Elita One (G1)

The name or term "Elita One" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Elita One (disambiguation).

Elita One is a female Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family. She was once known as Ariel.

Sexy posing is an important part of her characterization. (By "important," we mean "nonexistent.")

Elita One is a devoted Autobot and powerful warrior, fearless in the face of the enemy, but compassionate to those who need her help.

In some universal streams, she's a renowned Autobot resistance leader, a female counterpart to Optimus Prime. She leads the Female Autobots in a desperate gamble to keep Cybertron out of the hands of the Decepticons. She is sometimes the wielder of a great special power: the ability to stop time through the creation of a field with a fifty foot radius around her. Sadly, this ability drains all of her life force and is thus almost assuredly fatal, leaving her to only use it in the most dire of situations.

Some versions of Elita order their Female Autobots to aid the Quintessons instead, as part of a grand scheme that may never be revealed.

In other timelines, she is a new Autobot recruit of unknown origin, trained in mastery of the martial arts. She is not a leader, but a skilled recon specialist, and the first Transformer of her gender. She continues to fight a war that by all appearances has ended, joining a special Autobot group that tasks itself with finding the last dregs of the Decepticon race.

Regardless, she's always very, very pink.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Transformers cartoon

Voice actress: Marlene Aragon (English), Samantha Newark (Ariel, English); Kazue Komiya (Japanese), Eiko Yamada (Ariel, Japanese)

Robots with plunging necklines and ponytails... somehow.

Nine million years ago, Cybertron was a peaceful, prospering world, and within this era lived a young dockworker called Ariel. She had a boyfriend named Orion Pax and shared a good friend with him in their colleague Dion. Among the many developments brought forth during their lifetime was the invention of flight, which fascinated Orion and Dion to no end. However, as mere dockworkers, they didn't have much expectation of seeing the results in action themselves anytime soon.

One day, Orion brought a group of five visitors he just met into the energy storage facility they were working at. Ariel was introduced to them, after which Orion was called outside by Dion and she and the visitors followed. It turned out that Dion had spotted "flying robots" travelling overhead, the sight of which prompting him and Orion to voice their wish to meet them. The visitor Silverbolt gave his doubt that an impressive ability necessarily made for a person they would want to know, to which Ariel added she had heard that the flying robots had put together an army and attacked one of Cybertron's outer cities. Dion laughingly dismissed her as gullible, and Orion remarked that even if true, they had Guardian robots to protect them, so it wasn't any of their concern. With that, the three left the Aerialbots and resumed work.

A short time later, Orion again brought a visitor along, this time no one less than one of the flying robots, Megatron. Chaos followed soon after, when Megatron suddenly ordered for his transport drones to attack and aimed the first shot at Orion. In the midst of the assault, Ariel ignored Dion's plea to not interfere and tried to stop Megatron from further harming Orion, only to be gunned down herself by the Decepticon.

Optimus Prime's sister from the same transistor.

Fortunately for her, the Aerialbots returned to help them. They picked up the deactivated Orion and brought him to Alpha Trion, who recreated the young robot as the first of Cybertron's new defenders — Optimus Prime. Optimus and the Aerialbots then asked Alpha Trion to try reconstructing Ariel too. Agreeing to send some droids for her, Alpha Trion mused to himself that "Elita One" would be a good name for a female warrior. War Dawn

Elita One combatted her way through the next five million years of warfare, until the launch of an Autobot starship that would go in search for energy for the starving planet. It would be captained by Optimus Prime himself. As Iacon came under Decepticon attack during the launch, Elita tried to board the ship, wishing to be with her partner. While she and Optimus discussed the matter, the bombardment got a good hit near the ship, to all present seemingly destroying Elita One and several other soldiers.

Waw chikka bow bow, chikka chikka...

In truth, she dodged death once more. In the next four million years, Elita One held command of a team of six Autobots that continued the fight on Cybertron, utilizing their exaggerated deaths to work under cover of secrecy. Moonracer's carelessness eventually revealed their continued existence, a piece of knowledge Megatron appreciatively used to set up a trap for Optimus Prime. He sent a unit consisting of Starscream, Ramjet, Astrotrain and Rumble to Cybertron to capture Elita One as soon as Shockwave would succeed in locating their base. Though Elita was already taking preparations to relocate after first winning advice from her mentor, Alpha Trion, the Decepticons arrived too soon. Elita subsequently fought three of them, forced into battle by Rumble's actions that endangered her team still within the base and as a bonus to the Decepticons prevented them from coming to their leader's aid.

