Nightshade is a Terran from the EarthSpark continuity family.

Give a hoot! Read a book!

A Terran with a flair for the dramatic and boundless confidence, Nightshade Malto can seem weirdly distant at times. It's not that they're unfriendly by any measure: while they can certainly be glib and quick with a quip, they approach nearly everything and everyone with bright eyes and a huge smile. They're fascinated and delighted with the world they've found themselves in, and long to experience as much of it as possible. It's just that they'll do so on their terms. Nightshade prefers a quiet time reading rather than the energetic physical play of their siblings (or the endless online media onslaught that Hashtag enjoys). They're often in their lab tinkering away on some new device to aid their family, though they have a tendency to spring these surprises without warning, which can be awkward, or worse, depending on how ambitious Nightshade was feeling at the time. But as much time as they spend alone, they always come back in time, ever happy to join in family game nights and group celebrations.

But their bright, easygoing, giving nature should not be mistaken as weakness. Though they're generally averse to conflict, they do not abide threats to family, friends or even strangers they've just met, and they will fight with everything they have to protect those in need. Their incredible aerial maneuverability and quick thinking make them a very unpredictable opponent who aims to stop the fight as quickly as possible... after all, there are so many, many much nicer things to be doing.

Fiction

EarthSpark cartoon

Voice actor: Z Infante (English), Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese), Benjamin Bollen (French), Mario Heras (Latin-American Spanish), Adolfo Moreno (Castilian Spanish), Carole Fernandez (Brazilian Portuguese), Lorenzo Crisci (Italian), Kateřina Petrová (Czech), Haorui Li (Mandarin), Anna Szymańczyk (Polish), Tim Kreuer (German), Lim Chaebin (Korean)

Nightshade was brought to life at the same time as their other siblings Jawbreaker and Hashtag by the Malto siblings Mo and Robby via the Emberstone in the same cave where their other siblings, Twitch and Thrash, were first created. The otherwise happy moment was interrupted by a cave-in caused by a battle outside the cave between Optimus Prime and Bumblebee against the Decepticon Seekers, Skywarp and Nova Storm. Age of Evolution, Part 1 Despite being only a few seconds old, Nightshade and the other new Terrans instinctually came to their new family's rescue by shielding them from the collapsing cave rubble.

Emerging from the collapsed cave, they were warmly greeted by Optimus, who inquired about Nightshade and their siblings' names. Unlike Hashtag and Jawbreaker, Nightshade instinctually knew their name right off the bat and said what a delight it was to meet them. Sensing the pain the other Maltos and Terrans felt about learning their mother was held captive by someone called Mandroid, Nightshade volunteered to help them. While planning "Operation: Terran Horse", Nightshade, via their connection to Mo through her cyber-sleeve, informed Optimus their pronouns were "they" and "them" and that male or female pronouns didn't fit them. While infiltrating Mandroid's base with Jawbreaker and Hashtag by posing as Decepticons who had captured Optimus, Nightshade was unable to hide their horror at Mandroid's experiments he was performing on the captured Megatron. Their ruse quickly exposed, a battle erupted that saw Mandroid's base turn into a walking mech that required the combined efforts of the Malto family and their allies to take down. Following the battle, Nightshade was formally introduced to Dot and welcomed into her family. Age of Evolution, Part 2

Now a formal member of the Malto household, Nightshade found the cramped living quarters of the family barn unsuitable as a living space for their Terran siblings and set out to construct a new one. They covertly ended up recruiting Thrash to aide them in this, who was looking to try and bond with his new younger sibling. When Hashtag and Twitch returned with Bumblebee from a mishap with G.H.OS.T., Nightshade used the family gathering to introduce everyone to the new base they had constructed beneath the farmstead. Hashtag: Oops Nightshade was present at the family movie night that showed off the movie Hashtag made while trying to find Jawbreaker an alt-mode. Outtakes

Tarantulas: "We offer power and purpose. What can you offer us? What can you offer me?"
Nightshade: "I have a sister"

