Tho' he only had about 1:57 of screen time in TLK, Infernicus confused me. Is he supposed to be a combiner? This is the line that confused me: "Infernicus, transform!" -Megatron So, is he one bot who changes into multiple? Or a combiner? And if he's a combiner, why is is combiner form so small compared to G1 combiners or ROTF Devastator? (Edit: His name is spelled Infernocus, not Infernicus.)
There's a lot of good Transformers stuff out there that you're missing if you think traditional scramble teams and ROTF Devastator are the only benchmark for combiners. Why wouldn't he be a combiner? It's multiple individual pieces that form a larger unit, that's pretty much the only standard for a combiner across Transformers fiction.
I was just noting two more major examples. And as for why he wouldn't be a combiner? Throughout many forms of media, Megatron usually says something along the lines of "(insert combiner team name here), merge to form (insert combiner name here)." If he was a combiner, Megatron most likely would have said "Infernocus, merge!" at the very least.
Can't say that I disagree. He may have been better... if he had more than a minute and a half of screen time...
By that logic, ROTF Devastator isn't a combiner because Megatron just shouts "DEVASTATOR!" after he's formed and doesn't say anything beforehand.
Because The Last Knight in general reminds me of Madman's Paradise, with Quintessa sharing many traits of the Quintesson sorcerer Mara Al-Utha, for whatever reason Infernocus reminds me of those tree-centaur things that attack Grimlock. Unlike Infernocus, who was a minion of Quintessa, the tree-centaurs are enemies of Mara Al-Utha. The tree-centaurs are at least partially made of wood, and Infernocus kind of looks like a demonic, metallic Ent, with large horns, just like the tusks the tree-centaurs had. The vague resemblance is almost certainly a coincidence, even if I think the Bay films are much closer to G1 than given credit by most fans, but those creatures from the Season 3 episode remind me of Infernocus nonetheless.
Not sure why that line is a point of confusion. First of all a combiner can be any size. It depends on the size of the individual robots as to how big the combiner would be. Like Armada/Energon Perceptor is a combiner and he's tiny because he's made of three human sized Mini-cons. Secondly ROTF Devastator is far more confusing because the individual Constructicons don't actually combine to form him. The guy who forms his torso dies in the very first scene in the movie. Another Constructicon is killed and scrapped for parts so they can bring Megatron back to life. Mixmaster and Rampage can clearly be seen fighting as individual bots at the exact same time that Devastator is ripping apart the pyramid. He's essentially one guy who splits into multiple vehicle modes that just happen to be the same vehicles as the other Constructicons… or the movie was just not planned out very well and he was meant to be a combiner but they stupidly edited the movie in such a way that him being a combiner made no sense. Infernocus actually makes MORE sense as a combiner because we never see individual infernocons running around separately from the completed combiner. That said they don't seem to transform other than from one robot to many robots and vice versa. Not entirely accurate. There is a good reason why he might question if Infernocus is a combiner or not. Though like I mentioned above that kinda flys out the window when he includes ROTF Devastator as a combiner with no issues. It's not multiple individual PIECES that form a larger unit... It's multiple individual CHARACTERS that form a larger unit. That's the distinction. If they didn't have to be different characters then Magmatron and other similar characters would also have to be combiners. Magmatron's bio clearly states that he is ONE character who can separate into three parts. Each part carries part of Magmatron's spark but they all are still the same character. They aren't three individual characters who combine to form Magmatron, they ARE Magmatron. He's more of a separator than a combiner. Combiners are multiple characters who combine into a larger robot. One character who splits into parts but the parts are still the same character is not a combiner. This distinction is why there is confusion behind Reflector for example. The toy gives them individual names seeming to indicate three totally different characters who combine into a camera. The show however seems to portray Reflector as a singular character with an... at the time unique ability to split into multiple robots but they're all still the same character. To make it a little less confusing when someone asks if Reflector is a Combiner what they're really asking is are these three characters named Spectro, Spyglass, and Viewfinder or is he one character named Reflector. Most specifically to this thread he's essentially asking... Does this image show one character named Infernocus or five characters named Skulk, Rupture, Thrash, Gorge, and Glug. (Actually there's only four in this shot but I couldn't find a better image of them.)
