Cyclonus's Armada (G1)

This article is about the nameless Transformer in TF:TM. For the franchise Armada, see Armada.

Let the Fanwanking begin!

Cyclonus's Armada refers to the one (or more) seemingly identical robots created by Unicron at the same time as Cyclonus in The Movie.

As Cyclonus's personal forces the Armada is/are the logical counterpart to the Sweeps. The script for the movie refers to them thusly:

CYCLONUS is CREATED and then his "armada" of similar, but smaller and similarly colored and clad creatures are formed.

The actual number of robots in the 'Armada' are unknown. While Unicron had only six Decepticon to Transform at least five Sweeps are seen at one point in this scene, and the inclusion of the Insecticons, with the ability to clone themselves, makes the actually numbering ambiguous..

Opinions differ on the armada's actual 'existence.' Since Cyclonus' personal army was dropped in production, some argue its inclusion in the re-creation scene is little more than an error, and should be ignored. The term 'Armada' or 'Cyclonus's armada' can be used by fans to refer to the continuity-headache it represents (almost like a label) without implying anything about that fan's individual belief as to its existence/nonexistence.

The armada's fate

The Movie

IDW's 2006 Transformers: The Animated Movie comic, a faithful retelling of the 1986 movie, shows a jet identical to Cyclonus being destroyed by Grimlock's fire-breath. This is generally interpreted as the comic's "explanation" for the Armada's subsequent disappearance in the movie- it was destroyed in its first combat encounter.

Grimlock does indeed use his firebreath like this in the movie itself, but the target of his wrath was unambiguously Cyclonus himself with Galvatron inside. However while Cyclonus survived that encounter with little damage- his lookalike in the comic goes kersplodey with equal unambiguity.

Five Faces of Darkness

Four jets of this type are seen at once in Five Faces of Darkness.

At least four jets of Cyclonus' design take place in the final assault on Cybertron in Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5.

It has been suggested that Ultra Magnus's battle with Ramjet and Dirge (where the latter two are apparently destroyed) is 'actually' supposed to be a battle with the armada. And indeed, after this battle only two jets of Cyclonus's type are seen together. However, Dirge and Ramjet had speaking roles, and were in-character at the time. And were later seen to be alive. And Dirge was implied to be dead. *sigh* It's something of a mess.

Regardless, the general consensus is that Cyclonus's armada, whatever their numbers, no longer exist by the time Five Faces of Darkness ends and the 3rd season of the cartoon proper begins.

Proper name?

Reasoning that Armada might as well be a proper name since there's only one of him, many fans refer to Cyclonus's doppelgänger in the recreation scene by that name.

In the original movie script Unicron uses the same rote format to introduce both Scourge and Cyclonus, and the word 'armada' is used in the same place the descriptive 'huntsmen' is for the Sweeps;

1986 Movie

"	Scourge,	the tracker....	and his huntsmen...	the Sweeps...	"
"	Cyclonus,	the warrior...	and his armada....		"

As envisioned int he original script, 'armada' is not a proper noun. However, the 2006 comic adaption (which added the destruction of a single Cyclonus-type Jet during Galvatron's raid on Autobot City) parsed things differently;

2006 comic adaption

"	SCOURGE,	THE TRACKER....	...AND HIS HUNTSMEN—	THE SWEEPS!	"
"	CYCLONUS—	THE WARRIOR...	...AND HIS ARMADA!		"

So while Armada was intended to be an improper noun, at least one source has treated it as a proper noun. Since that source (the 2006 comic) is the only one to explicitly address the 'problem' of the Armada one could argue it should have the final word. ...or not.

See also

• Who is Cyclonus?

External links

• Original script for TF:TM
• Galvatron's re-creation scene — on YouTube
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.