Grimlock (G1)

Grimlock is a character in the Transformers franchise. 
He's the most fearsome and powerful member of the Dinobots. Grimlock can be cold, merciless and contemptuous of those he considers beneath him, such as human beings, and at times, even Optimus Prime himself, who Grimlock would gladly supplant as Autobot leader if he were able to, giving him a superiority complex as indicated by his Generation 1 tech specs. Nevertheless, he is a valiant warrior whose actions command respect from all who are witness to them, both friend and foe. One of his most distinguishing features is his famous speech impediment, resembling cliched caveman speech, which leads him to shorten sentences and refer to himself constantly as "Me Grimlock", never "I" (i.e. "Me Grimlock no bozo! Me KING!") - the reason for this varies from depiction to depiction, with some making it the result of true mental limitations, and others vocal processor damage or a ruse Grimlock perpetrates to allow others to think of him as less intelligent than he actually is.
Grimlock is among the strongest of the Transformers, possibly an equal to, or even superior to Optimus Prime and Megatron in certain continuities. In Tyrannosaurus Rex mode, his powerful jaws can snap virtually anything that comes between them - from steel cables to a Decepticon limb. He also can shoot an energy ray from his mouth. In robot mode, Grimlock wields an energo-sword, whose blade is sheathed in crackling energon and can slice a 2-foot-thick (0.61 m) concrete wall in one slash. He also uses a double-barreled, self-propelled rocket launcher. He is almost invulnerable in his Tyrannosaurus Rex mode as shown with his battle with Megatron due to Megatron's primary weapon, his arm-mounted fusion cannon having little or no effect on Grimlock. 
Grimock is voiced by Gregg Berger, who also voiced Skyfire in the same series. 
== Cartoon ==
=== Season 1 ===
Grimlock was introduced in the episode "SOS Dinobots", in which he, Sludge and Slag were created by Wheeljack after he was inspired by stories of dinosaurs. However, on first being activated, they rampaged indiscriminately around the Ark. Optimus Prime ordered them to be kept offline, but when he and most of the other Autobots were captured by the Decepticons soon after, Wheeljack, Ratchet and Bumblebee felt they had no option but to activate the Dinobots to rescue them. They successfully battled the Decepticons and Optimus Prime welcomed them into their ranks.
The trio reappeared in "War of the Dinobots", when Optimus Prime asked them to guard a dangerous meteorite. Megatron played on Grimlock's belief in brute strength, telling him he should be leader as the strongest and prompting him to turn on Optimus Prime and overpower him. The Autobots deployed two new Dinobots, Snarl and Swoop, against the older versions and Optimus Prime ended up saving Grimlock when the meteorite exploded, causing him to recognise Optimus as his leader again and turn on Megatron.
Grimlock continued to aid the Autobots in his own way, at one point having to be persuaded to help save Earth by being reminded he was on it. In the season finale, "Heavy Metal War", he led the Dinobots in defending the Ark from Devastator until the Autobots, who had been convinced to stand down after Optimus Prime apparently lost a duel with Megatron, realised they had been tricked.
===Season 2===
Grimlock made his first second season appearance in "Atlantis, Arise!", coming to the Autobots' aid against Megatron and the Sub-Atlatican leader Nergill. However, he was becoming increasingly resentful at the Autobots using him as muscle when they encountered two big a problem. He was aware of the Dinobots' shortcomings however: When their lack of discipline wrecked the Ark in "Dinobot Island", he agreed to take them to a deserted island for further training. A series of temporal anomalies led to him leading a group of real dinosaurs into battle against the Decepticons.
In the two-part "Desertion of the Dinobots", Grimlock finally tired of the Autobots, even after they were all left depleted by the need for cybertronium. He instead led the Dinobots across the space bridge to Cybertron. However, all of them except Swoop were quickly captured and enslaved by Shockwave, needing Spike and Carly to rescue them. Grimlock accepted the Dinobots needed others' help.
===The Movie===
Grimlock was among the reinforcements brought to Earth by Optimus Prime to combat Megatron's attack on Autobot City. When Galvatron launched a second attack, Grimlock and the other Dinobots evacuated with Kup and Hot Rod. They ended up crashing on Quintesson but Grimlock managed to rescue his friends and joined the battle against Unicron, futiley battering the giant robots' hide after he had swallowed the Autobots.