Elita One was taken captive and used as bait to lure Optimus Prime to Cybertron, where he easily was captured too. Upon seeing him, Elita attempted an escape, but was shot down by Starscream. The enemy Air Commander prepared to execute her on the spot, but Shockwave had "a better idea". Optimus was hung over a vat of acid while Elita would be spared only long enough to see her beloved perish. Desperate, Elita triggered her time-stopping power, which allowed her to save Optimus... but expended nearly all her life force doing so.

Following Elita's directions to bring her to Alpha Trion, Optimus begged the ancient Autobot to save her. Alpha Trion then revealed to Optimus that only he could save Elita by interfacing to her with his power filter. An astonished Optimus Prime stated that only his creator could know that, which Alpha Trion deemed an educated guess.

Yeah, this is all you see.

After Elita One was re-energized, she and Optimus Prime arrived in time to save both a group of Earth-stationed Autobots who had followed Optimus to Cybertron plus Elita's own troops from certain death at the hands of the Decepticons. Elita shot down Shockwave, while Optimus scared off the Earth-stationed Decepticons. The two leaders were thanked with much jubilation by their troops.

Though sharing his regrets that they'd be apart again so soon, Elita elected to continue her duties in the war fought on Cybertron while Optimus and his troops returned to the battle on Earth. With their original secret base discovered and in ruins, Alpha Trion quickly set Elita's team up with a new, better one. Goodbyes were exchanged not much later, the situation not preventing Elita from telling her partner not to stay away TOO long... The Search for Alpha Trion

Elita One's appearance in The Search for Alpha Trion is slightly at odds with two other episodes. First of all, the events surrounding the Ark's takeoff in "The Search for Alpha Trion" do not match those of the pilot episode and so constitute a retcon. Secondly, since "War Dawn" was written later, Elita's and Optimus's relation to Alpha Trion is portrayed differently. While a trusted mentor figure to both, neither apparently remembered Alpha Trion as their creator. Optimus Prime did seem to know that Alpha Trion created Elita One, making a subtle comment when Elita said that Alpha Trion was like a father to her, though it's unclear whether he had always known or only realized after his visit to Alpha Trion. This is really kind of creepy when you think about it.

MC Axis comics

Elita One and her team toppled a colossal Decepticon warrior. Though her team was jubilant at their victory, Elita knew that this one victory was far from enough to win the war, and longed for Optimus to return so they could re-take their homeworld. The Transformers: Elita One

Wings Universe

Nine million years ago, Ariel, along with her friends Orion Pax and Dion, worked at storage yard 67. This idyllic period in her life was cut short when she and her friends were murdered by Megatron and his growing Decepticon army. Battle Lines, Part 1 She was present when Optimus's team prepared to go track down Megatron. Battle Lines, Part 2 A week later, she was part of the Autobot forces at Iacon's city walls as the Decepticons broke through with Devastator. Battle Lines, Part 5 The battle was won, but several Autobots died in the process, including Dion.

Five million years later, to gather energy for the sapped Autobots, a crew was formed to pilot the Ark. Elita One was to be part of the crew, but a Decepticon attack blocked her and others from reaching the ship before it departed. Soon after, as their current reserve of energies was dangerously low, Elita joined her comrades still on the planet in stasis hibernation pods to await the return of energy resources to their planet. Battle Lines, Part 6

Dreamwave Generation 1 comics

Optimus likes 'em with some armor-plating on their circuits.

Elita One was the leader of an elite squad of five warriors under the command of the Quintessons. The team was waiting for intel from their Autobot sleeper agent, Arcee, in preparation for a mission on Cybertron. When Arcee reported on the awaited situation, the rest of the team was called in to prepare for departure. As the Quintessons were gloating about how smooth matters were proceeding, Elita One entered and aggressively threw her lance through the screen then displaying Hot Rod, one of the mission's objectives. The Quintessons found this amusing. The Route of All Evil

Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy and stopped producing Transformers books right as the Female 'Autobots' story arc was beginning. A few details of Generation One #11 are known because Don Figueroa published the line-art of the comic up to page 9 on his DeviantArt account.
Elita One used a space bridge to get to the Autobase on Cybertron, where she was discovered by Hot Rod. Hot Rod attempted to shoot the intruder down, but Elita knocked the guns out of his hands and challenged him to hand-to-hand combat. Hot Rod confidently accepted, but was taken out with ease. Gnaw and Wheelie witnessed this, and Gnaw urged Wheelie to run. Elita contacted her team on Quintessa and the remaining three followed after their leader to Cybertron. Seeing this, Gnaw opened attack, but was taken out by Moonracer and Elita One. Elita One ordered Chromia to take an unconscious Hot Rod with her to Quintessa, whereas Moonracer and Firestar were to join her into the Autobot facility. Soon after, the trio found Optimus Prime's badly damaged body in a repair chamber.

