Tripredacus Council

The Tripredacus Council is a group of Predacons from the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.

"So then it is agreed: half pepperoni, half green peppers."

The Tripredacus Council is one of the many ruling bodies of the fractured Predacon Alliance. They meet in secret in undisclosed locations, and plot the return of the Predacons to glory, though under their terms. They choose to wait and grow strong before attacking...

Many Predacons are impatient, and their strategy has led to some rogue behavior among the Predacon ranks. To neutralise the rogues and (in public) keep the Pax Cybertronia, the Council uses the Predacon Secret Police and its Covert Agents.

One of their agents, Tarantulas, suggests that, like himself and unlike the rest of the Predacons, the Tripredacus Council are not descended from the Decepticons trapped on Earth. Instead, they may have extradimensional origins, be linked to the Cybertronian Empire, or may be, in fact, creations of Unicron himself...

The three members of the Tripredacus Council are:

• General Ram Horn
• General Sea Clamp
• General Cicadacon

They can combine to form Tripredacus or, along with Tarantulas and Ravage, Predacus.

Their known affiliates and agents include:

• Flamewar
• Magmatron
• Onyx Primal
• Ravage
• Tarantulas

Fiction

Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Beast Wars cartoon

ssssh nobody tell anyone that we're solid gray without the table buttons glowing

Renegades like Megatron sneered at the Council for kowtowing to the Maximal Elders. The Council actually had been using this as cover for their slow, secret rearming. The Agenda (Part 1)

The Council placed Lt. Tarantulas of the Predacon Secret Police, a direct agent of theirs, in Megatron's organization as a spy. The Agenda (Part 2) They were aware of his plan to go back into prehistory and intended for Tarantulas to hijack it, so he could completely destroy the Ark and its inhabitants. As they did not have Autobot or Decepticon origins, the Council would be spared the resulting timestorm and would take control of an altered Cybertron. Their own goal was galactic conquest. Other Victories

Unfortunately for them, Megatron escaped Cybertron in the Darksyde anyway, and caused a Maximal craft to go MIA in the process. The Council suffered diplomatic repercussions over this.

Later, the transwarp wavefront caused by the destruction of the Planet Buster eventually reached Cybertronian space in the Beast Era, hitting Predacon Command Outpost One, causing a severe power outage. The council apparently convened on the station immediately afterward, where they noted that the transwarp wave's signature matched that of the Darksyde, thus meaning that Megatron still functioned and was still carrying out his agenda. In order to prevent the Maximals from discovering this, they detonated a satellite somewhere near Cybertron, dispersing the wave before it reached the planet. They then dispatched Covert Agent Ravage in a prototype transwarp cruiser to track the wave to its point of origin and terminate Megatron "with extreme prejudice". The Agenda (Part 1)

When pressed by Megatron, Ravage admitted he was also meant to kill all the Maximals in the Beast Wars, as the Council wanted nobody coming back to Cybertron and embarrassing it. The Agenda (Part 2)

3H comics

The rogue Megatron came back to Cybertron and began a series of terrorist incidents, which rapidly increased in scale. After the bombing of New Cybertropolis spaceport, the Tripredacus Council called for martial law. It was to no avail: Megatron took out everyone on the planet. Apelinq's War Journals

Timelines

The "No Fun Allowed" Council.

After the Great War, Divebomb contacted Ravage, Laserbeak, and Buzzsaw, convincing them to join the new Predacon faction. Ravage, however, grew dissatisfied in this role and left to serve the Tri-Predacus[sic] Council. BotCon 2006 Laserbeak profile card

The Tripredacus Council killed Razorclaw to seize control of the Predacons from him. BotCon 2009 Razorclaw profile card

The Tripredacus Council employed Flamewar to check on Deathsaurus's operation on Ceti Alpha Seven. As Flamewar reported on the apparent success of Deathsaurus's Virulent Clones, Bumblebee hacked in the feed and informed everyone of the impeding failure built into the Clones. To rid themselves of an exposed agent, the Tripredacus Council remotely exploded Flamewar's ship with her in it. Descent into Evil

After a Predacon insurrection led by Flamewar in the guise of Megatron arose in the J'kozian sector, the Tripredacus Council discussed it and decided to leak the insurrection's presence on Nibari to the Maximals so they would take care of the Council's renegade problem. The Razor's Edge

As the crew of the Darksyde fled Cybertron with the Golden Disk, Predacon Secret Police agent Tarantulas was onboard decoding information from it. While his boss Megatron wasn't watching, Tarantulas contacted General Cicadacon and updated him on the disk's status. Dawn of Future's Past

2006 IDW Beast Wars continuity

They watch lots of TV.

The Tri-Predacus Council [sic] lay at the heart of the Predacon Alliance, keeping the entire coalition held together. Its three members were rumored to be so old that they dated back to the Decepticons. The Council's long-term goal was to one day unite the disparate factions of the Predacon Alliance into a single unified army. Beast Wars Glossary Tri-Predacus Council entry General Cicadacon was the Councillor who drafted the Council's long-term strategy of secretly rearming, under the noses of the Maximals. Beast Wars Sourcebook #1

The council summoned Magmatron to their tower and ordered him to ensure that the Maximals did not have knowledge of the transwarp wave. The Gathering #1 They believed that the Predacons must wait for the appropriate moment to strike. Many Predacons, however, tired of this strategy. A short time later, after the failure of their first agent, Ravage, the council sent Magmatron to capture Megatron. The Gathering #2

Wings Universe

The Tripredacus Council regard themselves as superior because they were protoformed in cherry-flavored soda instead of regular.

