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Soundwave superior. Autobots inferior!
~ Soundwave's most famous quote and his only line in Transformers Prime.

Soundwave is a major antagonist in the Transformers Aligned Universe, serving as a supporting antagonist in the 2010 game Transformers: War For Cybertron & it's 2 sequels, Fall of Cybertron and Rise of the Dark Spark, as well of the 2010 TV series loosely connected to the games, Transformers: Prime and it's 2015 sequel Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

He is the most loyal follower of Megatron and a deadly enforcer who enacts complex plots to fulfill the Decepticon agenda, inspiring respect and fear in all of his colleagues as even if by the time of Prime he's a Cybertronian of few words, he is among the most efficient of the Decepticons and acts as the eyes and ears of the organization, with no information evading him.

In his rare instances of speaking, he is voiced by Frank Welker, his original voice actor in Generation 1.

What Makes Him Magnificent?[]

In General[]

  • Is consistently portrayed as Megatron's most loyal follower and by far one of his most competent who has rarely ever failed his master, and thus be the closest thing the otherwise psychopathic Megatron could remotely have to a friend.
  • Is by far one of the most dangerous and deadly foes the Autobots have faced. In War For Cybertron he is the one to lay the blow against their leader, Zeta Prime, and in Prime, the heroes had to resort to sealing him in the ShadowZone, an alternate dimension, to finally take him down.

War For Cybertron games[]

  • While Soundwave himself is a nasty supporter of Megatron's plans, he lacks the over-the-top cruelty he possesses nor is he a horrific torturer of a mad scientist that Shockwave is in these games. Helps that what all evil he does, the carnage is downplayed by the Transformers being restorable robots.
  • Is the Decepticons' resident hacker, in which Megatron relies on his efforts for the progress of his plans as he can hack into any computer, be it of Autobots or outsiders like Starscream. This plays a major role in the first level to take control over Starscream's Energon station which the player's progress hinges on how much he has taken control over, or when Megatron invades Iacon City.
  • When Starscream seals all possible paths to his Dark Energon vault, Soundwave is able to uncover one available path, allowing Megatron to harness the Dark Energon's power for Decepticon victory.
  • When invading Iacon City alongside Megatron, when Zeta Prime lays a trap for the Decepticons and has the Omega Key, Soundwave traces his location to the Iacon Vaults, evading all his traps on the meanwhile.
  • He shows admiration over Zeta Prime's abilities to create endless energon clones of himself, even when they are dispatched to kill him. Soundwave is also the one to bring to notice the weakness of Zeta Prime's chamber, that is the energy core produces a lot of heat and it's shield needs to be raised to cool off, giving the Decepticons a chance to shoot at it and finally take the mighty Autobot leader down.
  • When Omega Supreme comes, Soundwave uses his knowledge over Iacon's infrastructure to evade him, one especially impressive moment being guiding the Decepticons to a seeming dead end when Omega was chasing them, to reveal he uncovered a sealed door that is structurally unstable and can be knocked over in one blast, opening a pathway to the maintenance district to open a bridge to the ion turrets. Soundwave's tips is what helps the Decepticons finally take Omega Supreme down.
  • Is the one executing Megatron's trap to use Zeta Prime as bait to lure the Autobots to Kaon Prison and allow themselves to be captured, allowing their breakout so they can be lured to the ambush they have in store and be placed in a mostly secured cell. Only one specific, not noticeable design flaw allowed the Autobots to escape.
  • Even when they escape and try to rescue Zeta Prime, Soundwave is willing to risk his life and failing the mission, going under heavy firing from Autobots, just to save the lives of his minicons who he treats as family. Even when they beat him, Soundwave manages to lay the final blow against Zeta Prime.
  • In Rise of the Dark Spark, Soundwave helps the Decepticons get to the vaults, be it dispatching Rumble to clear a vat of acid, or scanning the systems for other lifeforms and when none are recorded, warns that there might be ion turrets
  • When the vaults needed 4 people to open and the Decepticon party had 3 (himself, Shockwave and Starscream), Soundwave dispatches Rumble to be the fourth, opening the vault for the Dark Spark.
  • In Fall of Cybertron, when Megatron is slain by Metroplex and Starscream takes over the Decepticons, and his incompetence, grinds Decepticon operations to a halt while rallying up and imprisoning all people still loyal to Megatron, on the shadows of Kaon, Soundwave had secretly taken Megatron's remains, repaired it and then personally revive his master from the dead. He then rallies up all of Megatron's other loyalists for a successful uprising that ends Starscream's mockery of a reign.
  • Hacks into Trypticon's prison and nearly initiates his repairs before downloading the Nemesis protocol on him. However, when Megatron makes it clear he refuses to have Trypticon repaired and have him permanently be his warship while alive as punishment for his failure in the last game, Soundwave, in the only time in not only the games but all of Aligned as a whole, hesitates to comply with Megatron's orders and voices his objection for letting Trypticon suffer like this.
  • When the Decepticons make their final attack on the Ark, Soundwave infiltrates the Autobot shuttle and destroys the ammunition for its turrets to leave the ship defenseless against the Decepticons' warship, the Nemesis.