Classics

Elita WHAT?

Elita-1's [sic] existence was a surprise to everyone but Grimlock, who quietly added the female Autobot to the crew aboard the Graviton. Everyone had an idea about where she came from, but Grimlock kept her origin a secret. Since the others knew so little about her, Elita felt she had to work harder to gain their respect, and so she took unnecessary risks. In battle, she carried a hyper-concussive missile launcher that converted into an EMP scrambler. She could blend into her surroundings due to her camouflaging skin made of mimetic alloy armor, which could also refract laser fire into blinding bursts of light. Elita-1's toy bio

Elita-One [sic] was one of the Graviton's crewmembers that manned the controls as the team chased Bug Bite's Decepticons to Earth. Reminding the others of Optimus Prime's orders to stay incognito on populated worlds, she and Swoop were sent out to spy on Bug Bite's crew up close while the rest remained on a safe distance. For a moment, her team was slightly worried she had been spotted when it seemed the Decepticons were looking for something, but it turned out to be Mirage who had been found. As the Decepticons left with Mirage as their prisoner, Grimlock ordered Swoop and Elita to track them. Through this, the two stumbled upon Megatron's hideout.

"Grimlock? Mirage? You don't look so good."

Elita-One fought the sentry, Ravage, to gain passage for the team. She was sent ahead again to the command center to check on the situation and the odds of saving Mirage. Upon her findings, the team burst in, saved Mirage and completely wrecked the place. Games of Deception

Later, Acid Storm, Drag Strip, and Overkill were waiting on a dusty planet when Elita-1 and the rest of Springer's rogue team of Autobots attempted to hunt them down. At Fight's End

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Aw, where's the ponytail?

Elita One appeared with Orion Pax, Alpha Trion, and Ultra Magnus at Bumper and Fastback's funeral. Megatron Origin #3

Games

The Transformers (PS2)

During the mission on Zel Samine in 2003, Optimus Prime was reminded of Elita One by Arcee's exasperation over Wheeljack and Kup's behaviour. He lamented he hadn't seen her in a long time and wondered what she was doing.

Also, apparently Optimus likes to be scolded by Elita. The Transformers

Transformers Legends

Elita One and her team were thwarted by Decepticon hunting parties led by Slipstream and Flamewar. Fatal Furies

Toys

BotCon 2009

Barbie dream boat!

• Elita-1 [sic] (BotCon attendee figure, 2009)
  • Accessories: Missile launcher, 2 missiles , Earth Cyber Planet Key

A redeco of Cybertron Thunderblast, Elita-1 transforms into a speedboat of undetermined model via shellforming. She has a small, rotating (non-firing) machine gun and a large missile rack on a rotating and elevating base in this mode. Inserting a Cyber Planet Key into the back of the missile rack opens it up to reveal a spring-loaded missile launcher, which uses the torpedoes mounted under her hydrofoils as ammunition. The rack becomes a hand-held weapon for her robot mode. She comes with a pink-bordered Cybertron-style key. Limited to 2000 sets, Elita-1 came bagged with Razorclaw. In contrast to the previous few years' worth of attendee sets, Elita and Razorclaw did not sell out at BotCon, and were available on the Transformers Collectors' Club online store for several months after the convention.

This mold was also used to make Chromia White Version.

• More information on Elita-1 at TFU.info

Merchandise

MC Axis Kit

So that's how it's spelled!

• Elita One (1996)

This Japanese "garage kit", an unpainted resin model, was made by MC Axis, and was also the first official product made of Elita One. The packaging gave her Tech Spec numbers as well as an official spelling of her name. (The spelling/pronunciation was a point of contention in the early online fandom. See Notes below.) It also included among the paperwork a single-page comic strip starring Elita One and the rest of her squad. It is not known for its exceptional quality control - numerous unsightly air bubbles in the plastic are not an uncommon thing to encounter.