===Season 3 ===
In the opening miniseries "Five Faces of Darkness", Grimlock joined Rodimus Prime in spying on the Decepticons on Chaar. He was lost on an alien planet with Daniel Witwicky in "Madman's Paradise". In "Grimlock's New Brain", an accident increased his intelligence to genius levels, although he ended up giving up his new intelligence to activate the Technobots. He made his last appearance in "Call of the Primitives", he and several other animal-shaped Transformers were summoned to battle Tornedron. Grimlock not only destroyed the monster but wrecked Primacron's laboratory, calling it the smartest thing he'd ever done.
==Comics==
===Marvel's the Transformers===
====Backstory====
Grimlock once claimed to have been Optimus Prime's lieutenant from an early stage of the war on Cybertron. He and the future Dinobots operated as a unit even then, hiding a group of stolen Decepticon spacecraft in case they ever get tired of the other Autobots and covering up Slag massacring his unit in a berserker rage.
====Battling Shockwave====
After the Ark crashed on Earth and Shockwave touched down in the Savage Land, the Ark's computer reformatted Grimlock and his comrades as dinosaur-shaped Transformers and sent them to battle him. The Dinobots managed to bury Shockwave under a rockfall but were themselves sucked into a tar pit.
====Reactivated on Earth====
Grimlock and the others were finally found and reactivated by Ratchet, who needed their help against a returned Shockwave. They ended up battling Megatron, but he easily defeated him, although ended up falling off a cliff not long after a clash with Ratchet. Grimlock's team accompanied Ratchet back to the Ark to revive the rest of the Autobots and battled a Guardian robot left behind by Shockwave. Swoop was apparently killed carrying the exploding Guardian to safety and Grimlock and the others headed out on their own.
However, it transpired that the four million years spent in the tar pit had eroded the group's circuits, turning them into mindless brutes. The Autobots attempted to track them down, but their efforts were hampered by Soundwave's Decepticons, who arranged for Grimlock and Sludge to be brought together and battle it out. A number of Autobots were deactivated after being caught in the crossfire before Prowl finally took the pair offline by crashing a shuttle into the pool where they were fighting.
Grimlock was eventually repaired but chafed at Optimus Prime's leadership. He took the Dinobots in a failed attempt to let humans know the reality of the Autobot-Decepticon war through journalist Joy Meadows and later led them in battling a time-travelling Galvatron.
====Leader of the Autobots====
On learning Optimus Prime was dead, Grimlock headed to the Ark to stake his claim as leader only for the Autobots to reject his claim that his strength made him the best candidate. The Dinobots stood by when Trypticon attacked the Ark, although Grimlock was uncomfortable at seeing his potential troops slaughtered. When Trypticon prepared to kill human Rachel Becker, who had previously impressed Grimlock with her bravery, Grimlock led the Dinobots into battling Trypticon until Ratbat recalled him to Cybertron. The Autobots accepted Grimlock as their leader.
However, their first instinct soon proved correct as Grimlock's ego took over. He showed no interest in helping humans or battling the Decepticons and instead focused on repairing the Autobots so he would have more troops to lead. He assigned Blaster and Goldbug to recover Autobot weapons stolen by the human criminal the Mechanic, but his command style led the pair to desert. While searching for them, Grimlock battled Megatron in London alongside Action Force. He also fought the Predacons to save Swoop.
With the Ark repaired and no longer needing human fuel, Grimlock sent the Protectobots to retrieve Blaster and Goldbug. When they too deserted, he took the Ark into space to capture the Combaticon Blast Off, who Blaster had hijacked, but instead found four human children who had assisted Blaster. He ordered them thrown into space in the hope Blaster would come to rescue them. Instead, they were saved by Sky Lynx, but when Grimlock pursued the group, Blaster surrendered to save them.
Grimlock set up camp on the moon, leaving Earth to the Decepticons. Fortress Maximus arrived with his Autobots from Nebulos and revealed they had a way to revive Optimus Prime. Horrified at the prospect of losing leadership, Grimlock challenged Maximus to a duel to see who would be leader. Blaster ended up taking Fortress Maximus' place, but their fight was interrupted by Ratbat's Decepticons attacking. Grimlock and Blaster teamed up to drive them back, with Grimlock finally accepting the Autobots needed to work together.
