Antagony (BW)

Antagony is a Predacon from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

A female worker ant? This is unheard of!

The mysterious future-Predacon Antagony is the Herald Maximo of the fearsome Predacon warlord Shokaract, second only to Shokaract himself. She is utterly ruthless and without a shred of pity or mercy, and harbors a secret death-feud against the upstart Predacon Cataclysm who threatens her position. Though utterly loyal to Shokaract, she will do anything short of open revolt to make sure she remains the Herald Maximo. Antagony's armor makes her virtually invulnerable to pain and it has been speculated that she enjoys inflicting it so much just so she can attempt to understand the utterly alien sensation.

Fiction

3H comics

Voice actor: Susan Blu (English)

I. Am. VERY. Happy. For. You. Cataclysm.

In the 32nd century, Antagony rose to become one of the elite Heralds of Shokaract. Schism One of her campaigns led to the conquest of the Kolar. Paradox Ambitious and coveting the title of Herald Maximo, Antagony quickly forged a mutual hatred with her rival for the position, Cataclysm. Their private feuding nearly went public during the all-important campaign against Horus, an immensely powerful warlord and self-proclaimed god who drew limitless power from the sun itself, and opposed Shokaract's expansion. Whereas Antagony committed her forces to an elaborate diversion in order to get in close and battle Horus face-to-face, Cataclysm simply blew up the sun. With his power source gone, Horus quickly fell before Antagony, but her personal victory was stolen from her, as Shokaract gave credit to both her and Cataclysm for the win. Antagony and Cataclysm continued their vendetta, with Antagony scoring several minor victories. First, she arranged for Cataclysm's favored fission-brother to be given a nearly impossible assassination before he could prove his worth as a potential Herald. She also exposed Cataclysm's fear of time travel, thus securing a prized mission for herself. Herald

Traveling back in time, Antagony was seeking to preserve the Dark Essence. The Maximals Packrat and Onyx Primal managed to temporarily divert her attention towards Megatron, but Megatron in turn painted the incoming Optimus Primal as his ally, leading Antagony to attack him. She was damaged in battle with Primal, and fell at Megatron's feet. Antagony described herself as Megatron's doom, his destruction, and his worst enemy. Megatron naturally assumed this meant she was Raksha. She corrected this misunderstanding and attempted to take Waspinator hostage in order to make Megatron back off. It surprisingly worked for a few moments, but then a stray cloud of dust made her sneeze and blow Waspinator's head clean off. This last energy discharge consumed what was left of her energy, and she went into stasis lock. Visitations

Antagony didn't last too long.

Megatron spent long hours in his torture chamber attempting to break Antagony and uncover her secrets. When conventional methods failed, he turned towards one of Tarantulas's favorite toys—a mind-drill that employed invasive nano-probes. Antagony ultimately succumbed to the nano-invasion, but a failsafe device built into her skull by Shokaract utterly destroyed her mind before Megatron could retrieve any useful information. Herald

Antagony continued to serve Shokaract even after death. Once Shokaract himself traveled back in time to Point Omega in order to protect the Dark Essence, he was assaulted by the united Beast Warriors and Covenant. To clear away the distractions, Shokaract retrieved Antagony and restored her mind. Alongside a similarly revived Cataclysm, she was sent to destroy her master's foes while Shokaract himself defended the Dark Essence. Both eventually perished in battle, Antagony at the hands of Leonicus and Ariex. Terminus

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

Hi, I'm here to make myself expensive again.

Though Antagony believed herself to be an agent of Shokaract from a distant future where her master ruled Cybertron, this was in reality only a false memory implanted in her mind by her true creators, the Vok. She was unknowingly an experimental creation sent through various realities by the enigmatic aliens to cause trouble and test the limits of the Cybertronian organism. Beast Wars Sourcebook #1 Appearing on present-day Cybertron, she aided in the rise to power of Shokaract's past self, travelling the universe to gather capsules of Angolmois Energy. The Ascending #3 While Shokaract engaged the Maximals in battle, Antagony and the other Heralds spread the energy amongst Cybertron's population in an effort to sow dissent and chaos, in turn empowering Shokaract. The Heralds were defeated and ultimately fled when Magmatron pulled Shokaract into limbo and convinced him to destroy himself to prevent Unicron's rebirth. The Ascending #4

