Sky-Byte (RID)

Sky-Byte is a Predacon from the Robots in Disguise continuity.

Deep within Sky-Byte beats the spark of a poet, a scholar, a brilliant and cultured military general who can command armies capable of conquering worlds. But without aptitude and patience, that means jack squat, and Sky-Byte lacks both. But still he soldiers on; for he is driven... by a desperate need for approval. He needs the blessings of his commander Megatron quite possibly more than he needs energon. And Megatron, being Megatron, doesn't dole out praise much, so Sky-Byte tries harder and harder, getting more and more desperate.

This drive is the root of all his problems. He's actually quite intelligent and physically powerful, but he pushes himself to extremes to impress his leader. When he's in control of a situation, he's a deadly effectve foe. But as soon as the situation begins to slip even the smallest bit, he starts to panic, and usually ends up doing something to mess things up and lose the upper hand, which makes him panic more, so he overreacts, and gets in more trouble, etc. etc. etc. It doesn't help that while he's rutheless towards Autobots, humans seem quite safe from his ire... maybe he sees a little somehting of himself in these underdogs. After all, they developed his new favorite form of expression, the haiku. And they do seem rather impressed by him...

Sky-Byte is in charge of the Predacon lackeys Dark Scream, Gask Skunk and Slapper, not that they give him any modicum of respect. In fact, they're more likely to try and shuffle the blame for their failures onto the shark, a gambit that's actually moderately successful, since Sky-Byte is so very good at making things worse for himself. He has a hate-hate relationship with the new Decepticons, especially Scourge, who he sees (rightly) as being a huge threat to his position as Megatron's second-in-command.

Japanese name: Gelshark

Robots in Disguise cartoon

 * Voice actor: Peter Spellos (US), ??? (Japan)

Robots in Disguise

 * Sky-Byte (Mega, 2000/2001)
 * Japanese ID Number: