Elita-1

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The name or term Elita-1 refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Elita-1 (disambiguation).

Elita-1 is one of the two tritagonist from Transformers One. An Autobot and former miner, Elita was the former head of Energon mining crew, which she was then demoted to waste management. She was one of the four Cybertronians who sought out the Matrix of Leadership. By the end she was promoted to lieutenant under Optimus Prime's command.

Transformers One[]

Despite her lack of cog and transformation, Elita-1 was responsible and in charge of leading and commanding the miners in the underground Energon mines of Iacon City. It is shown that Orion Pax seem to have known for a long time, where he tried to talk to her and seemingly likes her as a friend despite Elita's disapproval. As captain of the mines and a tireless worker , she worked hard to maintain a spotless record because she was up for potential promotion to overseer.

While she leading the miners toward the mine, the tunnel they are mining began to collapse when Wheeljack accidentally causing an instability of Energon. Following protocol, Elita ordered all miners to evacuate. However, when Jazz became trapped by a boulder and Orion stop to help him, Elita ordered him to desist from saving him, follow protocol, and just get out of there, but he defied her orders. With the help of D-16, they barely managed to make it out of the collapsed tunnel, while she still bought them a little more time to escape by throwing in support beams to slow down the collapsing walls, resulting in damage to nearby machinery.

Subsequently, as a result of Orion saving Jazz's life, Elita is blamed for the mess and is unfairly fires by Darkwing, despite her having followed protocol, demoting her from her position to waste management, much to her chagrin. The demotion caused Elita to blame Orion for this and claim he ruined her life, even though Orion didn't intend for her to get fired. To make up for what happened to her, Orion tried to challenge up for himself against Darkwing for getting Elita fired by flipping him off while claiming that his finger can "transform", only for him to get D-16 punched in the face by the latter when he tries to save Orion from being hit and excuse their insubordination. Working in the waste management, Elita watched in disbelief as Orion and D-16 appeared on the monitors while they were competing in the Iacon 5000 race.

Later, she discovered the duo along with the overly-talkative B-127, after them sneaked into trespassing on transport train in an attempt to reach Cybertron's surface. Noticing Pax's presence, Elita aimed to turn them over to her superiors, as she was still furious about her demotion. She tried to report it, but the train closes and she attempted to sabotage it while it departing, with the three bots following her. Emerging and seeing the beauty of the surface, Orion explained that they had discovered the possible location of the Matrix of Leadership and were on a quest to retrieve the lost artifact. He offering her the chance to join, but Elita doesn't accept the offer, and instead wanted them taken back to Iacon for arrest. Despite this, Cybertron's shifting geology caused the four bots to be thrown from the train, and Elita lets out a long, furious one after being stranded on the surface. It's so loud that some robo-deer hear her from afar. Snatching then the map from Orion, Elita berates and threatens him, telling him that despite her now willingness to help him and his friends (which she refers to as "Gobots") in their search with no other choice, she be in charge, and if the lead turned out to be a dead end, the other three would take full responsibility for going out of bounds.

Bee tries to ingratiate up to her, but to no avail, and even Elita needs him to talk less. On the way, they reach an abandoned base covered in alien flora and a Quintesson ship appears, destroying lifeforms, narrowly managing to hide. Elita was confused by the presence of the Quintessons after cycles. The quartet reaches a cave, and Elita discreetly gives Orion back the map. Inside, they find and discover the corpses of the Thirteen Primes who fell in the war, and Elita noticed the lifeless body of Solus Prime, but the Matrix was nowhere to be seen. The four then find the still alive Alpha Trion with his spark active and they awaken him with a small energon cube that B-127 had. Alpha Trion upon awakening was confused about the Cybertron that is now, and why the bots in front of him don't have cogs, and when they mention Sentinel Prime to him, Alpha Trion explains them that their leader is a traitor who was secretly working for the Quintessons. Elita and the others then learned the horrible truth about Sentinel's corruption, who had usurped power after orchestrating the downfall of the Primes. She initially questions why he would do so, but they later realize that Sentinel's false position as Prime was due to a deal he and the Quintessons made in the past to gave the latter a regular Energon supplies.