Theft of the Golden Disk

A statue of Antagony was kept in the Cybertropolis Maximal Data Archive. Theft of the Golden Disk

TransTech

Antagony scuttled about the Under City in Axiom Nexus, in a crowd of countless off-worlders. Cybertron's Most Wanted

Beast Wars: Uprising

Antagony was a chief to Shokaract, a warlord who seized power for himself in the region of Hyperious during the Grand Uprising. After the war ended, Shokaract's reign was officially recognized and Hyperious was granted a seat in the new Cybertronian Parliament. At Shokaract's direction, Antagony battled her fellow Cataclysm in the Hyperious Arena for the right to represent him. To the relief of many, this Game was not to the death, but Antagony claimed victory after seizing Cataclysm's tail-whip as a trophy. She took her place in the Parliament. Derailment

2005 IDW continuity

Antagony was present in Iacon on the date of the ceremony commemorating Earth's formal induction into the Council of Worlds. First Strike #1 When a group of villains led by Baron Ironblood attacked, disrupting the ceremony, she was among those who attempted to flee, but she was attacked by Storm Shadow, who managed to disable and capture her so that the Microspace-native Shazraella could enerchange with her in order to gain the advantages of Cybertronian size. First Strike #2

Shazraella was eventually arrested and reduced to her original form, First Strike #6 though Antagony perished soon afterwards as a result of the enerchange. A skeptic doubted Optimus Prime would be present at her funeral. The Dead Come Home, Part 1

Another Antagony was a Maximal.^[1] During Unicron's attack on Earth, Antagony and several comrades battled Autobots in orbit. Ceremony

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

Bomb-Burst, searched for allies, discovering and joining forces with Antagony. When Bomb-Burst battled Metalhawk, Sentius Magnus, and Sentius Malus, Antagony hit Sentius Malus with her venom. Metalhawk attempted to use the Star Saber on the ant, but the Autobot was distracted by her ability to create decoys of herself, which could inflict physical damage. Outnumbered, the Sentius twins and Metalhawk retreated. Bomb-Burst soon told Antagony of a door to the past—an opportunity to trigger the end of everything. The Last Stand

Toys

Beast Wars

I like my Inferno redecoes like I like my coffee: black, and thousands of dollars on the secondary market.

• Antagony (Mega Class, 1998)

• Accessories: Mandible claw, missile launcher, 2 leg-segment missiles

One of two exclusive toys from the BotCon 1998 convention in Anaheim, California, USA, Beast Wars Antagony is a black and lavender redeco of Inferno, transforming into an ant. Her beast mode mandibles conceal a missile launcher weapon, plus her abdomen splits open to form spinning blades surrounding a quad-jet thruster. Only 600 pieces were made of her and Vice Grip.

• More information on Antagony at TFU.info

Generations Selects

Vice Grip not included.

• Antagony (Voyager Class, 2023)

• TakaraTomy name: Antagony (アンタゴニー)
• TakaraTomy release date: 2024 February 24
• Accessories: Missile gun, alternate head
• Known designers: Mark Maher (Hasbro), Shuhei Umezu (TakaraTomy)^[2]

A Generations Selects add on for Legacy: Evolution, Antagony is a black and lavender redeco of Legacy Inferno. Her ant mode features movable mandibles, and her "default" robot mode head has a moving jaw. Her abdomen can split into a four bladed propeller, with the accompanying missile gun being able to plug into her rear port.

Antagony includes a second robot head sculpted and painted to resemble Transmetal Scavenger, which can be swapped onto Antagony or, for a more direct Scavenger recreation, Legacy Inferno. Opening up the ant head halves on either figure's chest will also reveal sculpted detail inspired by Scavenger's original toy.

Antagony was released as a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive in Japan.

• Designer commentary on Legacy Antagony from Mark Maher on Instagram

Notes

• Just as Cataclysm's name refers to his cat alternate mode, so too does Antagony for her ant mode, presumably riffing on the term "agony aunt"—a colloquialism for an advice columnist in a newspaper. The word "antagony" itself is an archaic synonym for antagonism.
• While Antagony is drawn with a more "human" face by Andrew Wildman (as such anthropomorphizing is usual for him) throughout most of her 3H appearances, Geoff Senior draws her with a typical take on Inferno's head for her final appearance in the same storyline.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Antagony (アンタゴニー Antagonī)

References

External links

• Antagony's BotCon: Beyond profile on the BotCon Online archives