Prime[]

  • He is the epitome of silent, but deadly, being immensely charming through his body language and creative methods of communication through replaying words of others.
  • He lacks any detracting traits that nearly all the other Decepticons and villains have and notably doesn't display any inherent hatred of humanity like his Decepticon compatriots.
  • He detected transmissions from deep space and forced Starscream to open the space bridge to allow Megatron to finally return after years away.
  • When the Nemesis navigation system was damaged, he broke into the Giant Sized Array telescope in Texas to pinpoint Cybertron's location so the Decepticons could enact their plan to raise an undead army from Dark Energon. He foiled an attempt by the Autobots kid allies and their tech expert Rafael to stop him and had them at his mercy, but ultimately decided to spare them and leave once his mission was complete to return to the Nemesis.
  • He spied on Starscream through Laserbeak to discover the severely damaged body of Megatron and forced him to take Megatron back for repairs, foiled the backstabber's plans to kill him once and for all.
  • He repeatedly foiled attempts from Starscream and later Knock Out from trying to kill Megatron and saw through their lies and discovered that a cortical psychic patch was attached to Megatron, soon exposing the Autobots who were on the ship. He stopped Starscream from using the Autobot intrusion as an excuse to take Megatron off of life support and his efforts allowed Megatron to be revived and return once more.
  • He secretly kept tabs on Starscream following Megatron's return to know what he was up to.
  • He located the parts the Decepticons would need to build a new space bridge and went on a stealthy robbing spree against highly secure military bases to successfully obtain the parts with the U.S government not even knowing it was him and instead suspected MECH for quite some time and he located the last part for Megatron to obtain.
  • He figured out Unicron was the core of Earth and when Megatron left to talk to Unicron, he was the only Decepticon who stepped in to confront Airachnid when she tried to take advantage of the situation to usurp leadership of the Decepticons and abandon Megatron, engaging her in an epic duel and defeating her, putting the treacherous Pure Evil in her place and barely limiting a finger to do so.
    • In fact, Soundwave used Laserbeak to finish Airachnid to further humiliate her since he is clearly far stronger than her, but rather than simply battering her into submission he tosses her back and lets Laserbeak blast her before pinning her.
    • The look of the Decepticon's faces (i.e. Breakdown and Knock Out) further proves none of them expect Soundwave to be an efficient fighter.
  • He erased all incriminating data from the Nemesis to prevent an amnesiac Optimus named Orion from learning the truth about the Decepticons when Megatron tricked him into joining and when Arcee infiltrated the Nemesis and went on a rampage to rescue Optimus, he stepped in and opened a space bridge right when she charged at him to strand her in the Arctic and foil her plans.
  • After Orion became Optimus, he was the one skilled enough to decrypt the Autobots Iacon database to continue the Decepticons hunt for the Iacon relics on Earth.