After the conclusion of the Machine Wars, Sky-Byte and the Decepticon Predacon team rejected the idea of the peace treaty being signed by the Autobots, Decepticons, and Jhiaxus's clones. Deciding instead to form a new army, they looted as many stasis pods from Jhiaxus's secondary laboratory as possible before detection. Tantrum noticed that four of these pods (containing Tarantulas, Cicadacon, Sea Clamp, and Ram Horn) seemed different though the mystery was ultimately dismissed. A Common Foe

Beast Wars Metals comic

The Tripredacus Council charged Ravage with training a unit of soldiers to take down Megatron and end the Beast Wars on Energoa. Before Ravage could leave Cybertron, however, he and his soldiers were murdered by the lunatic Jaguar. Beast Wars Metals #2

Beast Wars: Uprising

Preditron founded the Tripredacus Council, early on in the history of the Predacons, but he himself was usurped. Head Games The Council then "re-interpreted" his writings in his absence. Safe Spaces

During the final year of the Grand Uprising, the Council was contacted by the Resistance, who wanted an alliance. The Council agreed, but only if Preditron snuffed it, which the Resistance complied with. Safe Spaces The attempt didn't succeed, in part because of the breakout of the Vehicon Apocalypse. Once it became clear the Vehicons were a serious problem, the Council were contacted by Lio Convoy again, who wanted their assistance to deal with the Builders once and for all. Fortunately, Ram Horn was there to talk some sense into Cicadacon and Sea Clamp when they wanted to stay out of the fight.

By the time General Order 66 had been given, the Council led their troops, the Legion of the Inferno, from a secure command bunker. This backfired when the still very much alive Preditron showed up at Nova Cronum to rally the troops. Not willing to settle for this, the trio went out into the front, in their combined form of Tripredacus, to kill their nemesis. They succeeded, but a vengeful Ser-Ket broke the combiner apart, grievously wounding Sea Clamp. Having seen what his "partners" thought of him, Ram Horn then killed Cicadacon.

In the aftermath of the Uprising, Ser-Ket and Magmatron were brought in as replacements for the fallen councilors, with Ram Horn representing the Independent Predacus States in the newly formed Cybertronian Parliament. Derailment

Ask Vector Prime

In Aurex 1104.30-JH Zeta, the Tripredacus Council dispatched Sky Shadow of the Predacon Secret Police to apprehend the time-traveling criminal Megatron. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/13

Known liar Sideways claimed to know the secret origins of Tarantulas and the Tripredacus Council. Ask Sideways, 2015/06/28

2021 Beast Wars comic

"By Jove, somebody remembered that we weren't actually supposed to be red and white!"

An agent of the Tripredacus Council, the ambitious Galavar contacted his leaders with a plan to steal a golden disk and use its encrypted secrets to conquer Cybertron for the glory of the Predacons. Councillor Cicadacon thought the plan too complex and ordered Galavar not to go through with it; Galavar revealed that he'd already stolen the disk, hijacked the Maximal warship Darksyde, and renamed himself "Megatron" in anticipation of his victory, before defiantly cutting the feed. Ram Horn was furious at this betrayal, but Sea Clamp advised caution, confident that they could outmanoeuvre the upstart and capitalize on his success or failure. Savage Landing Part 1

Games

Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals

In one timeline, the Tripredacus Council hired Blackarachnia as a double agent.

In another, Tarantulas returned to them and informed them of the discovery of the Ark on Earth. They promoted him and gave him command of a hundred-strong battle fleet, tasked to go back to the Beast Wars and carry out their grand scheme... Transformers: Beast Wars Transmetals

Notes

• The names of the Tripredacus Council members are taken from the script of "The Agenda (Part 1)", which used to be hosted on Ben Yee's website.^[1]
• The iconic dark-room-and-red-light look from "The Agenda" that every subsequent Council appearance copies? That was director Cal Shumiatcher going for a "super high contrast, film noir look" to cover up a lack of set and rough visual models while also keeping a dialogue-only scene interesting for small kids. As the characters were ordering Megatron's death, "I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp." Supervising animator Eric Reynolds suggested the red lights so you could see the character's faces, as the lamp on its own cast them in shadow.^[2]
• Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward never got around to thinking up the "different origin" of the Council. They may have gone with them being descendants of the Cybertronians.^[3] A small nod to this origin story appeared in the 2014 Wings Universe comic "A Common Foe". Other creators have taken Megatron's insult of "Unicron's spawn" at Tarantulas as literal.
• In the Japanese dub of the cartoon, the Tripredacus Council is never actually referred to by any formal name. While the Beast Wars Metals manga gives them the Japanese name of "Trypticon Hyōgikai" (トリプティコン評議会 Toriputikon Hyōgikai, "Trypticon Council"),^[4] their single appearance in the cartoon has Ram Horn refer not to the Council itself, but instead to their meeting, calling it a san-sha kyōgi (三者協議, "three-member conference"), while all other references to them spoken by Megatron (in "The Agenda (Part 2)") and Tarantulas (in "Other Victories") refer to them as the San Baka Chōrō (三ばか長老, "Three Idiot Elders"). As the Japanese dub is also wont to make pop culture references, this also appears to be a play on the Japanese name for The Three Stooges, which was San Baka Taishō (三ばか大将, "Three Idiot Leaders").
• On two occasions in the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon, Megatron mentions the Predacon Council. Being as the show itself is filled with references of past Transformers shows, the Predacon Council is likely derived from the Tripredacus Council (and Shark Sonnets cheekily states in 2015 that there are three on this Council and have hidden agendas, just like the Tripredacus Council). The Predacon Council is an American invention and does not exist in the Japanese Car Robots version, however.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Trypticon Hyōgikai (トリプティコン評議会 Toriputikon Hyōgikai, "Trypticon Council"),^[4] "San Baka Chōrō" (三ばか長老, "Three Idiot Elders")^[5]

References