Said it before and I'll say it again: Blackout was not Soundwave. Soundwave's two most iconic characteristics are his vocoder voice and him having a legion of cassetticons. Blackout had one Minicon and no Soundwave voice.

I think we can agree to disagree on what Soundwave's defining characteristics were (especially since I'm not interested in parsing the difference between a cassette-former and a Mini-con)... but all I'm saying is that (as Galvasean mentioned) the character that eventually became known as Blackout started out as Soundwave. Consider what his mission was -- infiltration and data retrieval. (Plus a lot of erasing his tracks via blowing shit up.)

 

BTW we never heard Blackout speaking in English, so for all you know he could have had the Soundwave-iest of Soundwave-y voices. :P

Said it before and I'll say it again: Blackout was not Soundwave. Soundwave's two most iconic characteristics are his vocoder voice and him having a legion of cassetticons. Blackout had one Minicon and no Soundwave voice.

I think we can agree to disagree on what Soundwave's defining characteristics were (especially since I'm not interested in parsing the difference between a cassette-former and a Mini-con)... but all I'm saying is that (as Galvasean mentioned) the character that eventually became known as Blackout started out as Soundwave. Consider what his mission was -- infiltration and data retrieval. (Plus a lot of erasing his tracks via blowing Blot up.)

 

BTW we never heard Blackout speaking in English, so for all you know he could have had the Soundwave-iest of Soundwave-y voices. :P

HAIL MEGATRON!!!

scorponock attack!!!

I don't see why they didn't just pull the trigger on it and just call Blackout "Soundwave."

They obviously kept enough of SW's characteristics with the Blackout character, so why the change? Give him more of a SW-like head, replace Scorponock with Ravage, and instant *poof* instant Soundwave. If they had just done that for the first film there would be no need to waste time on trying to figure out how to do SW for the second or third film. Just a few slight changes could have saved everyone a lot of headache.

Again, I ask the question; Why did they change the name of the character from "Soundwave" to "Blackout"? The finished product retained more then enough of SW's characteristics, so I don't understand why they opted not to just make him Soundwave. Blackout's toy is even blue with some copper/gold highlights!

 

He was loyal to Megatron, and despised Starscream and his bid for 'Con leadership.

He had a smaller "minicon" who existed in a sort of "pet/master" relationship with him (all though if they had made Blackout SW Scorponock should have been Ravage).

His minicon was tasked with hunting down enemies who had escaped the initial attack (we've all seen Laserbeak and Ravage deployed on similar missions).

His primary mission was the retrieval of information, which he accomplished by means of infiltration.

 

Again, to recap, give him a more SW-like head and replace Scorponock with Ravage, and you have instant Soundwave. If they had done that more character possibilities would have been opened up for TF2 and TF3.

They did envision Ravage. Unfortunately, when the setting of that battle changed from a jungle to a desert, they ditched the panther for something that can handle sand.

They did envision Ravage. Unfortunately, when the setting of that battle changed from a jungle to a desert, they ditched the panther for something that can handle sand.

That's a shame, 'cause the Blackout character doesn't seem all that different from the original draft's SW character. I wonder why they ditched the jungle location....

Even so, I don't think Ravage in the desert is that far fetched. Isn't that the location we first saw him in during G1?

there are a couple things that can emit soundwaves, like phones. and satilite dishes, and other things i cant remember

there are a couple things that can emit soundwaves, like phones. and satilite dishes, and other things i cant remember

Dogs, cars, cats, people, TVs, Air Attack Optimus Primal, planes, trains, waves...

Even so, I don't think Ravage in the desert is that far fetched. Isn't that the location we first saw him in during G1?

Yeah but G1 was seriously messed up.

 

Even so, I don't think Ravage in the desert is that far fetched. Isn't that the location we first saw him in during G1?

Yeah but G1 was seriously messed up.

This cannot be stated enough. G1 is obviously the basis for all of this, but you really can't go basing movie logic on an old cartoon that had NO logic at all. (Earthlings running around on Cybertron without spacesuits, robots flying without propulsion systems, etc.)

 

And IMO Blackout had more of a Soundwave-y head than Megatron, or certainly Starscream, did regarding their G1 counterparts.

 

And I really do think it's nitpicking to complain about the difference between a small scorpion robot that pops out of a larger robot, and a small jaguar robot that pops out of a larger robot. I mean, seriously.

 

Plus, Scorponok was freaking cool. That's my bottom line.