Elita experienced deep disillusionment and sadness as she realizes that Sentinel's corruption and actions were only to that the miners must work as hard as they to repay his debt do after depriving them of the ability to transform, though she handles it with a calmer. After, Alpha Trion, to aid the four, granted them the Primes' transformation cogs, and Elita was given Alchemist Prime's cog, and gave them a evidence of Sentinel with the Quintessons to expose his lies, vowed together to take him down. The group was soon found by Sentinel's forces, and retreated as Trion held off the approaching Death Trackers so they could escape.

As they were going back to Iacon City, the four were captured by the former Cybertron High Guard, and the Guard's leader, Starscream, demanded intelligence on Sentinel but was beaten into submission by D-16 and defeated him. He seized control of the Guard and begin to prepare for an assault on Iacon. Unfortunately, it was at that point that Sentinel's forces, led by his enforcerwoman, Airachnid, tracked them down and attacked the High Guard's base. Elita fought off the Trackers before being saved by Orion from being shot by one of the soldiers, only for both of them to get knocked out and get buried in rubble, as D-16 and Bee, and half of the Guard were taken away to Sentinel. Elita frees Orion from the debris to see if he is alright, only to discover that their friends were kidnapped and Alpha Trion's proofs of Sentinel's betrayal was destroyed, causing Orion to give up on his goals. However, Elita, despite still thinking she's smarter than him, eventually takes pity on his doubts by encouraging him with a "pep talk" gain his confidence back. If it weren't for him, they would never have learned this truth, and she admire him for his blind optimism and courageous hope that helped them come this far into finding the Matrix, and stating he inspires others to be more than what they are.

After their conversation, the remaining members of the High Guard displayed some reluctance to support them, but Elita gets they to help her and Orion mount a rescue mission and stop Sentinel by slugging Shockwave in his eye and threatening worse. Formulating a plan to use the remaining Guard members along with additional support from the miners, Orion commanded the Guard to roll out for Sentinel's tower to rescue their friends. Using one of the Energon trains to return to Iacon with Elita in command alongside Soundwave and Shockwave, she and the Guard attacked by surprise Sentinel's army and crashed the train into the tower, freeing Bee, D and the rest of the prisoners. While D-16 battled Sentinel, Orion came up with a plan to use Airachnid's memory to expose Sentinel. Elita, who was grabbed and pulled away by Airachnid, the two had a battle, and Orion entrusts Elita to capture her. In the climatic battle Elita was able to take Airachnid down by riding off a ramp in her vehicle form at high speed and ramming her, smashing her against a satellite dish, land on the roof of another building and then breaking one of Airachnid's robotic spider-legs and hit her in the face with it subduing her. She taking her to the broadcast room, and with Orion and Bee, they managed to broadcasting Sentinel's evil deeds to the citizens of Iacon.

This leaving him open for D-16 to cripple from the waist-down and leave defenseless. When Orion is fatally wounded by D-16 when the latter was trying to kill Sentinel with his Fusion Cannon, Elita, Bee, and everyone else witnessed D-16's betrayal on Orion, and as he then dropped to his death by his former friend after having enough of having Orion's morality getting in the way of his goals. Horrified by Orion's apparent death, Elita attempted to save him from falling, only to be held back by Bee. She witnessed in horror as D ultimately killed Sentinel, and with the High Guard wreaked havoc on the city after proclaimed himself "Megatron". Though Elita and Bee attempted to stop Megatron's rampage, they were no match for his new, more powerful form. Miraculously, Orion received the Matrix of Leadership and reborn as Optimus Prime for being deemed worthy by the Primes and Primus. He resurfaced, battled, and defeated Megatron, banishes him and the High Guard from Iacon.

Following the battle, Elita joins Optimus Prime as his commander, with Optimus pointing out that he'll need the help of someone who's "better than him" for his newfound job as Cybertron's defacto ruler, which Elita gladly accepts. She and Bee after watched as Optimus used the power of the Matrix of Leadership, that ultimately restored the vitality of the Energon flow to Cybertron, which gave all the miners cogs. Now united and called the "Autobots", the three preparing to lead Cybertron together to prepare for the oncoming war with not just the Quintessons, but also the High Guard which has reformed into the Decepticons.

Appearance[]

Elita-1 is depicted as a large, slender pink robot who can take on the appearance of a motorcycle when she transforms. Like Bee, she is one of the shortest compared to the other Cybertronians around her, despite being a giant robot.