• Fan review of the Hot Rod and Elita One model kits
• Photos and review of unpainted and unused complete Elita One kit at HeroicDecepticon.com

Diamond Select Transformers

• Elita-One [sic] (2009)

And Optimus thought Elita would be scared by his lack of feet.

Released by Diamond Select Toys in 2009, Elita-One was sculpted by Mark Wong of Art Asylum and limited to 600 pieces. It was exclusive to Big Bad Toystore.com. The sculpt is based upon her cartoon appearance, though some creative liberties have been taken, such as the fact she carries a large rifle that is similar in design to Optimus Prime's instead of the small pistol she was most commonly seen with. The schematic of her altmode on the back of the base of the bust is the first time the vehicle has been seen in full, though it is equally not an accurate depiction of the cartoon version. The bust gives Elita-One a second tech spec, with numbers that drastically differ from the first set of numbers. Her attributes are as follows: Strength 8.5 Intelligence 9.0 Speed 8.0 Endurance 7.0 Rank 9.5 Courage 8.0 Firepower 9.0 Skill 9.0

Notes

All hell breaks loose!

• Elita One's name is one of the most troubled in all of Transformers history. As it is intended, her name mirrors her male counterpart's in both spelling and root meaning as "Best First". Furthermore, "Elita" is derived from "elite", which comes from the Latin electa, meaning "chosen". So her name also translates as Chosen One. It seems simple enough, but since the debut in 1985, the actual spelling and thus meaning of Elita One's name was the subject of much fandom debate for years to follow. The MC Axis kit was the first product to reveal an official spelling for the name, which was later confirmed by the episode scripts and the production bible to be correct. Despite this, younger canon continues to feature the name in alternative forms, most commonly as either "Elita-One" or "Elita-1", names by which her "namesakes" from other franchises are known. In addition, more contrived varieties such as "Eleta-1" and "Aleta-1" have also occasionally shown up.
• A Cybertronian battle scene in TV Magazine depicts Elita One fighting the Decepticons alongside other pre-Earth Autobots. It was reprinted in Transformers Generations, along with a sketch version that reveals she wasn't originally planned to be included in the scene.
• According to writer David Wise, he did not intend for Ariel to be rebuilt as Elita One when writing "War Dawn". In fact, he did not even know who Elita One was at that time! Ariel was originally supposed to die as a way of adding weight to the episode, her eventual survival being the result of other writers noticing the similarity between her and Elita One.
• Elita One's alternate mode was never depicted in its entirety during the original cartoon. As shown above, only the very front end was seen, the rest hidden by Optimus Prime's truck mode. Her bust by Diamond Select Toys does display the entire vehicle, but it is an appearance the artist created himself, as the model sheets for all of the Female Autobots have yet to resurface.
• In "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 4", the dancers shown in the post-Quintesson peace era share Elita's model.

Wouldn't that be a great opening line for Optimus though? "Hey, you look just like the sexy lady silhouette on my mudflaps."

• In the The War Within issue 4, Elita One's silhouette is depicted on Optimus Prime's mudflap in vehicle mode, similar to the "Trucker Lady" silhouette decal seen on modern vehicles. Optimus Prime also has a bobble-head of her inside his cab. The War Within takes place long before he'd meet her in the Dreamwave continuity, so these images are Easter eggs.
• If we think about it, since Prime and Elita have the same creator, they are, in some way, brother and sister, which just makes their relationship look plain weird. (Well, maybe not in Japan.) The events of "War Dawn" show that Orion Pax and Ariel existed as non-siblings before they were remade into Optimus Prime and Elita One, though Transformers has demonstrated somewhat puzzling definitions of siblings.
• Elita One's character artwork in Transformers Legends caused quit a bit of controversy due to its overly sexualized "boobs and butt" pose. A game update changed the art to cover up some of the more outrageous aspects.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Elita One (エリータ・ワン Erīta Wan), Ariel (エリアル Eriaru)
• Italian: Elita Uno
• Mandarin: Elita (艾莉塔 Aì Lì Tǎ, "Elita"), Jīn-yīn Yí-hào (Taiwan Generation 2 cartoon, 精英一號, "Elite One")
• Portuguese: Elita Um (Brazil cartoon)
• Russian: Elita (Элита)