Dreadwing

Dreadwing is the Decepticon who takes honour seriously, in an organisation that has none, and the series kills him for exactly that. He arrives in "Loose Cannons" as the twin brother of Skyquake, the Decepticon awakened and destroyed in season one, and his first act is a revenge hunt: he killed the Wrecker Seaspray, and Wheeljack has come for him. Tony Todd voices him with a deep, formal gravity that immediately sets him apart from Starscream's scheming and Knock Out's preening.

What makes him interesting is that he is genuinely loyal to Megatron and genuinely principled, and the show refuses to let those two things coexist. He follows orders he dislikes, works alongside subordinates he despises, and holds to a soldier's code in a faction where the leader routinely tortures his own second-in-command. He is competent in a way the Decepticons badly need: a demolitions expert, a capable flier, and the only Decepticon commander who actually plans.

The break comes in "Patch Up", when a cortical psychic patch on Starscream reveals that Starscream had commanded Skyquake and later resurrected his corpse as a Terrorcon. Desecrating his brother's body is the one thing Dreadwing cannot let stand. In "Regeneration" he steals the Forge of Solus Prime and hands it to Optimus Prime, then returns to kill Starscream. Megatron orders him to stand down. He refuses, and Megatron blasts a hole through him with his own cannon to protect Starscream, of all people.

It is one of the bleakest deaths in the series, and it is the moment that most clearly states what the Decepticons are: an organisation that will always choose the schemer over the soldier.

Jet alt mode with high-speed flight; armed with a heavy cannon and a large sword, and a specialist in explosives and demolitions, frequently deploying proximity bombs and mines. One of the few Decepticons capable of engaging Optimus Prime directly. Limits: his code makes him predictable and manipulable, he will not act against orders until pushed past breaking, and he is repeatedly outmanoeuvred by Starscream's dishonesty.

• Skyquake: his twin brother, whose death and later desecration as a Terrorcon drive everything he does.
• Megatron: a leader he serves faithfully and who kills him personally rather than allow Starscream to be harmed.
• Starscream: the object of his contempt, and ultimately the reason for his death.
• Wheeljack: a blood feud over the Wrecker Seaspray that neither gets to conclude.

The IDW Prime tie-in comics do not substantially alter him. G1 and Beast Machines characters of the same name are unrelated. No significant divergence.

Killed by Megatron in "Regeneration", shot through the spark with his own cannon after refusing an order to spare Starscream.

• Voiced by Tony Todd, best known for Candyman and for voicing Fallen in the 2009 live-action film Revenge of the Fallen, making him one of few actors to work in both continuities.
• Skyquake and Dreadwing were designed as a matched pair from the start; Skyquake appears only in "Darkness Rising" and "Masters and Students" to set up Dreadwing's arrival a season later.
• The name is reused from G1's Dreadwing, a Powermaster jet, and from a Beast Machines character, with no in-fiction relationship to either.
• His death in "Regeneration" is one of the few in the series where a leader kills a loyal subordinate to protect a disloyal one, and it is frequently cited as the moment the Decepticon cause is shown to be unsalvageable.
• Prime was produced in CGI by Polygon Pictures, and Dreadwing's model reuses Skyquake's chassis with a new head and colour scheme, an in-fiction justification for a production efficiency.