DION

 

"Hey, look up there in the sky. It's a bird... it's a plane... it's a Walther P-38..."

 

 

Appearances:  

Season 2 Episodes

War Dawn

 

 

Quote:  

"Oh, wow, it's one of those flying robots!"

 

 

Alt-Mode:  

Cybertronian Truck.

 

 

Description:  

In season 2 of Transformers we learnt a lot more about their history. We learnt the origins of Optimus Prime, that on Cybertron before the war he was known as Orion Pax, and had a girlfriend (specifically stated as 'his girl') named Ariel, and that he also had a best friend. That best friend was Dion.

 

Sadly Dion is the little forgotten friend. He's an interesting character, because he honestly adds nothing obvious to the story. His presence makes no difference to the narrative, and in fact it's not long before the rest of the cast of War Dawn has completely forgotten that Dion exists.

 

That said, somehow Dion does add to the general flavour of the story, even if he doesn't effect the overall storyline. He pads out the cast and offers yet another Autobot for speculation. After all, if Orion Pax was turned into Optimus Prime and Ariel was turned into Elita One, who was Dion turned into? Well, I'll go into that later on.

 

 

Biography:

It all began 9 million years ago...

 

No, wait, it all began in 1985...

 

Okay, so it was War Dawn. The Aerialbots are sent back in time, and end up in the early stages of the Great War. They meet Orion Pax, Ariel and of course, the all-important Dion.

 

Dion, like his friends, was a worker at a warehouse, storing energy. He seemed to do more work than Orion, or at the very least he seemed to like to tease Orion about not doing any work. Dion transformed into a large truck-like vehicle, and obviously did work hauling and shifting the materials and energy stored at the warehouse.

 

Dion (like the others) was very impressed with a new breed of Transformer who was popping up on Cybertron. These Transformers could fly, and had powers other Transformers didn't. The Aerialbots, despite the benefit of hindsight, agreed with Dion and his friends that these new Transformers, the Decepticons, seemed to be very cool. (Well, all except Silverbolt, who's a fuddy-duddy.)

 

Then the Decepticons showed up. Once they'd learnt the warehouse was used for storing energy they attacked the Autobots, gunning down Dion and his friends. While Orion Pax and Ariel were rebuilt into Optimus Prime and Elita One, it seems that Dion was dead.

 

Dion... truck mode... vroom vroom.

 

Tech Specs/TFU:

I'd go for a Long Haul style tech specs for this poor guy. Strong, low firepower, low speed... low intelligence? Yeah, probably that too.

 

 

Toy:

Dion's not too bad. He's got tyres liberally on his body, it's obvious his cab becomes his chest, and his truck mode's "tray" becomes his backpack. He could probably be not too bad of a toy.

 

 

Over All:

Okay, it comes down to this: Dion is a neat little story addition, who didn't necessarily need to be in there. It's nice that he's there, but unfortunately fans are obsessed by patterns.

 

Obsessed by patterns? What are you talking about, Jhiaxus?

 

People see that Orion Pax was turned into Optimus Prime. They hear that Ariel was turned into Elita One. So they wonder, "who was Dion turned into?" I've heard mostly the obvious ones. Ironhide is the most common, but if you read The Cybertronian Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide they suggest it might have been Ultra Magnus.

 

Truth is, I think it was none of them. Dion, boys and girls, is dead.

 

Watching the episode carefully, for evidence of who he might have become I noticed something intriguing. In the episode, when Orion Pax and the others are mowed down by the Decepticons the Aerialbots react in shock and horror, realising that the Decepticons are evil. They are incredibly insistent about getting repairs for Orion Pax, and take him to Alpha Trion, who rebuilds him as Optimus Prime. With Optimus Prime on the scene they insist that his girlfriend, Ariel needs to be repaired as well.

 

But they don't mention Dion. They met Dion, they talked to Dion, they connected with Dion, and he got just as much air time as Ariel. Yet they don't seem to want Alpha Trion to repair him. Why? Why wouldn't they want Alpha TRion to repair Dion? Shouldn't he be rebuilt into Ironhide? Well, to labor the point a little, no, he shouldn't be rebuilt. Dion's dead, dude.

 

 

Gallery:

War Dawn:

Vehicular mode Dion.  Dion's vehicular mode once more.  Robot mode Dion.  Another shot of Dion's robot mode.  A closer shot of his robot mode.  

Dion saluting, for some reason.  Dion head shot.  Dion and a random generic...   In this shot Dion and his random friend seem to be getting ready for action.  They're rushing forward... and...  Oops... they're getting cut down like suckers.

 

 

 

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