Nightbird is my least favorite Terrorcon from ROTB and for good reason. Despite what simps say of this fembot, she’s really not that good of a character. The writers made her an annoying antagonist rather than someone who is fearsome and deadly. In other words, she’s more of a nuisance than a force to be reckoned with.

Here is what her official bio states in regards to her character: Armed with twin katanas and an ability to attack her victims in deadly silent strikes, Nightbird is an enemy you don’t see coming until it’s too late.

This Terrorcon firmly believes that once the objective has been achieved, the battle is won. For her, anything else is just wasted effort.

Guess what? What we see in the movie is a complete opposite of what her character description says! For example, when Arcee kept aimlessly shooting at Nightbird, the latter tossed a grenade towards Noah and Elena….right after she announced her presence:

Nah, ah, ah, leaving so soon?

I’m sorry—aren’t you supposed to be a silent ninja? Are you supposed to strike at your victims with deadly precision without throwing away the element of surprise? Remember back in G1, she was a completely silent character yet she became more than a difficult opponent to the Autobots? Here in ROTB, she talks too much which takes away the fundamental aspect of her character.

Another example, when Airazor flew down and blew fire on the ground to separate the Terrorcons from the injured Autobots, Nightbird eagerly expected to get a real fight. WHAT??? First off, as I said yesterday, Battletrap should have said that line because that fits his personality more. Secondly, that line completely contradicts her character description. Her bio explicitly states that “once the objective is complete, the battle is won. Anything else is just wasted effort.”

Why is Nightbird acting like this? She already got half of the Transwarp key, Scourge beat Optimus in combat right before he killed Bumblebee, and they beat the other Autobots. The objective is already complete, so why is she eager to waste her teammates’ time in fighting Airazor? That’s something Battletrap would do, considering his lust for war and combat.

Lastly, her voice actress wasn’t good. In fact, she didn’t sound threatening at all. No disrespect to Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, but she barely put any emotional effort in making her a badass. She displayed how unfit she was for the role when she badly forced her last line:

You again! You should’ve stayed DEAD!

The way she emphasized that last word sounds so bad. Like she couldn’t let out a genuine angry tone. I personally think Tara Strong would have made a more fitting person to voice Nightbird, or better yet, make her a silent character.

Here’s an example of what I would have written if I was in charge of writing the Terrorcons:

As Airazor flew down from the night sky, she blew fire on the grass—separating the wounded Autobots from the Terrorcons. Noah and Elena stood by in awe of the giant mechanical falcon.

“Maximals,” Scourge angrily growled.

“Perfect. Maybe we can get a real battle!” Battletrap squealed, clenching his fists.

“Unnecessary. We’ve gotten what we needed,” said Nightbird.

“Indeed. Come, our master awaits us,” ordered Scourge.

As he and Nightbird transformed into their vehicle modes and drove off, Battletrap groaned in disappointment.

“Just when I was about to have fun…” he muttered. He transformed and followed his fellow Terrorcons.

Is this really so hard to do? Come on, Paramount!

Now, listen, I’ve been writing these rants because I care about Transformers. I deeply care about the franchise, but these movie executives clearly don’t. If you have anything to add to what I said, please do. I look forward to hearing some feedback from my fellow TF fans.

So yeah, Nightbird, you can screw yourself into Unicron’s hole.

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On a positive note, this one has more style than her previous reincarnations.