====Time Wars====
With Optimus Prime back in command, Grimlock was part of the taskforce he put together to track down Galvatron. They were interrupted by a group of Autobots from the future and Grimlock briefly fought with Kup. Rodimus Prime finally managed to convince the groups to put aside their differences and join him in battling Galvatron and Megatron, although Grimlock was taken out of the battle early on.
====Underbase Saga====
Grimlock continued to be one of Optimus Prime's top lieutenants as they investigate Ratbat's quest for the Underbase, a source of Cybertronian knowledge about to pass through the solar system. When Starscream managed to gain control of the Underbase, the Autobots and Decepticons joined forces to stop him. Grimlock led a group defending Tokyo alongside Scorponok, where Starscream ended up using him as a living shield and he was blown apart by the Decepticon Pretenders.
====Pretender Grimlock====
Grimlock, along with Jazz and Goldbug/Bumblebee, was eventually taken to Cybertron by Ratchet and rebuilt as a Pretender. They first saw action against Megatron, before joining up with Emirate Xaaron's Cybertron resistance for a time. They attempted to return to Earth but were transported to the heart of Cybertron by mistake. There, they fought the Decepticon Mayhem Squad and the battle briefly awoke Primus, who drew the attention of Unicron.
With the Creation Matrix needed to fight Unicron, Grimlock and his new Pretender comrades formed a team to search for it. They nearly succeeded, but were attacked by Thunderwing and left on the planet VsQs out of fuel. They were eventually retrieved by the Autobots but Grimlock dreamed of having his Dinobots again. After learning of the existence of nucleon, a substance that could revive them, he disobeyed Optimus Prime's orders and headed to Hydrus 4. Aware of reports of side effects, he tested the nucleon on himself, then used it to revive the other Dinobots. Heading to the Ark, he revived several other Autobots and brought them as reinforcements to the battle with Unicron.
====Earthforce====
In Marvel UK's Earthforce storyline, having revived the other Dinobots, Grimlock drew the attention of Shockwave, who wanted his secret. His brutal treatment of the attacking Decepticons brought him into conflict with Optimus Prime and the pair actually came to blows, until Swoop and Getaway convinced them to call it a draw. Optimus Prime made Grimlock commander of the Autobot Earthforce, leaving him with a group of older Autobots while he headed off into space in the Ark.
Grimlock led his troops in breaking up a fight between Megatron and Shockwave and in defending an attack by the combined Decepticon army led by Soundwave and Starscream. He tried and failed to stop Tracks being added to his ranks and reluctantly protected Starscream from Megatron and Starscream when he needed him to save Snarl. He went along with Prowl's scheme to use journalist Irwin Spoon to tell the Autobots' side of their way on Earth, but got shot by the Stunticons for his troubles.
====Leader in the final days====
With Optimus Prime having died destroying Unicron, Grimlock was again named as his successor. He was swiftly rendered immobile by his nucleon exposure, but with assistance from HiQ, he emerged in a more powerful but none-transforming body. He knew the truce with the Decepticons wouldn't last and, while Prowl made plans for a joint evacuation of the damaged Cybertron, Grimlock retrieved his long-hidden ships for the inevitable betrayal.
Grimlock led the Autobots in pursuit of the Decepticons to the planet Klo, only to immediately lead them into a trap and get most of his command wiped out. Despite this, he refused to stop fighting, defeating a Decepticon patrol sent after him and the other survivors. They joined the final battle against Bludgeon's Decepticons alongside a returned Optimus Prime, the Neo Knights and Autobots revived by the Last Autobot, finally winning the day before returning triumphantly to Cybertron.
====Another Time and Place====
Grimlock sought a cure for the nucleon side effects that had left most of the Autobots unable to transform and returned to Hydrus 4 with the Dinobots. However, this led to Bludgeon following and capturing them, aiming to use the nucleon to revive Megatron. Optimus Prime arrived with reinforcements and Grimlock regained his transforming powers in time to join him in destroying a zombified Megatron.
====Original future (UK)====
In "The Legacy of Unicron", Grimlock joined Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus and Kup in a council of war, after Smokescreen brought the news that Unicron's head was alive and on Junk. Since most of the Autobots were needed on Cybertron to battle the Decepticons, Grimlock volunteered himself and the Dinobots to join a small group accompanying Rodimus Prime to Junk, but dismayed Rodimus by slaughtering the possessed Junkions they had been trying to save. He was later among the team Rodimus Prime took to Earth to battle the Quintessons in "Space Pirates".
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