  • He successfully distracted Ratchet and Wheeljack with Laserbeak to get to the third Iacon relic and when Wheeljack confronted him, he engaged him in an epic duel, being totally unfazed when Wheeljack cracked his visor and when it seemed like Wheeljack had finally gotten the upper hand and was about to kill him, it turned out he had used his tentacles to grab the relic called the Resonance Blaster from behind him and immobilise Wheeljack, becoming the only Decepticon to successfully obtain an Iacon relic. He also found the grenade trap Wheeljack implanted in Laserbeak so it could be disposed.
  • He infiltrated a military base in Colorado to hijack the satellite superweapon Project Damocles and download the codes to the Nemesis, engaging the Autobots with the satellite and successfully preventing them from interfering with his download. He also detected Rafael's attempt to hack into the satellite and nearly destroyed him in his house had Rafael not redirected the satellite at the last minute.
  • He figured out that the last Omega Key was related to the Autobot's new recruit Smokescreen and kidnapped him while he was out, successfully getting away just when the other Autobots arrived.
  • He discovered the location of all three of the Autobots human kid allies and kidnapped them with Starscream after the Autobots obtained all the Omega Keys to successfully force the Autobots to hand the Omega Keys back to the Decepticons and allow them to activate the Omega Lock.
  • His efforts at tracking the Autobot base would finally succeed in the Season 2 finale, allowing the Decepticons to destroy the base and score a major victory against the Autobots.
  • He monitored communication worldwide to track any surviving Autobot communication and successfully tracked down Jack and Arcee after Jack sent a message to his mom.
  • He realized Starscream had been falling for Autobot tricks to spread Decepticon forces thin and deduced the Autobots were temporary held up in the crashed and abandoned Decepticon warship, the Harbinger.
  • He came to Shockwave's aid when he was attacked by the Autobots while trying to retrieve a Predacon fossil for his Project Predacon, successfully taking down Optimus Prime and managing to bridge a piece of the fossil back to the Nemesis.
  • He exterminated the zombie outbreak on the Nemesis and single-handedly defeated Airachnid and her Insecticon army when they returned for a rematch, stranding them all on one of Cybetron's moons.
  • He oversaw a mission to recover some parts to rebuild the Omega Lock with the help of some Vehicons and when the Autobots arrived on the scene, he bridged the Vehicons back to the Nemesis with the parts even though he ended up being captured, showing selflessness he placed the mission and the Decepticon cause above anything else, even himself.
  • When the Autobots tried to interrogate him, he proceed to gloriously troll them before proceeding to infamously talk for the first and only time to proclaim his superiority, crashing his own hard drives and shutting himself down to prevent the Autobots from getting anything from him out of bravery and defiance.
  • Upon being reactivated by Laserbeak, he single-handedly took down Bulkhead and Smokescreen to kidnap Ratchet to assist the Decepticons in perfecting a formula for alternative cybermatter for the Omega Lock.
  • In the series finale, when the Wreckers stormed the bridge, he bridged them all out straight into a Decepticon ambush when they tried attack him and when Miko came aboard the ship with the Apex Armor and Jack, he nearly succeeded in stranding her too, only being defeated by something he could have never expected with Jack and RAF trapping him in a alternate dimension called the Shadowzone the kids had accidentally discovered before.