Worried that Nightshade was isolating themself from their family because they didn't share many interests, Alex introduced Nightshade to the Winged Sentinel books by his favorite author, D.E. O'Neil. Taken by the stories of daring heroism, Nightshade resolved to meet O'Neil, who was a Witwicky local, feeling they had found someone they could bond with. They quickly worked out O'Neil's current address and took off to visit... only to discover their "current address" was a cemetery, as the author was in fact deceased. But an encounter with a "groundskeeper" soon led to Nightshade instead discovering the reclusive Decepticon scientist, Tarantulas. Bonding with the Decepticon spider over their shared interests in science and shared lack of interest in continuing the Autobot/Decepticon conflict, Nightshade aided Tarantulas in constructing a holographic projector that would allow him to completely avoid detection from G.H.O.S.T. During this partnership, Tarantulas expanded the young Terran's mindset on what alt-modes could be. Following a miscommunication, Tarantulas came to believe Nightshade was a prisoner of their human parents and kidnapped the two with the intent of wiping their memories so he could take Nightshade on the run with him. When Nightshade rescued their parents, they scanned a statue of the Winged Sentinel owl, granting them a new beast mode. Besting Tarantulas in combat just as the rest of Nightshade's family arrived on scene, Nightshade convinced Bumblebee to give the spider a second chance. When G.H.O.S.T. showed up, Tarantulas decided to make the best of this second chance and volunteered to lead G.H.O.S.T. away to let the Maltos escape. Missed Connection

When Agent Schloder arrived at the Malto family farm hot on Bumblebee's trail, Nightshade and Hashtag used the opportunity to show off the new "Emergency Lockdown" protocol they had installed in the Terran base. Sealing up the base whenever a G.H.O.S.T. vehicle (Hashtag excluded) approached the area, it made entry or exit of the dugout virtually impossible. Unfortunately the two hadn't worked out all the kinks yet and discovered that instead of keeping the lockdown going for 10 minutes after Schloder departed, it was instead set for 10 hours. Stuck in the base, Nightshade and the others were unable to help Bumblebee and Dot in their attempts to evade G.H.OS.T. When Dot and Alex returned later that night and informed them Bee had to go back on the run, Nightshade comforted the devastated Twitch. Security Protocols

Random civilians: "Oh, what a perfect stuffed owl."
Nightshade: "STUFFED!? I beg you pardon!?"

Still new to the concept of gift-giving, for their present to Dot on Mother's Day, Nightshade made several secret modification to their mother's prosthetic leg in hopes of making her life easier. While it proved critical in aiding Dot and the others in taking care of a mutated mother bear that was terrorizing them, Nightshade was confronted by Dot that they needed to ask for permission when tampering with something as personal as Dot's leg. Nightshade apologized and in the future promised to work with Dot if they wanted to modify her leg. Bear Necessities When Nightshade, and their other siblings, were taken to Spacebridge Memorial Park by Megatron to learn of the history of the Cybertronian War, they found their meeting interrupted by the return of the dormant Decepticon Shockwave. When Shockwave initiated an overload of the power chamber of the derelict Space Bridge, Nightshade worked with Robby and Thrash to disconnect them while Megatron battled it out with Shockwave. Warzone

"Now, child, flying is not merely some crude, mechanical process. It is a delicate art. Purely aesthetic. Poetry of motion. And the best way to learn it is to do it."

When the Terrans were taken on a nightly visit to Philadelphia by Robby and Mo, Nightshade went by themself when the group split up and got a chance to act out their heroic fantasies when they saved a young person from an attempted mugging. Taking note of the pronoun pins on her purse, Nightshade introduced themself to Sam, who warmed up to the Terran when they told her of their own pronouns. It was talking with Sam where Nightshade learned of the concept of being "non-binary", which they felt was a wonderful word to describe themself. Upon reuniting with their family, Nightshade was surprised to see Bumblebee along with them. Needing help in tracking down the lost Autobot, Grimlock, Nightshade eagerly joined him. Home, Part 1 However, the search for Grimlock soon turned into a battle with the returning Mandroid. After taking down one of Mandroid's newest Arachnamech creations, Nightshade and the rest of their family found themselves having to fight the mind-controlled Hashtag. Taking the fight to the city above, Nightshade discovered attempts to forcibly remove her control chip were blocked by a forcefield. Eventually, they were all able free their sister when they were empowered by a mysterious energy that originated from the cave where the Terrans had been born. With their sister freed, Nightshade and the others raced back to Witwicky in hopes of getting home before their parents woke up. Home, Part 2

