Tidal Wave (Transformers)

Tidal Wave is the name of a fictional character from Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon. He is a Decepticon, and at one point of the Energon series, he was rebuilt as Mirage. His Japanese name is Shockwave (ショックウェーブ), and later, Shockfleet (ショックフリート).

Transformers: Armada
In Transformers: Armada, Tidal Wave was a gigantic Transformer who had won a massive victory for the Decepticons on the planet Devola before being summoned to Earth by Thrust. Possessing great strength and massive size, his brain power was much less pronounced, and was known for droningly repeating his own name, usually in the form of "Tidal Wave... Tidal Wave...", and referring to himself in the 3rd person. He had the ability to combine with Megatron to give his master a more powerful form (known as Burning Megatron), and could separate into three smaller ships called the Dark Fleet. His main alternate mode was a massive aircraft carrier.

In his first appearance, he attacked the Autobots, with his vast size and strength vastly outmatching his foes. He was only defeated due to the timely intervention of the Mini-Con Space team, who combined to form the Requiem Blaster, allowing Optimus Prime to defeat the giant. He was one of the main Decepticons to survive the end of the series.

Tidal Wave's Mini-Con partner was named Ramjet, but he rarely appeared in the cartoon series. He was also closely aligned with the Mini-Con Sea Team on several occasions.

Transformers: Energon
By the time of Transformers: Energon, Tidal Wave and numerous other Decepticons had allied with the Autobots. Possessing a new green and white paint job, he was the guardian of the Asteroid City Energon mine, until it was attacked by the Terrorcons. He was brought to Scorponok and Alpha Q, and was persuaded to join them under the false pretense that they were working to resurrect Megatron. However, this would prove to be a mistake, and Megatron returned to life on his own, and earned Tidal Wave's loyalty, as well as that of Cyclonus and Demolishor – both of them Megatron's minions and Tidal Wave's comrades in Armada. During the attack on the Desert City Energon mine, Tidal Wave mistakenly grabbed an Energon star, resulting in lightning-like burns covering his entire body.

When the unruly, treacherous Decepticon known as Shockblast joined Megatron’s forces, Tidal Wave warned against the idea, distrusting Shockblast as a result of some unspecified past conflict that had occurred between them. Ordered to aid Shockblast in battle, however, Tidal Wave was badly damaged when an Energon Tower collapsed on him, and Megatron used the power of Unicron to reformat him, recreating Tidal Wave as Mirage.

Smaller and sleeker than in his original form, Mirage received an intelligence upgrade to go along with his new body, speaking more full sentences and losing his penchant for repeating his own name, though he still referred to himself in the third-person. By the climactic events of the series Mirage developed a fixation upon his leader, often making comments about his affection for him and, in one instance, contorting his body and generating a glowing pink heart while declaring Megatron's greatness. Tragically, Mirage’s sheer devotion to Megatron led him to follow his leader into oblivion when he flew into the Energon sun that had caused his leader’s demise, thus bringing an end to Mirage. However, Megatron and Starscream actually survived leaping into the sun as shown in Transformers: Cybertron.

Transformers: Armada
Tidal Wave would make a brief appearance in the accompanying Armada comics from Dreamwave Productions, appearing in the final issue as one of the Decepticons battling to distract Unicron.

Transformers: Energon
In the Energon comic by Dreamwave Productions (a follow-up to their Armada Comic), Tidal Wave is considerably more intelligent and is capable of complicated speech. In this continuity he is a Terrorcon from the start - one of a group of Decepticons unhappy with the Autobot/Decepticon peace that emerged in the wake of Unicron's defeat. After their meeting was gatecrashed by Starscream, Scorponok killed the interloper, but Starscream nearly dragged Tidal Wave down with him, with Tidal Wave having his leg blown off by Scorponok, leading to a rivalry between the two. Transported to Unicron and receiving powerful new Hyper-Modes, Tidal Wave was repaired and received his Energon coloration at this point. Following the Terrorcons in their attacks on Earth, Tidal Wave's past would come to the fore when he attacked Ironhide, who had apparently been his prisoner at some point in the past. Forcing him to cooperate when he threatened to kill Cliffjumper, reminding him how he had killed Autobots whenever he had refused in the past. He underestimated Ironhide's resolve when the Autobot activated the warhead he had come to acquire (unaware it had a default program that deactivated it) and attacked him. Tidal Wave was forced to teleport away when Jetfire arrived.

If he had survived the wrath of the Autobots, then his commanding officer Scorponok was another matter. Scorponok beat Tidal Wave so badly his shattered body was transported to Unicron and was rebuilt as Mirage by Alpha Q. He would subsequently appear attacking the Omnicons to snatch Kicker. However, Dreamwave's closure meant the character's eventual fate would go untold.

Like the Mini-Con Mirage, this Mirage also had the ability to become invisible for short periods of time, in homage to the original G1 Mirage.

Pack-in mini-comics
Mirage debuted in the third installment of the mini-comics included with Transformers: Energon figures, patrolling an Autobot island facility while his fellow Decepticons worked to penetrate it. When the Decepticons are caught by Bulkhead and Towline, Mirage rushes to provide backup but is confronted and taken out by Omega Supreme. Tow Line wounds Slugslinger in combat. Omega Supreme takes out Mirage, Sharkticon and Shockblast. Later, in the fourth mini-comic, Mirage was among the Decepticons aiding Megatron in battle against Optimus Prime and Hot Shot, who were defeated when Prime powerlinked with Wing Saber.

Video games
Tidal Wave is among the characters appearing in the 2004 Transformers video game for the Playstation. He appears as a boss. His alt mode was so large, half of the level was spent trying to navigate your player through his massive battleship mode. This game was voted one of the top Playstation 2 games of all time by IGN, with Tidal Wave's part in the game being mentioned as one of the game's highlights.

Toys

 * Armada Tidal Wave (2002–2004)
 * The original form of Mirage, the massive Decepticon battleship, Tidal Wave, was available in a variety of colors. As originally designed for the Transformers: Armada toyline, he was purple and grey, but large amounts of green were later added to the toy. The animators of the television series, however, did not learn of this change until they had rendered Tidal Wave in his original color scheme for the series, so while the American toy had the green components, the Japanese release of the figure chose to use the original design in the name of show accuracy. When re-released in the Transformers: Energon toyline, he was now rendered in whites and translucent greens, with lightning-bolt scars that the animated series blamed on exposure to raw Energon.


 * Tidal Wave is formed of three separate ship components - a troop carrier, an aircraft carrier and a twin-bowed gunboat. These three vessels can link together to form one giant battleship, which can then transform into Tidal Wave, or they can individual merge with the Armada Megatron or Galvatron toy. Tidal Wave has two firing missiles in his gunboat section, and his Mini-Con partner, Ramjet, activates rotating gun turrets.


 * Energon Mirage (2004)
 * Mirage is one of the more complex toys of the line, and features spring-loaded hyper-power cannons with accompanying electronic sounds. The figure was later recolored into Dreadwing, his own clone, as part of the Energon line.