Personality[]

Elita-1 is first introduced as a strict, self-serving, and no-nonsense robot who always sticks by the rules at all costs and is very egotistical, prideful, and extremely arrogant, as she claims she is "better" than everyone else in "everyway" and thinks she's superior to them in terms of leadership. In fact, she takes her job so seriously to the point of following protocol all the way through, including to let others die when they are in trouble due to Sentinel's corrupted influence, such as when she refuses to let Orion and D-16 save a trapped Jazz from the collapsing mine which ultimately gets her fired by Darkwing and puts the blame on Orion for doing so (although Orion does try to accept the blame too).

She is also very short-tempered and expresses violent outbursts towards anyone who wronged her, as shown when she brutally beats up the trio when they attempt to sneak into the Energon Train and throws a tantrum after they get flown off of it, additionally calling the male bots insulting names like "Gobots" and "incompetent," regardless if their mistakes didn't warrant such harsh derision or even when they don't do anything wrong at all. Upon learning that Sentinel Prime was a corrupt fraud, she became deeply disillusioned like the others, although she kept a calmer head, considering pragmatic options, rather than falling into doubt like Orion, fear like Bumblebee, or blind rage like D-16.

Despite her demanding and egotistical nature, Elita does eventually show a kinder side towards Orion despite her major flaws with him, as seen when she digs him out of the rubble after the fight between the High Guard and Sentinel's forces when Orion saved her from being shot by one of the Death Trackers. Later on, she takes pity on Orion's insecurities when he believed that their plan of searching for the Matrix of Leadership and to foil Sentinel's lies was a failure by trying to give him a pep talk that, despite his antics and taunting him that she's "better than him in every way", she admires him for his hope and courageous optimism to how they came this close to finding the Matrix, inspiring those to be more than what they are while breaking protocol, and believing his leadership could build a better future that no one else can. Afterwards, she helps Orion take down Sentinel Prime by rallying up half of the High Guard to join him in his plan and defeating Airachnid for information (even though the way she did it was a bit demanding and violent).

Her immense care for Orion is further showcased near the end of the movie, as seen as when their former friend, D-16, accidentally kills and betrays the optimistic bot, Elita is shown in horror and distraught to the point she attempts to save him from falling to his death into the Allspark, only for her to be stopped by Bee to prevent her needless risk, showing that she has fully grown to care for Orion's well-being to become willing to risk her "superior" life for him. Additionally, after D-16/Megatron finally kills Sentinel and attempts to destroy Iacon City, both she and Bee tried to stop him after realizing he was going too far with his goals, which further showcasing her growing to care and being concerned about others and not just herself. After Orion becomes Optimus Prime and banished Megatron from Iacon City, she further praises him for his leadership and gladly accepts the offer of becoming Prime's second-in-command woman of the newly minted Autobots after he frees her from Waste Management, finally giving him the respect he earned from her and putting her hatred towards him to rest.

Relationships[]

Friends and Allies[]

Orion Pax/Optimus Prime - Close friend, later leader
B-127 "Bumblebee" - Friend and aly
D-16/Megatron - Formerly; turned enemy
Alpha Trion †
The High Guard (formerly)
- Shockwave
- Soundwave
- Starscream

Miners/Autobots
- Jazz
- Arcee
- Ironhide
- Sideswipe
- Wheeljack
- Hound

Enemies[]

D-16/Megatron
Shockwave
Soundwave
Starscream
Sentinel Prime †
Quintessons
Airachnid (arch-nemesis)
Darkwing

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Unlike most versions of the character, this version of Elita doesn't appear as the romantic love interest of Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, since the movie is mostly focusing on the fallen friendship of Optimus Prime and D-16 due to being an origin story. However, the chemistry between her and Prime implies they could become a couple in the future sequels.
In an interview with the director, Josh Cooley, he stated that they really wanted Scarlett Johansson's character of Elita-1 to be important to the growth of Orion Pax becoming Optimus Prime and not just a character off to the side. With him being aware that in some of the continuities of the franchise, they are indeed a couple.
- Scarlett Johansson previously worked with Chris Hemsworh (Who voiced Orion Pax/Optimus Prime) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where they both played Black Widow and Thor Odinson respectively. This is not a coincidence, as it was Hemsworth who approached Johansson to voice Elita-1 after joining the project himself.

This could be due to the name "Ariel" not being able to be trademarked unlike the aforementioned characters, as G1 Ariel was renamed Erial for her Transformers: Legacy toy due to loss in trademark of her name.

This is the second version of Elita-1 to appear in the film series and the second version to take on the form of a motorcycle when transformed, the first being her live-action counterpart.