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| “ | Whoever loses, I win! | „ |
| ~ Sideways' motto, Sand |
Sideways is a major antagonist in the Transformers Unicron Trilogy, serving as the main antagonist of Transformers: Armada and a major antagonist in Transformers Cybertron.
He is a mysterious character who has been a part of both the Autobots and Decepticons before eventually being revealed to be affiliated with Unicron. It is because of this that Sideways manipulated the war between the Autobots and Decepticons to gather hatred to revive Unicron. As such he is responsible (directly and indirectly) for many of the series' most important plot points, such as his betrayal of the Autobots, instigating the rivalry between Megatron and Starscream, the discovery of the Requiem Blaster and the creation of the Hydra Cannon.
Despite being defeated and seemingly destroyed in Armada, Sideways somehow resurfaces in Cybertron to rejoin the Decepticons and later choosing to follow Starscream when he breaks away to form his own faction.
In Armada he is voiced by Paul Dobson, who also voices Nemesis Prime in the same series and Naraku in InuYasha, and in Cybertron he is voiced by Ted Cole. In the Japanese versions, Micron Legend and Galaxy Force, he is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai and Susumu Chiba respectively.
Personality[]
Armada[]
A master manipulator, Sideways is an extremely deceptive individual (regardless of whatever faction he's on), and cares not for the reaction someone has when they realized he's been stringing them all along (a good example was when he betrayed Hot Shot, despite their earlier teamwork and seeming concern towards the latter's well-being). Although he claims to be a drifter who wandered into the conflict and acting on his units best interests, in reality, he acted as a saboteur during their battles, giving neither faction a clear advantage. Even after no longer being able to work undercover, he still manages to manipulate the war effort, such as aiding the Autobots in finding the Requiem Blaster or when he convinced the Decepticon general Thrust to join him. He aims to stoke the flames of their mutual hatred to fuel Unicron's revival and to keep both sides from uniting against his dark master.
Sideways doesn't care about sides or factions (i.e. the Autobot/Decepticon unit) nor their cause, dismissing them as "petty labels". The only one is he is completely loyal to is Unicron himself (a being who, even Sideways has showed a moment of fear to, when faced by his wrath). When the Mini-Cons were successful in defeating Unicron himself, Sideways became enraged and attempted to kill them before being hit by the Requiem Blaster (shot by Optimus Prime). During his last moments, he stated that he'll have his revenge.
He is highly enigmatic, aloof, and prefers to use his Mini-Con head as to keep himself anonymous. He is also known his sinister laugh.
Cybertron[]
Outside of Unicron's influence, Sideways displays a much more laid-back personality, often listening and singing to music in his free time. He is also shown to have formed a friendship with Soundwave. Although despite this jokester persona, the thought of his mission to avenge Planet X can cause him to become grim and serious.
Power and Abilities[]
Armada[]
At first, Sideways' power and combat skill seems to be above average, but not as strong as others. In reality, Sideways is by far one of the most powerful Transformers in the series, rivalled only by Optimus Prime and surpassed only by Unicron.
Sideways' particular ability involves transforming into a motorcycle, with Mirror (the combined form of the Mini-Cons Rook and Crosswise) acting as the rider, making him one of the speedier characters introduced in the series.
Sideways in trans-phase mode.
He is shown to be well-versed in combat, he took down Cyclonus during his first appearance, and briefly held his own against the Decepticon general Thrust. Though he may appear to be of average size and strength, Sideways himself admits that he can change his form and fight at any power level, and is nigh-invincible when using the powers of Unicron, such powers include: turning his body into a cloud of static, (being immune to most attacks, including the mighty Star Saber), another is the ability to generate amoeba-like nanobots to envelop his enemies.
Sideways is at his most powerful through Nemesis Prime, a clone of Optimus that was controlled/possessed by Sideways. This clone was so powerful that it took the combined strength of Optimus, Megatron, Red Alert, Hot Shot, Starscream, Demolisher and most of them receiving a power boost by the Mini-Cons in order for them to take him down. He can also eschew a body entirely, appearing on computer monitors (Sideways can also hack and disable security systems) or as a vision in the sky.
While he is a powerhouse, Sideways' greatest weapons are manipulation coercion and gaslighting. Deceitful and Machiavellian, he was able to infiltrate both sides and manipulate the war in any way he saw fit. He succeeded in infiltrating the Autobots and, realizing they were on to him, almost immediately switched to the Decepticons. He had a far easier time infiltrating the Decepticons and was far more successful in turning them against each other, mainly fanning the flames of Megatron and Starscream's feud, gaslighting Demolisher and turning Thrust to his side. After being found out and escaping the Decepticons, Sideways continued to manipulate events, such as telling the Autobots about the existence of the Requiem Blaster and giving Thrust the idea for the Hydra Cannon (making Sideways indirectly responsible for the death of Optimus Prime).
Cybertron[]
This version of Sideways is capable of flight (regardless of the form he's in) and can transform into a jet plane. He is also equipped with a shield on his left arm that's part of his body. Along with his speed, Sideways has demonstrated good reflexes, dodging Optimus Prime's laser gun as he closed the distance between them the the final battle.
Despite his goofy nature, Sideways is surprisingly cunning and was able to ambush his enemies. Working together with Soundwave, they fought the Autobots to a standstill during the final battle.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Sideways and Demolishor (Rebellion).jpg (133 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Originally, Crosswise was going to be the Autobot head, and Rook would be the Decepticon head (reflecting the angel/devil scheme). This might have been a mistake on the developers part.
- Sideways' appearance and enigmatic personality gives off a ninja-like air to him.
- It was stated that he was an avatar created by Unicron, and the latter is able to speak through him. However, Cybertron gives a different origin, where he is a vengeful survivor of Planet X. This has been incorporated into the fiction of Sideways, with the bot himself indicating that you should not trust any origin to be the whole truth.
- He is occasionally referred to as a "virus".
- In Ship, several characters (and the viewers) were left baffled as to why Sideways switched to the Decepticon faction immediately after cornering Starscream.
- In Cybertron, Sideways design was also used for Planet X's Noisemaze warriors, implying he was once a an ordinary Noisemaze drone.
- Sideways is called Double Face in Micron Legend, the Japanese version of Armada, and Noisemaze in Galaxy Force, the Japanese version of Cybertron. However, given that Galaxy Force was conceived as a standalone series Noisemaze was not intended to be the same character.
- According to Ask Vector Prime, Sideways and Soundwave may be descendants of a version of the Cybertronian Empire.
- Some fiction seems to imply all the incarnations of Sideways are all the same dimension jumping character, but other stories do try and deconfirm at least some of them being the same character.
- Sideways was occasionally linked with Tarantulas, another supposed agent of Unicron, due to Sideways's reputation for dimension hopping, and Tarantulas's Cybertronian form, with a motorcycle alt mode, heavily resembling his Armada form. When Sideways took over the Ask Vector Prime Facebook page, he was fairly insistent that they were separate beings (although at one point he trolled the audience by suggesting his hypothetical best mode would be a Transmetal spider, the same as Tarantulas).
- Unlike his lore in the series, his toy bio depicts him to have split-personality & be a double agent. He is also depicted to suffer side-effect from such syndrome as it's quite unpredictable which side of him will take control. This case makes him similar to Punch/Counterpunch from G1.
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 Unicron Trilogy Villains
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Decepticons Terrorcons Unicron's Forces Others | ||