For me, Cyclonus was always a rebuilt Skywarp, as it just made the most sense. Skywarp was a jet with purple highlights, Cyclonus was a purple jet. Plus, it would make the most sense to assume that Skywap and Thundercracker, two prominent flying Decepticons would become Cyclonus and Scourge, two prominent flying Decepticons. The Insecticons became Scourge's Sweeps.

 

I tend to believe Cyclonus' "Armada" never existed, and thus has no pre-Battle of Autobot City counterpart(s). Why?

It's pretty much been confirmed that the inclusion of the line "....and his Armada" was a holdover from a previous version of the script where Cyclonus, like Scourge, would have his own army of identical warriors. That idea was dropped, and only Scourge's Sweeps made the final cut, with Cyclonus' Armada being written out. This is supported by the fact that no other warrior or warriors resembling Cyclonus are ever seen.

 

Now a lot of people will say "but that doesn't matter, the line '....and his Armada' as well as an other Cyclonus are shown. Therefore at least one other Cyclonus-like 'Con exists officially."

To that I say you can't take production and animation errors as cannon.

Yes, the line"....and his Armada" is spoken. But that was just a holdover from an earlier version of the script, probably left in due to an oversight, and was not meant to be included in the final product.

Yes, there is a second Cyclonus-like 'Con shown, but in addition to the above mentioned reason of being a holdover, it can also be described as an animation error, something the G1 show, and even the movie, had in spades.

Simply put, you can't take everything you saw animated on the G1 show as cannon.

 

So to me if you're going to accept the existence of Cyclonus' "Armada" as cannon because of animation and production errors, despite the fact that the Armada is never seen afterwards, then you also have to accept that after the Battle of Autobot City a still-functioning Brawn switched sides and became a Decepticon.

 

So if we accept the fact that there's only one Cyclonus, and no Armada, then who gets to be Cyclonus? Skywarp or Bombshell? I say Skywarp because.....

Like Cyclonus he's a jet with purple colouring.

Like Cyclonus he's a prominent flying Decepticon.

Like Cyclonus he's loyal to Megatron/Galvatron, while Bombshell, being an Insecticon, was much less loyal to the Decepticon leader. So it would make sense that a loyal soldier of Megatron's would be rebuilt into a loyal soldier of Galvatron's, while someone like Bombshell and the rest of the Insecticons, who were much less loyal, would be demoted to minion status.

 

So for all the above reasons I tend to think that the rebuilding of the discarded Decepticons goes as follows....

Megatron becomes Galvatron.

Skywarp becomes Cyclonus.

Thundercracker becomes Scourge.

The Insecticons and any of their clones that were discarded become Scourge's Sweeps.

 

The continued appearance of Insecticons after these events can either be described as animation errors or the more cannon-friendly explanation of being one of the many Insecticon clones that wasn't discarded.

:tmyk

 

better question: why does Galvatron get to keep his memory, but scourge and cyclonus don't?

How do we know that? Neither Scourge nor Cyclonus ever say "I/we have no memory of who I/we am/are prior to Unicron creating me/us."

For all we know they retain the memories of their previous incarnations.

If you want a cannon-friendly answer, however, I have that as well.

Megatron's memories were to important and vital to be discarded, so Unicron felt it necessary for Galvatron to keep the memories from his past life. Unicron, however, didn't feel that Thundercracker and Skywarp's memories were vital, so he erased them from the minds of their new forms Scourge and Cyclonus.

Ya,that all makes sense. :thumb

I recall Octane entering a tomb of the G1 decepticons and stumbling upon the grave marker of Thundercracker. (Starscreams Ghost)

G1 is mostly incoheriant jibberish. Cyclonus is a purple jet guy. Thats all the thought I'm going to give it because thats about as much thought the writers gave it.

better question: why does Galvatron get to keep his memory, but scourge and cyclonus don't?

I do like Icecap79's theory for this, but my personal opinion is that Megatron was the only Decepticon still alive at the time. The others don't move whatsoever during any part of the scene with Megatron talking to Unicron, or even when they change bodies, suggesting they could've died from their wounds.

Megatron was still alive when he was rebuilt into Galvatron. The jets and insecticons might have still been alive.. but they neither stirred nor showed signs of any reaction to outside stimulus (which would be unusual given the circumstances of a giant ass talking planet right in front of you).

 

This suggests the possibility that they were all already dead. Or they were so weak nothing really mattered to them anymore. Since the new chars didn't really show much of any resemblance to the personalities of their former "lives", I'm inclined to believe they were already dead and it's just their bodies that were used.

Back in 1986, the first thing I saw was the catalog:

 

http://tfarchive.com/toys/mistransformed/i...decepticons.jpg

 

I saw that in the Decepticon Planes section, Thundercracker and Skywarp were gone, and Scourge and Cyclonus were there. (And the Insecticons were still in the catalog.) So when I saw the movie, I was like "oh.......".

 

I was also like "typical, they even have animation errors in the friggin movie."

Simply put, you can't take everything you saw animated on the G1 show as cannon.

 

So you're saying that WheelJack is not dead? That Afterburner, he couldn't come out of the shadows to help save Optimus Primes life. No more Dinobots for him!

Simply put, you can't take everything you saw animated on the G1 show as cannon.

 

So you're saying that WheelJack is not dead? That Afterburner, he couldn't come out of the shadows to help save Optimus Primes life. No more Dinobots for him!

No, you have to use common sense. The scene you're referring to shows Wheeljack dead. All following G1 animated material confirms this. He's never shown to be alive afterwards. The intention was to kill Wheeljack, and we know this because his character is treated as dead following that one scene.

The existence of Cyclonus' Armada, however is a very different situation. The existence of the Armada, like Wheeljack's death, is shown in one scene. Unlike Wheeljack's death, however, the existence of the Armada is never confirmed afterwards. The Armada is shown once, then never again. Therefore that becomes an animation error, whereas Wheeljack's death (which was confirmed in all following animated material) was confirmed.

Factor in reports that the concept of Cyclonus' Armada was a concept dropped by the time the final script was written, and its inclusion in the movie's final cut was most likely due to an oversight when the script was rewritten, and we end up with one conclusion; That Cyclonus' Armada was never meant to have existed in the final G1 Animated continuity, and that the inclusion of the phrase "....and his Armada" as well as a second Cyclonus were production and animation errors. G1 had a lot of those, and you can't assume them to be cannon.

As for what counts as a production or animation error, I've outlined that above. It's something that's spoken or shown for one scene, then never mentioned or shown again.

 

Of course you could have figured all of that yourself, but why let common sense get in the way of a nice zing?

I don't really know but there were more sweeps made than there were decepticons thrown out of the ship in the movie.

BTW, he's Bombshell. Heehee!

The 'armada' decided he'd rather be an extraneous sweep.