The kids encountered Grimlock while collecting flowers in the woods and had to flee back to the farm, where they eventually fought the Dinobot into submission.A Stygi Situation When Robby's cyber-sleeve manifested a new shield ability, Optimus smuggled the entire Malto family into G.H.O.S.T. HQ to have Teletraan I scan the devices. The kids were later training in the base's rec room when Mandroid took control of it, unleashing a holographic Megatron on them, and though Hashtag was able to shut it down, the fight resulted in Robby's cyber-sleeve becoming inactive and the emotional link between the kids was lost. Disarmed

While trying to reactivate the cyber-sleeves with the cave water that the Maltobots were using to energize, the kids stumbled on a cave system through which Starscream, Nova Storm and Skywarp were trying to escape. Things were complicated more when they encountered the energon-feeding Dweller, forcing them to try to enact a desperate plan to imprison it so it couldn't escape the caves. What Dwells Within Robby's cyber-sleeve began affecting his health, and Dot assured the other kids that they'd do all they could to help the boy get better. When the other human members of the Malto family lapsed into unconsciousness, the Maltobots took care of them until they recovered, having had an encounter with Quintus Prime that restored both Robby's health and the cyber-sleeves. Prime Time

When Bumblebee was assigned the task of infiltrating G.H.O.S.T. HQ, he borrowed Nightshade's mobile hologram emitter and the latest Smart Trainer. The kids resolved to help their mentor, and to this end, once Twitch located the entrance to the HQ, Nightshade, Thrash and Robby joined her in sneaking in. They bumped into Schloder and managed to persuade him to help them, leading them to find G.H.O.S.T. had taken possession of the space bridge. During the ensuing fight with Agent Croft's Ghoids, the group used the space bridge to escape to the outside. Stowed Away, Stowaways Pursued by a Mandroid-controlled Shockwave, the group headed into Witwicky where they were joined by the rest of the Malto kids and managed to take down the Decepticon, shortly before being surrounded by G.H.O.S.T. agents. With a timely intervention by their parents, they were able to escape back to the farm and revive Shockwave, only for Croft to arrive with an army of Ghoids. A battle ensued during which the Maltos, with the help of the Autobots, overcame the Ghoids, only to face Croft deactivating the Autobots and the arrival of Mandroid, grotesquely enhanced into a new robotic form. The Battle of Witwicky

The Malto family attempted to escape from Mandroid and his two Sharkticon henchmen, however eventually family members were picked off and only Twitch and Nightshade were left. The pair again sneaked into G.H.O.S.T. HQ to free Bumblebee, Schloder and the captive Decepticons, though the latter were unenthusiastic about helping and simply left. The remaining quartet found Mandroid preparing to use the space bridge to wipe out all Cybertronian life on the planet and during the resulting fight, the group escaped through the space bridge portal. The Last Hope, Part 1 On their way to the huge Spire Mandroid had erected, the group encountered mind-controlled Autobots but were also reunited with Hashtag, Jawbreaker and Thrash. Nightshade battled the Sharkticons with Jawbreaker and Hashtag, allowing Twitch and Thrash to go on ahead, however Mandroid successfully activated his superweapon, putting Nightshade and the other Transformers on Earth into shutdown. Fortunately Mo and Robby were able to reverse the process using their cyber-sleeves to channel the power of Quintus Prime, and the Malto family were reunited. The Last Hope, Part 2

During a mission to retrieve a shard of the shattered Emberstone, Nightshade took out Nova Storm. Robby came up with a plan, involving him, Nightshade and Twitch infiltrating the Decepticon base to steal the Embershard collection there while the others created a diversion. Though the mission went well, they ran into Aftermath on the way out and the Chaos Terran reclaimed the shards as they escaped. Aftermath Nightshade joined the family in searching for loose Embershards in the area surrounding Witwicky. In Ruins While disposing of junk from the old G.H.O.S.T. base, the Terrans found themselves having to battle reactivated ghoids. Control Alt Delete Nightshade and Wheeljack mounted a study of cyber-syncing after Robby, Mo, Twitch and Thrash discovered the ability to combine. Togetherness