a cool design and concept that’s VASTLY underutilized and killed before they can do anything of value - essentially the personification of the bay films
I kind of assumed he was just Unicron spawn. Or maybe an Avatar of Unicron? At least that's how I'd handle it. Anyway I guess he's just a combined from what the toys suggest. No idea why Michael's vision was to kill him off so early but I guess that's what he does with most villains
Does he not say "Infernicons, transform?" It's been a while so I don't remember properly. But just because Megatron says something one way does not mean that's truth, especially when he's busy in the middle of a battle and distracted. I'd say yeah, he's a combiner. Wasn't mixmaster the only real one who was in two places? The guy at the start of the film was white, but red in Devastator. Rampage is red fighting Bee but yellow in Devastator. It seemed more like the constructicons in the film were a massive unit with a lot of members, and it didn't need every single one of them to form Devastator. And sharing body types is a thing, so maybe all the Constructicons just had the same body types and different colours across them all?
I agree. Even Knight is guilty of this crime (AHEM AHEM CLIFFJUMPER, SHATTER, AND DROPKICK AHEM AHEM). Once again, that's just Michael Bay.
I thought the same thing... mostly because of the horns... I mean the Infernocons individually or together all have Unicron horns on their heads which made me think they were some how connected. Though other than the design nothing in the movie really suggests any sort of connection between the two. Even as they reveal that the Earth is Unicron and we see the same horns appearing out of the ground they still never say anything about how Infernocus is related to that. I think if we had gotten better writers Infernocus could of been the main villain of the movie speaking for Unicron as an avatar like those Avatars we saw in Transformers Prime. He could have just BEEN Unicron but then I'm not sure how Quintessa would fit into the plot. Still it would of been much better to give them something other than just being Quintessa's lap dog(s). They're both red and white. The toys some times call him Scavenger some times Demolishor. Scavenger is most often credited as being the one who forms Devastator and is always depicted as red with white stripes. Demolishor is credited as being a different character that appears at the beginning of the movie but he is often also depicted as a stand in for Scavenger and has been colored as either red with white stripes the same as Scavenger or white with red stripes. I just think it's further adding to the confusion of if they're the same or not since the movie itself just calls him "Wheelbot". His toys have been painted in both those color schemes and unlike the other guy he's always called Rampage no matter what toy we're looking at... with one exception which is a G1 colored repaint called Bonecrusher but movie Bonecrusher wasn't even in RotF and is a completely different Decepticon. Anyway the movie itself only calls him Skipjack. That doesn't really work out. Sure sharing body types is a thing but they're usually clearly defined as different characters with unique names and color schemes. You only pointed out one instanced... two if we want to count the red and white being swapped... where the characters had different paint jobs but they still both share the same names... And in some cases actually share the same paint job... There's nothing that clearly defines them as separate characters and only adds to the confusion because the different depictions can't seem to make their mind what to call them or what they're suppose to look like. Plus there's still that issue with Mixmaster which even you admitted was confusing. Cause there's two completely identical cement trucks and both of them are called Mixmaster in every single depiction. But he can't be Devastator's head at the exact same time that we're seeing him get killed by Jetfire. This has lead a lot of people to believe that Devastator is just a totally separate character who happens to have an identical cement truck for a head but Devastator's vehicles are just drones not individual characters because it's the only explanation for how Mixmaster can be in two places at once. He isn't... At least the only explanation that makes sense in universe. I just go with it's a terrible movie and no one was ever thinking about how the Constructicons actually work in universe. They were just throwing them into random scenes logic be damned.
A waste of time is what it was. ...Also, I know it was probably just because of their "Demon Robots" theme, but their horned head designs make me think of Unicron, and I wonder if the big twist was that Quintessa's true goal was to revive Unicron but with him under her control through Cybertron, or if she was his herald. Not that it matters, they were apparently never going to get back to the Unicron plot anyway.
