Winston Zeddemore - Transformers Wiki
- Winston Zeddemore is a Ghostbuster from (well) Ghostbusters.
Winston Zeddemore is a former Marine and member of the Ghostbusters. Described as the soul of the team, he often acts as the voice of reason that keeps his more scatter-brained teammates grounded.
He believes that if one is asked if they're a god, they should respond in the affirmative.
Fiction
Transformers/Ghostbusters
As the Ghostbusters chased down a tentacled ghost, their vehicle, the Ecto-1 fell into a sinkhole caused by the spirit. After assuring themselves that the car was fine, the quartet whipped out their proton packs to combat the ghost, Winston having a discussion with Peter about baseball preferences, before a ghost trap contained the specter. That done, the team returned their attention to the problem of their sunken car only to find a duplicate sitting on the grass. Before Egon could explain some odd readings from the duplicate car, Starscream's ghost appeared and asked the humans to leave the area so he could speak to the Autobot in private whereupon the ghost trap sucked him up. As Winston asked what an "Autobot" was, the duplicate car transformed into a robot and revealed he was an Autobot. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 1
Introducing himself as Ectronymous Diamatron, the robot asked for the ghost trap to be shut off, on the basis that it was interfering with a signal he was tracking. Winston was the only one willing to accept that the being was an alien, scolding Egon for his stubborn adherence to the supernatural, before Ray approached Ectronymous and explained why they couldn't shut off the trap. Believing the ghost had been nothing more than a hologram, Ectronymous simply short-circuited the box and freed Starscream's spirit, who instantly began attacking the Ghostbusters. After some initial panic, the Ghostbusters ensnared Starscream who called for a truce. Telling his story, Starscream explained that Cybertron had been under siege by Gozer but Starscream was spared destruction by a being called Kremzeek who proceeded to enslave the ghostly Decepticons, the Seeker managing to escape to Earth. Winston instantly pegged that something about the story didn't add up, getting support from Venkman, before a Kremzeek sprite manifested in a bolt of supernatural lighting, its small size bringing great amusement to Venkman who quickly threw down a ghost trap. The creature's partially electrical makeup however allowed it to overload the trap, forcing the Ghostbusters, under Starscream's guidance, to dissipate it outright. After Winston had wrapped it in a proton stream, Ectronymous, using his metallic body as a grounder, dissipated the sprite. Soon thereafter, Ray haggled a ride back to the firehouse from Ectronymous in exchange for the spare parts he needed to repair his communicator. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 2
Back at the firehouse, after Janine Melnitz had re-dubbed Ectronymous as "Ectotron", Venkman followed the spectral Starscream upstairs, much to Winston's confusion, quickly returning to announce that he'd sealed the Decepticon in a ghost trap, boasting of his ability to perform a psychoanalysis on an alien before Ectotron managed to contact the Ark, summoning Optimus Prime. As they waited for the Autobot leader, a call came in about a ghost terrorizing Brooklyn, Ectotron pulling another shift as the Ecto-1. When they arrived, Egon picked up a PKE signature similar to Kremzeek's, bringing in Ray and Ectotron's help to reconfigure a ghost trap. Heading inside the abandoned building with Venkman, Winston spent the next hour and a half trying to draw out the electrical phantasm before Venkman drew the ghost out by shutting off a fuse box. Though the two tried to contain it, it shook itself free, sending them running back outside. Though four streams could hold the ghost, it proved able to draw power from the power grid, being stopped when Ectotron destroyed a transmission pole, allowing Ray to trap it. When the group returned to the firehouse, they found Optimus Prime waiting for them and that the Seeker had been freed from his ghost trap. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 3
Relocating to their Red Hook warehouse, Winston helped Egon and Ray build Autobot-sized Ghostbusting gear, griping that Venkman could help, and sympathizing with Optimus' skepticism about the supernatural before Egon detected Starscream's PKE signature at the Grosbeak Generating Station. When Optimus transformed to robot mode, Starscream made his presence known whereupon he was wrapped in proton streams once again. When Starscream called for help, the proton streams were shattered by Kremzeek the Scavenger, who proceeded to then absorb Starscream. The would-be Class 7 revealed that he sought the AllSpark to become as powerful as Gozer. Scoffing such a claim, Winston boasted to the Scavenger that the Ghostbusters had already defeated Gozer and that Kremzeek would be no problem before the group once again fired their proton streams which Kremzeek once again shattered before lunging at Optimus. As everyone debated ideas, Ray and Egon released the electricity-feeding ghost from the prior night, though Winston voted for the mood slime, its ravenous hunger drawing it to Kremzeek's energy signature. Contact between the two electrical beings shorted them both out along with releasing the ghosts of Decepticon High Command from Kremzeek's being. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 4
While Megatron attacked Optimus and Starscream tried to kill Venkman, Winston and Ray found themselves targeted by Soundwave and Shockwave. Though Winston managed to snare the communications chief, he was quick to avoid the Mini-Cassettes. Dodging enough lasers for a G.I. Joe cartoon, Winston managed to deploy a ghost trap that trapped Soundwave before another entrapped Shockwave and Starscream managed to fly away. As Winston questioned whether they should aid Optimus, a blow from the Prime sent Megatron tumbling back into Ectotron, taking control of his body. As the possessed Autobot dueled Optimus, the Ghostbusters debated ideas, and Egon's morality, before Venkman remembered the canister of mood slime. As Optimus held Ectotron down, Ray poured the mood slime down his throat, expelling the Decepticon leader's ghost. When Megatron tried to possess Optimus, Ectotron was quick to restrain him with Ray sealing the warlord in a ghost trap. As the Autobots made ready to leave Earth, Winston offered Ectotron a permanent spot on the team, noting that he owed Janine for the damage to the firehouse and that they lacked a car. Ectotron promised to fix everything before he announced that he assume the role of the first interstellar Ghostbuster. When an overeager Ray dreamed about ghosts in space, Winston joined the others in reminding Ray of his Earth-bound duties, specifically noting that they had enough trouble on terra firma. Ghosts of Cybertron Part 5
Notes
- Winston appeared in the Ghostbusters chapters of IDW's Infestation and The X-Files: Conspiracy crossover events.
- Winston was played by Ernie Hudson in the original Ghostbusters films, and voiced by Buster Jones in later seasons of The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters.
- Maurice LaMarche once filled in for Winston in The Real Ghostbusters episode, "The Ghostbusters in Paris".
- Winston has been dubbed by Banjō Ginga in the Fuji TV dub of the original movie, Tesshō Genda in TV Asahi dub of the original, Akio Ōtsuka in both the video home release and FujiTV dubs of Ghostbusters II and Yūichi Nagashima in the TV Asahi dub of Ghostbusters II.
- Winston is the only Ghostbuster whose design wasn't used for one of Susan Hoffman's assistants, something that's perhaps a little uncomfortable in hindsight considering Ernie Hudson's frustrations over Winston being the "disposable" Ghostbuster.