As part of the Polyhex Protocol, the Malto family took part in an assault course to decide who would go on an Autobot mission. Nightshade was eliminated when they failed to make the rope swing. Spitfire Nightshade was accessing the embershard containment when the perimeter alarms went off, however Twitch went to deal with it. The Imposters Nightshade and the others lent a hand when Robby and Hashtag ran into Decepticon issues while trying to clean Optimus's trailer. Dude, Where's My Trailer? While putting away the last of the embershards, Nightshade was blasted with chaos energy, but was fortunately unharmed. Witwicky, Part 1 Learning that Starscream intended to take control of the Titan Terratronus, the Autobots launched an attack on the Decepticon base in which Nightshade took part. Unfortunately Starscream reassembled the Emberstone and used it to offline the Autobot forces, until Robby and Mo were later able to reclaim it and bring everyone back to life. Witwicky, Part 2

Nightshade created a hyper-reality film projector and Robbie's intention to take Izzy to a movie gave them the perfect opportunity to try the invention out. Unfortunately during the movie Hashtag bumped the projector, resulting in the Mole Bots escaping the film and having to be rounded up by the Terrans. What's worse, Robbie and Izzy became trapped in the movie until Nightshade was able to extract them. Attack of the Drive-In Movie The Malto kids were lured into a trap by Fairmaestro, who had them take part in a series of tests which they failed solely due to Twitch helping everyone else. This resulted in Hashtag, Jawbreaker and Nightshade being trapped as part of a ride until they were able to escape and help Twitch overcome Fairmaestro. The Great Escape

The Malto kids took the Hypershuttle to a disused G.H.O.S.T. base in the Arctic for some snow fun. This ended when Megatron and Optimus, infected with Hate Plague, turned up and fought each other until it turned out cold was an effective cure. Fire and Ice The family assembled at the Autobot base for a briefing on the Hate Plague. Armed with the knowledge of how to cure it, Nightshade modified the Smart Trainer 5009 to dispense freezing gas on command, and was able to use it to cure Prowl when the investigation into the Hate Plague resulted in the Autobot being infected. The Truth Is Out There

When the Quintessons arrived in a huge ship, the Autobots and Maltos assembled at the edge of the Chaos Dome to greet it. The Quintessons destroyed the dome, unleashing a violent storm of chaos energies that threatened the town, however Nightshade quickly came up with a plan to deal with it. With Wheeljack's help, they modified Optimus's trailer Judgment Day, Part 1 to incorporate the Cyber Slayer and the bodies of the deactivated Chaos Terrans. The plan succeeded, though Nightshade had to help with implementation, and the storm was absorbed, reviving the Chaos Terrans. Nightshade later flew Mo to Terratronus's spark chamber where Mo was able to use the Spark Regenerator Key to bring the Titan back online, and Nightshade was also a member of the family who took part in cyber-syncing with Terratronus, giving her enough power to defeat the Quintessons. Judgment Day, Part 2

Games

Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition

Voice actor: Aaron Landon (English), Frans Limburg (Dutch), Emmanuel Rausenberger (French), Andi Kroesing (German), Mosè Singh (Italian), Robert Ciszewski (Polish), David García (Spanish)

I want to tell you about the Transformers! This character article is a stub and is missing information on their fictional appearances. You can help Transformers Wiki by expanding it. Transformers: EarthSpark - Expedition

Toys

EarthSpark

That's the kind of thousand-yard stare that only comes from a veteran of the Culture Wars. (Hasbro Version Pictured)

• Terran Nightshade (Deluxe, 2023)

• TakaraTomy ID Number: ESD-05
• TakaraTomy release date: November 1, 2023
• Accessories: Left and right owl wings, 2 knives, Mandroid torso (Hasbro release only)

Released as part of the third wave of Hasbro's EarthSpark Deluxe Class toys, Nightshade transforms into a robotic/statuesque hawk owl in thirteen steps. Nightshade's wings, owl face, and back of the robot head are made of a rubber material. The wings come separately in the packaging and must be assembled. While they can be removed for show-accuracy, they are not designed to, and doing so can stress the rubber connection points. The wings can be removed at the sturdier ball joint connection though. Nightshade has two knives that can be stored in slots on top of the wings.