Robots in Disguise[]

  • He took advantage of Team Bee accidentally opening a portal to the Shadowzone to escape, easily defeating them and throwing Bumblebee into the Shadowzone. He stranded Strongarm and Grimlock when they freed themselves. He successfully built a transmitter using scrap parts in the scrapyard to contact Megatron and when Bumblebee was able to return and destroy the transmitter, he defeated and nearly killed Bumblebee with it taking the entire strength of the team to take him down.
  • After receiving Mini-Cons from the secretly Decepticon, “Autobot High Council”, he dispatched the Mini-Cons to launch a string of thefts to obtain Team Bee's Decepticon Hunters, sending Goodbar to successfully steal one when Hi-Test failed and ran away. He also contacted Steeljaw's pack after they were freed by the High Council and manipulated Steeljaw to obtain his aid in his goals.
  • He reformatted his body and used the Decepticon Hunters to successfully escape the Shadowzone.
  • He built a transatlantic beacon generator from wreckage in the Shadowzone that would powerful enough to contact Megatron when detonated in the highest point in the city and while it would unleash a massive amount of radiation that would wipe out all life on Earth, this at least wasn't Soundwave's intention and he took no pleasure in it, simply dismissing it as collateral damage and he easily defeated Steeljaw and forced him to retreat when he tried to stop him
  • He sensed the Autobots arrival to stop him and engaged them, dispatching Laserbeak to deal with Optimus while he put up a good fight against Team Bee, counteracting Sideswipe's attempts to sneak up on him. Even when, Bumblebee reclaimed the Decepticon Hunters and cut off his tentacles, he bypassed Bee to activate beacon and nearly succeed until Optimus suddenly appeared and destroyed the beacon.

What Makes Him a Baddie?[]

In General[]

  • He is a loyal Decepticon who has assisted all of Megatron's plots of violent conquest and war from the start.

War For Cybertron games[]

  • Helps Megatron enslave Omega Supreme to infect Cybertron's core with Dark Energon, rendering the planet unlivable due to the damage.
  • Oversees Kaon Prison where mass executions of Autobot prisoners to recycle their corpses are very commonplace. As head, he also oversees Zeta Prime's torture and kills him.
  • While he does hesitate against Megatron's intentions to permanently force Trypticon to be his warship, said hesitation is brief and he complies with it, trapping Trypticon forever on the alt-mode of the Nemesis.
  • Destroys the Autobot defenses against the Nemesis and let them all be killed by the Decepticons.

Prime[]

  • He kidnapped the Autobots human kid allies and threatened to kill them with the other Decepticons to blackmail the Autobots into handing over the Omega Keys which Megatron will use to wipe out all life on Earth using the Omega Lock.
  • Helps Megatron in his plot to rebuild the Omega Lock and use it against the Earth, going all out of his way to keep the Autobots in the dark. He later kidnaps Ratchet to create the Synthetic Energon.

Robots in Disguise[]

  • He has orchestrated strings of thefts to obtain space bridge parts or Team Bee's Decepticon hunters.
  • He threatened to kill Hi-Test when he failed to obtain a Decepticon Hunter and ran away and later threatened Steeljaw's pack into assisting him.
  • He nearly wiped out all life on Earth with his transatlantic beacon generator which although not his intention, he didn't care and simply dismissed as collateral damage necessary to complete his goal.

Trivia[]

  • When it comes to the Magnificent Baddies in the Aligned continuity family as a whole, Soundwave is the sole MB to count in both the continuity of the War For Cybertron games and of Transformers: Prime. Megatron, while he counts in Prime, is far too nasty and petty in the Cybertron games, and while not as petty, Shockwave too is far too nasty in the games, meanwhile Onslaught and Dreadwing are characters exclusive to Fall of Cybertron/Rise of the Dark Spark and Prime respectively and don't appear in the other installments.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

            Magnificent Baddies

Generation One Continuity
Sunbow Cartoon: Lord Chumley | Nightbird | Mara-Al-Utha | Dirk Manus
Marvel Comics: Shockwave | Ratbat | Doubledealer
Beast Wars: Megatron

Transformers: Animated
Megatron | Shockwave | Soundwave | Swindle

Transformers Film Series
Optimus Prime | Quintessa

Aligned Continuity
Transformers: War For Cybertron games: Soundwave | Onslaught
Transformers: Prime: Megatron | Soundwave | Dreadwing | Shockwave | Predaking

Other Continuities
Starscream | Shockwave | Megatron | Blackarachnia | Slicer

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