Sentinel quite a bit.
- This is the first time the name "Sentinel Prime" has been used outside the comics.
- If he doesn't get a toy, there will be much sadness.