(TakaraTomy Version Pictured)

This toy also comes packed with the torso to the Mandroid build-a-figure, though there are releases spotted in Europe that omit that part and remove all mention of it from the packaging. A later variant, released in the fifth wave, features new packaging and omits the Mandroid BAF piece.

The TakaraTomy release of the toy features a more extensive, much more screen-accurate paint deco, and omits the Mandroid piece. The wings come pre-assembled in this release.

Notes

• An early concept for Nightshade was that they identified as "Terran" rather than male or female, as they did not consider gender to be an important part of their identity. This concept was dropped at some point during Earthspark's development in favor of making the character explicitly non-binary, but this early draft persisted long enough that a version of the backstory found its way into the official Earthspark guidebook, as well as several foreign-language websites.
• The original pitch for Nightshade came from EarthSpark creator Dale Malinoswki, and was conceived as non-binary from the beginning. Mae Catt and other LGBT staff contributed their own perspective and lived experience to help shape Nightshade's character.^[1]
• While other nonbinary characters like Screwball had previously been introduced in other extended Transformers media, Nightshade is the first character to be openly identified as such in a Transformers cartoon. Cyberverse previously featured a sort of edge case in the form of Acid Storm, but the character was not intentionally written that way, instead falling into the realm of pseudocanon via authorial intent in response to a recurring animation error.
• Originally, Nightshade's alternate mode was to be a monstrous gargoyle. This idea was tweaked at some point during the show's development, and Nightshade ultimately wound up with a stylized owl alternate mode instead. Notably, The Official Guidebook still refers to their alternate mode as a gargoyle.
• Different localizations have interpreted Nightshade's gender depending on the availability of gender-neutral pronouns in the relevant language:
  • In the Hungarian dub, which lacks gendered pronouns entirely, Nightshade initially speaks in the plural, using mi and minket ("we" and "us") instead of én and engem ("I" and "me"), and the subject of Nightshade's gender is not addressed. This speech quirk is dropped in subsequent episodes.
  • In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, Nightshade is referred to as elu, a neologistic system popularized on the Internet to accommodate the lack of formal gender-neutral pronouns in the Portuguese language.
  • In the Italian dub, Nightshade is simply described as "not identifying in either gender" and dialogue tries to avoid using gendered pronouns as much as possible, albeit in a few occasions they end up using male-coded terms when it's impossible to do otherwise.
  • In the Japanese dub, Nightshade's first-person pronoun is boku (僕, ボク), commonly used in real life as an informal pronoun by males, but can be used by women with tomboyish or feminist connotations, especially in media. (Pronouns in Japanese are not strictly gendered. Second-person and third-person pronouns are not gendered most of the time.) The Japanese dub of "Home, Part 1" has Nightshade explain that they don't think of themself as a boy or a girl, and the conversation with Sam uses the loanword "nonbinary" (ノンバイナリー nonbainarī) to describe this.
  • In the German dub, Nightshade's pronouns are dei and dem, which are two of many different pronouns used by nonbinary people in the German language.
  • In the Mandarin Chinese dub, Nightshade's pronoun is the third-person plural pronoun tāmen (他们), which is an unusual localization choice as most nonbinary Mandarin speakers go by gender-neutral singular pronouns such as ta (the Latin spelling with no Chinese character), qú (佢), yī (伊), or qí (其). Their gender identity is explicitly addressed.
  • In the Czech dub, Nightshade uses the masculine plural pronoun oni, along with its respective case and declension forms. Czech does not have any commonly used gender-neutral pronouns (although one has been proposed as one).

Foreign names

• Japanese: Nightshade (ナイトシェード Naitoshēdo)
• Hungarian: Gyorsacél ("High-Speed Steel")
• Mandarin: Yèyǐng (夜影, "Night Shadow")

References