Elita One

''Elita One is an Autobot from the Generation One universe. She was once known as Ariel.''

Elita One is the female counterpart to Optimus Prime; a powerful warrior, fearless in the face of her enemies, but compassionate to those who cannot defend themselves. She commands a squad of female Autobots, and has their undying trust and support. Her relative lack of firepower is somewhat made up for by her ability to briefly stop time. Sadly, this ability leaves her nearly powerlees, and could be lethal if overused. Her vehicle mode is a Cybertronian semi truck.

Though in command of Chromia, Firestar, and Moonracer, she seems only to trust her mentor and creator, Alpha Trion, on a personal level and is at times outright deferential to him for command decisions.

(Note: Elita One's name shares the same root meaning as Optimus Prime's... "Best First". For many years, the actual spelling of her name was the subject of much fandom debate. The MC Axis kit finally gave her name the current spelling, and was later backed up by episode scripts.)

Animated continuity
Voice actress: Marlene Aragon (US), Kazue Komiya (Japan), Eiko Yamada (Ariel-Japan)

Elita One was created as Ariel, a naive robot who was the girlfriend of Orion Pax. An attack by Megatron on the supply facility she and Orion woked at left her nearly dead, but the time-lost Aerialbots rescued her and led her to Alpha Trion. After recreating Orion Pax into Optimus Prime, he mentions that Ariel would become Elita One.

Millions of years later, Elita One (who had remained on Cybertron) led a team of female Autobots, long thought extinct, in supply raids against the Decepticons led by Shockwave. Her existance was revealed thanks to Moonracer's carelessness, leading to her capture by Starscream.

Eventually, she was used as bait to lure Optimus Prime into a trap, where he too was captured. Elita One then triggered her time-stopping power, allowing her to free Optimus Prime, but expending nearly all her energy to do so. Fortunately, Prime's power systems could link to hers, and she was revived in time to join the other Autobots in driving back the Decepticons. With the old secret base in ruins, Elita One elected to stay behind on Cybertron again, rebuild their base, and continue the fight at home while Optimus and the other Autobots returned to the war on Earth.

MC Axis Kit mini-comic
Elita One and her team toppled a colossal Decepticon warrior. Though her team was jubilant at their victory, Elita knew that this one victory was far from enough to win the war, and longed for Prime to return so they could re-take their homeworld.

Dreamwave comics continuity
Elita One and the other female Autobots were an elite squad of warriors under the command of the Quintessons.

''(Note: Dreamwave filed for bankruptcy and stopped producing Transformers books right as the female Autobots arc was beginning.

Merchandise
No "proper" toy of Elita One exists. However, an officially-licensed Japanese "garage kit" unpainted resin model of her robot mode was made by MC Axis in 1996. Her alt-mode has never been depicted in its entirety. Only the very front end is seen in the Cartoon as the rest is hidden by Optimus Prime's truck mode.